Reach Agriculture Strategies

27/05/2026

Sometimes life just doesn't seem real.

June 10th to 22nd I'll be in Central Italy for the first leg of my Nuffield solo travel.
(I use the term "solo" loosely as I will have a tag along for this one.. )

The goal is to learn about niche agricultural industries and their workforce challenges and strengths.

How does one find a wine maker? How do you maintain the consistency in production of centuries old cheese? How do you balance the agri tourism needs of an operation without sacrificing the production needs?

Italy, especially Tuscany, has deeply rooted historic agricultural production that has stayed the test of time. With a changing immigration landscape, changing climate and constantly changing export markets, I'm excited to learn how businesses are managing their people and maintaining that high quality Italian produce we know and love.

Below are the general area's we'll be visiting, reach out if you have any suggestions, must-sees (or must-drinks)

As always, thanks to my sponsors who have made this trip possible!

Ciao!

09/04/2026

The concept of "knowing where our food comes from" comes up often, but I got a new perspective on that while eating tarot root with a Dutchmen.

We started discussing the unique prodcuts that Japan produced at a restaurant called "We Are The Farm" in Shibuya, Tokyo. The restaurant only uses locally produced goods that are sourced and delivered directly to the restaurant. I wish I could tell you what we ate, but it came on a big tray in various fried states so we just dug in.

With the concept of the restaurant we were discussing how we communicate ag production and how important it is to show where the food is from. There were many head nods around the table until I person said, "but do you know where your shoes come from? And if you don't know, do you care?"

Why do shoes matter in this case?

Because maybe we've gotten a little hung up on the fact that people "should" care about where there food comes from and we're putting emphasis in the wrong place.

Maybe it’s not about pushing harder on origin stories or assuming that proximity creates connection.

Maybe it’s about making agriculture relevant in the same way other industries have, by tying it to things people already value: quality, performance, trust, experience.

People don’t necessarily need to know the entire story behind something to value it. But they do need a reason to care and that reason might not start with where it was produced, but with how it shows up in their lives.

If we want stronger connections between producers and consumers, we may need to shift from asking people to care, to presenting them with something worth caring about.

07/04/2026

Bringing together over 90 people from 19 countries brings with it some cultural learnings.

At CSC Japan, we had the opportunity to do a great exercise testing some knowledge and challenging assumptions.
With only a few seconds we had to write down everything we knew about the country listed, they were then compiled and later in the week each country presented a rebbutal.

The Canadian notes told a really interesting story.

Some highlights:
- It's cold (mentioned over 45 times on the notes)
- Large scale, climate challenged agriculture (fact)
- Snow, always (untrue, although it feels like it this week..)
- Maple syrup is everywhere (not looking out my window it isn't..)

Through the exercise we learned that folks associate Canadian agriculture with climate and culture symbols (snow, maple syrup, cowboys) rather than with its actual economic structure (large scale production with a $150 billion contribution to the GDP).

It's an interesting reflection on how we tell our story and what we value. The "culture" piece of agriculture shows up strong on the international stage.
The good news is that we have a great message to get folks in the door, it's a lot easier to capture an audience when talking about rolling prairies and maple forests, than it is to talk about GDP and economic contribution.

It was refreshing to see that while there are some things to be learned, we really show up positively on the global stage.

(Honourable mention to the last post it that just says: Hunting. Bears. Still not sure if they meant we hunt bears or that we hunt AND we have bears..?)

24/03/2026

Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference: Japanese Agriculture’s Commitment to Quality

As part of my Nuffield journey, I want to provide real-time takeaways for the Canadian ag industry. I could recap the conference events, but instead I’m going to highlight a few things we can learn directly.

A high priority of Japanese agriculture is the quality of the end product. From seed to harvest to market, a perfect end product is the goal.

With a smaller agricultural system and unique products, Japanese producers always have the end product in mind. In a North American system, we can tend to think only of the next step, i.e., getting a quality calf into a feedlot, not necessarily getting a great steak on the plate. While this means we do the best job we can for our piece of the pie, sometimes we forget about the whole pie.

At a large vegetable grower in the hills outside of Tokyo, while walking through their broccoli processing area, we noticed large containers of “perfectly fine” broccoli sitting out in the yard.

What was the reason? It wasn’t good enough.

There was some yellowing, the odd oddly shaped floret, a thin stem, nothing damning enough to get it tossed in Canada, yet it didn’t meet their standards.

This may feel like a waste of produce. However, because it was part of their overall system, they had a plan. The off-grade broccoli was ground into a slurry and spread on the fields as nutrients for the next high-quality crop. Quality over quantity was an ongoing theme for these producers.

Now, this doesn’t lead to all sunshine, rainbows, and perfect broccoli. There are significant constraints when quality is the core focus. Japan’s calorie-based food self-sufficiency rate has stayed at roughly 38% for several years, compared to Canada, which exports roughly 50% of its produced calories.

So, quality over quantity?

I think the answer lies somewhere in the balance. But I will say this: in 16 days in Japan, I didn’t come across a single item in a store or on a plate, or in the many small dishes, that wasn’t perfectly prepared and delivered.

Thanks to Nuffield Canada for sponsoring this visit, and to Nuffield Japan for hosting such a wonderful event.

13/02/2026

Stoked to have the opportunity to be involved in all areas of livestock production and agriculture in general.

Politicians in Ottawa, Farmers in Lethbridge and Veterinarians in Nebraska.

What are the similarities of low-stress cattle handling and low-stress people handling? At the 2026 AABP 9th Recent Graduate Conference in Lincoln, Neb. today, Ashley Nicholls presented “Low Stress People Handling – What Our Livestock Can Teach Us about Communication” and spoke about the subject.

“Key principles of low-stress cattle handling include pressure and release, flight zones, point of balance and promoting good movement,” Nicholls said. “When applied consistently, these principles support animal welfare and improve outcomes such as behavior, safety and performance. The practical goal is for cattle to feel safe and to move as though they chose the end point.”

Low-stress people handling is a leadership framework developed from years of observing effective and ineffective management. “It uses the same underlying ideas as low-stress stockmanship: apply pressure thoughtfully, release at the right time, and keep movement calm and forward,” Nicholls explained. “The practical goal is for employees to feel safe, content and able to meet their needs at work.” He said compensation matters, but motivation and retention are also influenced by job satisfaction, a sense of ownership in day-to-day work, and connection to the mission and values of the operation.

“When communication is clear and the why is explained, movement improves,” Nicholls said. “When leaders escalate pressure or create uncertainty, people stall, disengage or leave. Low-stress people handling offers a straightforward translation of proven stockmanship concepts into leadership practices that improve communication, reduce turnover and support safer, more effective crews. If it is good enough for livestock, it is good enough for staff.”

10/02/2026

looked a little different this year. Fewer post mortems and more fancy finger foods. Less waving a knife around, more waving my hands around (sorry for those who try and record me..)

Spending time at the Future of Food event in Ottawa showed me a couple of things.

1. GET OUT OF YOUR ECHO CHAMBER
It's amazing how trivial issues become when you come at them from a different lense. There could be some pretty effective work done if people were willing to meet in the middle and have face to face discussion.

2. PUT YOURSELF IN THE ROOM
I was able to speak on a panel with a 4 other incredible folks from all corners of ag. Lawyers, provinical cookie creators, aquaculture protien scientists and bee keeping tech start ups.
During my piece, I put a challenge out to the crowd. Raise a hand if you have been involved on the front line of ag in the last week. Drove a tractor, milked a cow, netted a fish. In a room fo about 900, there were less than 50 hands.

My challenge was to up that number. A lot. We talk about collaboration and innovation and all the other "ations", yet the end user isn't in the room.
No table? Build it. Come across a door? Kick it in. Need a connection? Ask.

The opportunity is huge if we take the leap.

It's a good life if you don't weaken.

09/01/2026

The next couple of months brings many miles and many events to the REACH Ag world.

Excited to get behind the mic and talk all things Low Stress People Handling, Ag Employee Life Cycles, Client Communication and the future of ag!