Thread

The Leadership Gap in Canadian Agri-Food Systems

This thread examines why Canada’s agri-food sector struggles to translate research and demographic shifts into on-farm impact, arguing that systemic change requires leaders who can bridge institutional divides and scale Indigenous-led agricultural renewal.

Episodes

Episode 11: Making Innovation Real: Bridging the Gap Between Research and the Farm — Jesse Hirsh speaks with Todd Ormann of Olds College about why so many promising agricultural technologies struggle to reach the farm, and what it actually takes to close that gap — from applied research and Smart Farms to workforce development and Canada's fragmented innovation system.
Episode 9: Building Indigenous Agriculture at Scale with Camden Lawrence — Jesse Hirsh speaks with Camden Lawrence of First Nations Agriculture & Finance Ontario about Indigenous agriculture as economic development, the capital requirements of modern farming, and the demographic opportunity that First Nations communities represent for Canada's agri-food sector.

Knowledge

First Nations and the Demographic Crisis in Canadian Agriculture — How Indigenous communities could help renew a sector running out of farmers
Canada Doesn't Have a Food Innovation Problem. It Has a Leadership Problem. — A Leadership Brief from Episode 6 with Dana McCauley