Airdrie, Alberta

Ryan Bonnett from Airdrie, Alberta is a Marketing Advisor for Farmlink Marketing Solutions. Ryan originally hails from a grain farm where his father still operates just outside Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan.

Ryan is interested in looking at grain marketing and production risk management strategies around the world, something very timely with the dissolution of the national single desk wheat marketing board. Ryan will look at how grain farmers in other countries market their grain. He hopes his findings can be used to develop new marketing and management practices for Western Canadian grain growers.

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Guelph, Ontario

Crosby Devitt, from Guelph, Ontario, Canada, will be investigating grain research partnerships involving farmers and the structure of farm organizations. He will examine ways that private and public entities form partnerships with farmers to better meet the growing demand for increased grain productivity.

Crosby works for the Grain Farmers of Ontario, managing the Research and Market Development Departments. With his wife, Carie, and their two young children, he also owns and operates a grain farm in his hometown of Ripley, Ontario, near the shores of Lake Huron, where he grows corn, soybeans, winter wheat and white beans.

His travel plans include investigating research partnerships in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States. Crosby hopes the outcome of his study will help farm organizations partner with government and industry to improve farm productivity and efficiency.

crosbydevitthotmailcom

Rimbey, Alberta

Brenda Schoepp owns and publishes BEEFLINK TM, a national newsletter on the strategies of beef and beef cattle marketing and has co-authored beef cattle marketing and feedlot production publications in Western Canada. Brenda is known as an industry mentor for youth and new entrants to agriculture and coaches corporate executives in production agriculture, research and agribusiness. She is also a professional speaker and along with her husband, owns and operates a ranch in central Alberta.

Brenda will study the needs and successes of women in agriculture and agribusiness and use this information towards the implementation of a Canadian mentorship model for women in agriculture. She will travel to Tasmania, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Cuba, the USA and Ireland.

brendaschoeppcciwirelessca

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

For the past 20 years, Kelvin has been both a grower of pedigreed seed and the owner/operator of a seed cleaning and export business in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. During this time, Kelvin spent ten years as Director and Chairman of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, an organization he credits with exposing him to the food processing industry.

He is currently an investor and Chair of Avena Foods Inc., a Regina based gluten free oat milling plant where his post-farming career has him learning the challenges of dealing directly with the logistics of food processors, consumers and government regulatory agencies.

Kelvin plans to use his Nuffield Scholarship to understand the factors that contribute to a successful farmer-owned value chain as well to identify the critical factors needed to develop a sustainable farm work force. Trips to the United States, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and parts of Western Europe are planned.

ksmeadowssasktelnet

Saint Vincent, Alberta

At a very young age, Leona Dargis, from St. Vincent, Alberta learned to love both agriculture and life. Her parents, the late Jean & Joanne Dargis, taught her, and her four younger sisters how powerful combination of education and enthusiasm can be in moving not only the agricultural industry forward but truly living life to its fullest.

A graduate of the Bachelor of Applied Science – Agribusiness Major at Olds College in Alberta, Leona has quickly become known across Canada as an exceptional young leader. She was elected as a board member on the Canadian Young Farmers Forum in 2006, an organization that promotes the exchange of ideas, while fostering collaboration between young and future farmers of Canada. She is also a Next Generation (NG) trustee for the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC) and was asked to present a paper at the 2008 biennial RASC conference in New Zealand where she had the honour of speaking with Her Royal Highness Princess Anne.

In conjunction with her Nuffield scholarship, Leona will be studying the dynamics of ‘Succession Planning and Diversification on the Family Farm’. She plans to travel to New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.

leona21dhotmailcom

Springfield, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Raymond Loo is a sixth generation farmer from Springfield, Prince Edward Island. Since 1996, Springwillow Farms has been a certified organic farm growing fruit, garden vegetables, grains, forages and livestock.

In 2005, he set out to market organically produced Island products in Japan. Currently the resulting operation, Annespei Farm, markets products from 24 PEI farmers. Crops exported include black currants, non GMO and organic canola seed and oil, organic soy beans, organic buckwheat, organic rhubarb and other fruit. Visitors to Raymond’s farm are often surprised to see fields of dandelions – the roots of which are used by the Japanese in the production of a specific coffee.

Raymond has been working very hard to develop the organic industry on PEI. He feels strongly that the Island could one day be fully organic and become a world renowned producer of high quality products. He is the past-president of the Certified Organic Producers COOP, a founding director of the Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network, a board member of the PEI Agrifood Alliance and Vice Chair of the PEI ADAPT Council.

With his Nuffield Scholarship, Raymond hopes further develop his value chain as well as share his experience and learn from other farmers involved in similar initiatives.

raymondloospringwillowfarmscom

Millgrove, Ontario, Canada

Shane, a McMaster University graduate in Environmental Studies, operates a 50 acre certified organic farm in southern Ontario. He grows vegetables, herbs and cut-flowers for farmer’s markets and a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Shane wants to further investigate small scale hop production and processing along with local brewing activities and marketplace initiatives. His goal would be to develop a long term hop industry with a variety of small entrepreneurs.

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Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Sarah grew up on a vegetable farm near Stratford Ontario until attending University of Guelph to study International Development and Political Science. After a period of employment as project manager for “Hamilton Eat Local” she returned to the world of academia to do her Masters in Rural Planning. As a Nuffield scholar she is proposing to study models and policies supporting Greenbelt agriculture in European Union.

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