Prairies important place for agriculture and journalism intersection

The worlds of journalism and agriculture can be ever changing entities and reporters across the prairies are no strangers to documenting it.

When it comes to agricultural writing, Alice McFarlane believes the Prairies have the best journalists in the country on the beat.

As Agriculture Information Director for 105 CJVR and Saskatchewan’s BeachRadioSK.ca in Melfort, Sask., she has been working in radio since 1981 and has been reporting on agriculture since 2008.

“I was just some kid from the farm that took a broadcasting course and somebody in Melfort heard something that they thought they could work with and gave me a job and I’m incredibly grateful for that opportunity,” McFarlane told farmnewsNOW.

She has seen how the industry — and how reporting on it — has changed, she said, and reporting on agriculture has been a dream job that she is incredibly grateful to have.

McFarlane has seen how the technological advances and information processing and consumption has advanced farming in Saskatchewan, especially as more and more young people get into the industry.
Farmers love to hear from farmers, she said, and she loves being the connection from one farmer to another as they navigate through this high stress occupation.

“They’ve really got an interesting perspective, especially farmers who have somehow found a way to do this very special job that they’ve decided to choose as a career. There’s a lot of uncertainty that goes with it, (for example) the weather impacts, and somehow they can just slide through it and have found a way to stay level and calm through it. Those guys and gals are amazing.”

One change she has noticed about the industry is more women at the table.

“There were very few women in the room (10-15 years ago) but I never got the sense that I wasn’t welcomed, and I think that’s the most important thing to mention. Now when you go to information sessions, conferences, there are more and more women involved, and more and more women that are present in leadership roles and different organizations, commodity groups.”

Women have always played a role in the farming operation, from childcare and meal prep to chores and driving grain trucks, she said. However, now she is seeing more women choosing careers within the agriculture industry, being directly involved in the farming operation, and letting their names stand on commodity boards.

“What we’re seeing now is so many young women are now choosing agriculture as a career, they’re getting an education, they’re getting a degree, they’re moving into positions, working as agronomists, and then also farming.”

Especially for producers with young families, childcare and support at home can still be challenging for women looking to get more involved in the industry, said McFarlane.

“Some have said that I’m definitely interested, but that maybe when my kids are a little older, that type of thing. But there’s definitely a change…It’s really exciting to see more and more women are letting their name stand for a nomination for a position on these boards and that is something that has changed a lot over the last few years.”

While Lisa Guenther, editor of Canadian Cattlemen magazine, is fairly new to the world of reporting, she has spent years working in the agriculture industry and has seen women dominating the sphere of ag reporting.

Guenther grew up on a small cow/calf operation. While her post-secondary degree is in education, her first job while she was finishing up her schooling was with Alberta Agriculture where she started building her agriculture network that spans across the country, especially through the Canadian Farm Writers Federation. Freelance journalism has allowed her to see how different media outlets operate, she told farmnewsNOW, and it wasn’t until 2012 that she joined Glacier FarmMedia fulltime as a reporter with Grain News. The monthly Canadian Cattlemen publication has been a part of the Canadian media world since 1938 and, while it has only had five editors during that time, Guenther became the first woman to hold that role when she took over from editor, Gren Winslow in January 2019.

The more this continues to change, the more women are also coming into leadership positions.

“There’s women that have been blazing that trail that are the generation ahead of me. And definitely at the reporter level, there’s a lot of women so I think that’ll continue to change.”

Comparing people outside the agriculture industry to those within it, Guenther wants people to understand that farmers and ranchers are people first. While this is people’s livelihoods, there is much science and innovation that are going into making the industry more sustainable while focusing on conserving the environment. People outside the agricultural sphere often overlook that side of it, she said.

“On the beef side, I think beef often gets a bad rap environmentally, but ranchers are so important to preserving our wild spaces, whether it’s the grasslands, the prairies, even some of the forested areas, like grazing to manage wildfires can be really effective.”

Grasslands and wild areas also sequester a lot of carbon, she said, and some land is better suited for raising livestock rather than converting those acres to grain production. Guenther said she does support grain producers, however, more economic support is needed for livestock producers so they can continue to better preserve these areas.

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becky.zimmer@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @bex_zim