Film series focuses on ag diversity

Rachelle Ternier walks along her driveway with her father, Jim, as she heads to one of her many garden plots.

Their conversation is typical for a pair of farmers: which corn plants are ready to harvest, how much rain do they have in the rain gauge and their hopes for drier weather so Ternier can begin cultivating her garden.

As part of the National Farmers Union’s Depth of Field video project, this is how the Terniers’ story begins; a bright and beautiful day near Cochin, Sask., with row upon row of fresh vegetables ready to harvest.

Ternier talks about how she has taken over operating Prairie Garden Seeds from her father, who still helps as much as he can. Together they process and package more than 800 varieties of seeds for sale through their website, printed catalogue and at Seedy Saturday events throughout the province.

Ternier is one of nearly 80,000 women who play a lead role in farm operations across the country, which according to Statistics Canada is 30.4 percent of all Canadian farm operators.

These were the women the NFU wanted to celebrate recently with its International Women’s Day film screening and farming panel.

Issues of climate change, weather severity, community and telling farming stories are issues that impact all farmers from coast to coast.

With the theme being women in farming, Ternier said there are humans behind every vegetable grown, and she wants people to see those stories.

Her own story is one of approaching farming from a feminist perspective and making more intentional decisions focused on a healthy environment for her farm. She thinks about what she’s taking out just as much as what she’s putting in, she said.

Maybe other practices have been pushing nature too far in the wrong direction, she added.

“It is so necessary for our survival to be more thoughtful and gentle. If we can look at these whole systems more and take a more nuanced approach to our farming practices, maybe we can come to places where we’re not battling (nature) as much.”

Ternier sees plenty of farms highlighted in the Depth of Field series, both big and small, who are trying to choose the best farming practices for the environment, as well as their operations.

“There’s larger-scale, field-scale farms that are growing 5,000 acres of your standard oilseed crops — as well as wheat, barley, oats and peas — and they also express a lot of climate concerns, as well,” she said.

“They make environmentally conscious decisions also, whether it’s leaving bush instead of pushing it, not simply draining and cropping through the wetlands/low spots.”

Rebecca MacInnis, who owns and operates Spring Tide Farms with her sister, Jessie, in Lapland, N.S., said telling stories of farming and food is incredibly important, but the narrative shouldn’t always be about a white man on a tractor. It’s important to shine a light on women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ people who are also making their own way within the agriculture industry.

MacInnis has had a lot of female mentors and has learned from many Indigenous seed stewards, land stewards and racialized people who have led the way for her as a white woman to own land. That deserves to be celebrated, she said.

“There is a lot of diversity in agriculture, especially in smaller scale farms, more sustainable farms, in the younger generation coming into this,” she said.

“It’s really important that we continue to highlight these stories and to make it feel like the norm and not the exception.”

MacInnis said International Women’s Day is also a time to advocate for those who have been left behind in agriculture, especially migrant workers and immigrant women who are lacking in vital supports, such as access to health care.

“There’s still a lot of challenges that I think go deeper than even some of the issues that I face on my farm,” she said.

“It’s important to always keep these voices centred in the conversation as well.”

The webinar also celebrated Mel Sylvestre and Hannah Lewis of Grounded Acres, who spoke in their video about being out and proud LGBTQ+ farmers in Gibsons, B.C.

Before moving to their current location, it didn’t feel like a “big deal” to be out and proud when they were farming in urban settings, said Lewis.

While it isn’t the perfect place, Gibsons has been a great rural space for being visibly LGBTQ+, said Sylvestre.

Lewis said they’ve attracted many LGBTQ+ people, especially youth, who never saw farming as an option until they were introduced to visibly queer farmers such as themselves.

It means a lot to Sylvestre that half of their applicants for employment are self-identifying members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The NFU is releasing its Depth of Field video project on YouTube with 40 videos produced to tell the story of Canadian farmers.

The videos are just snippets taken during only one to a few days on the farm, said Ternier, but they encompass “thoughtful farming, thoughtful people, good intellectual conversation and yearning for knowledge.”

The March 8 event was a partnership between the NFU and Canadian Organic Growers.