Meet our speakers
You'll hear from innovative farmers, researchers and agricultural leaders from across Canada, sharing what they're testing, learning and putting to work on their own operations.
More speakers and PEI panelists are being confirmed. Check back as the agenda fills in.
A fifth-generation rancher near Taber, Andrea has helped transform her family's operation over 50 years from continuous grazing to adaptive multi-paddock grazing, raising the stocking rate from 2.36 to 93.5 animal-days per acre through holistic decision-making and low-stress stockmanship. She speaks on grazing management and carrying forward a multi-generational legacy of innovation.
Andrew is a fifth generation potato farmer and the owner of Smith Farms Ltd. in Newton. Some of his earliest memories are of walking behind the harvester at five years old, and he has never wanted to do anything else. He runs the planter, plans the agronomy, fertility and storage, and makes the equipment calls, because farming asks you to wear a lot of hats. Margins are thinner than they were and there is little room for error, so he leans on GPS and newer practice to grow a better crop across more acres.
Owners of the award-winning Farm One Forty near Saskatoon, Arlie and Brett have built a thriving 140-acre regenerative farm combining livestock, direct marketing and agritourism. Through holistic management, multi-species grazing, farm-to-table dining and community education, they show how innovation can improve profitability while restoring ecosystems.
Andrea is a recognized leader in Canadian agriculture and Executive Director of the Innovative Farmers Network (formerly East Prince Agri-Environment Association), which she co-founded to advance farmer-led, evidence-based research. With over 20 years of experience, she has been a driving force behind sustainable agriculture and collaborative innovation. She is Co-Chair of the National Living Labs Change Network and advises international organizations adopting Living Labs approaches, and in 2021 was named one of Canada’s Influential Women in Agriculture. Alongside her husband Gordon she operates diversified farming and precision agriculture businesses on Prince Edward Island, focused on improving farm profitability and environmental outcomes.
Cedric is an agrologist, entrepreneur and farmer. He runs Local Valley Beef, a direct-to-consumer grass-fed operation built on rotational grazing and bale grazing rather than a barn. He also founded MacLeod Agronomics, an agri-environmental consultancy with more than two decades of work in New Brunswick’s potato country, promoting perennial forages and cover crops for soil organic matter, nitrogen fixation and resilience. He is Executive Director of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association.
Chad is a farmer, technologist and the founder of AgronomAI. After thirteen years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces he returned home to Arthur Mooney and Sons Ltd., bringing deep experience in emerging technology and in making decisions from data. With a Civil Engineering degree from the University of New Brunswick and a Master’s in Management Analytics from Queen’s, he founded AgronomAI to help farms integrate AI, drone and satellite technology, turning data into insight they can act on.
Cheryl oversees Environment and Climate Change initiatives, including the Environmental Farm Plan Program and Living Lab – Nova Scotia. Her work is about putting the information and data in farmers’ hands so they can make informed choices about farm management and sustainability.
Dan brings 20 years of project management experience in the renewable energy sector to the MAW project team. His role within the organization is to serve as Project Lead on all projects that MAW administers on behalf of the Watershed Districts in Manitoba, including past and current Lake Winnipeg Basin Program projects, as well as six projects funded through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, including Living Lab – Manitoba, the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program, and Living Labs – Eastern Prairies.
A 2026 Nuffield Canada Scholar, Jolene grew up on a mixed cow-calf and grain farm in northern Alberta. After working operations in Australia and New Zealand and roles with Alberta's crop commissions and beef producers, she returned to her family farm focused on enterprise stacking, crop-livestock integration and multi-species cover cropping to build resilience across generations.
Jordan is Farm Manager at Webster Farms in Cambridge, Nova Scotia, overseeing crop production, harvest and on-farm operations. For the Living Lab Nova Scotia Land Swap project she provided two sections of land and coordinated field access and timing with the Living Lab Coordinator and several livestock producers. The project explored grazing livestock on underperforming land to lift field productivity.
Kelly is a rancher, professional agrologist and conservation leader, with more than two decades of work on how agricultural management can improve prairie ecosystems.
From a multi-generational farming family, Kent has grown Mountain View Farm near Grand Falls-Windsor into a successful operation with more than 200 acres of vegetables and forage crops. He's recognized for practical knowledge, resilience and a willingness to embrace innovation to improve productivity and sustainability in a challenging climate.
Founder and Executive Director of the Food Water Wellness Foundation, a program now spanning 340,000 acres across Alberta. Through the Regenerative Alberta Living Lab she works directly with ranchers to build digital tools, including grazing and plant-community apps that producers help design. She'll speak on how predictive soil and land mapping is giving producers a clearer picture of their own operations.
A farmer, entrepreneur and agricultural mentor, Krista revitalized her family farm in Lethbridge, established by her grandfather in the 1950s, into a thriving vegetable operation. Through the NL Federation of Agriculture's mentorship program she has shared expertise in crop production, greenhouse operations and business planning with new and aspiring producers across the province.
Kyle is an Islander, raised on the red dirt outside Summerside. He splits his time between the north shore and Toronto. Through the spring and summer of 2026 he has been in the beautiful fields of Prince Edward Island, working alongside growers, flying drones, and writing a great deal of the software from the front seat of his truck while a flight mission runs overhead.
Over lunch he'll give a deep dive into what the team has built at Agronome.ai, and the collaborative approach they've taken with Prince Edward Island growers.
Lynda has worked in not-for-profit organizations for over 15 years, specializing in strategic planning, operations, and communications. She has a Bachelor of Arts in political studies and is committed to ongoing personal and professional development to support her work. In her role as MAW’s Executive Director, Lynda oversees all aspects of the association, including member services, program development, industry engagement, and stakeholder relations.
Nick has worked the soil and tended livestock since he could walk, up until the farm was semi-retired in the late 1990s. In the early 2000s he reclaimed the family homestead, and by 2015 he had restarted the farm and bought the base herd. More than forty cows now graze under his watch, and he balances a day job with what he calls his true calling. At Kingston View Farms the aim is not just a farm but a legacy.
Rodney Reid is the Climate Change Manager with the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture and a farmer based in Bishop's Falls. He serves as the lead for both the NL Living Lab and the On-Farm Climate Action Fund Newfoundland and Labrador (OFCAF-NL), working with farmers, researchers, industry partners and government agencies to advance climate-smart agriculture and environmental sustainability.
Lochwood Farms is run by Scott and Janine Duguid and their family in Manitoba’s Interlake, on the west side of Lake Winnipeg: cow-calf, forage and forage seed, and grain, with cattle at the heart of it. Through cover cropping, rotational grazing and bale grazing they are building better habitat for cattle, wildlife, insects and soil alike. Scott’s appetite for new ideas has opened the farm to research with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the LEAP project at the University of Manitoba, and the Manitoba Forage Seed Association.
An agronomist and cropping producer, Susan has spent four years on an interseeding project with AAFC, seeding Italian ryegrass into wheat and barley for late-season grazing once the crop is off. Methodical and well-spoken in her observations, she demonstrates practical ways to integrate livestock with cropping systems to improve forage use, soil health and whole-farm resilience.
Zohaib is a founder at Agronome.ai, where he focuses on the engineering and operations behind the platform. He spends most of his time in Toronto, though he has fallen for Prince Edward Island along the way. He is, as they say here, from away, and has since been accepted as an Honorary Islander.
Over lunch he will present alongside Kyle, with a deep dive into what the team has built at Agronome.ai and the collaborative approach they have taken with Prince Edward Island growers.
Funding for Living Labs and the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through Agricultural Climate Solutions.