Life milestones give us the opportunity to pause and reflect on both the passage of time and how things have changed. As the Rural Voice celebrates 50 amazing years of publication, I reflect on my time with the Rural Voice as well as the remarkable insight and dedication that has kept it interesting and vital in a digital age where so many publications have been taken over by ever-larger companies. 

I started writing in 1996 with a piece on woodlot management. I remember it very clearly. As a young stay-at-home mom, with a year-old son, I had no experience writing for a publication. I was given the opportunity to write a freelance piece for the Ontario Farmer. I went to a library – an actual library - and signed out a book on writing.  In every piece I wrote from then on, I tried to improve upon the last so I would be able to continue writing. 

Eventually I had less time for writing, as I returned to my family farm full time. One day in 2013, Keith Roulston approached me and asked if I would be interested in writing a regular column for The Rural Voice. He must have caught me on one of those days when I felt like I really needed to vent – and I said “Sure! Have I got a column for you!!!” before calmer thoughts prevailed to remind me that monthly deadlines roll around really fast! But by then, it was too late.

On that day, I had just had one too many men show up at the farm office and ask to speak to my husband – without even bothering to find out if I had one. They took one look at me and figured I wasn’t worth their time. I was finding it increasingly frustrating to be treated as less than a person by strangers who thought it was OK to wander into our place of business, uninvited, and make all sorts of assumptions.  On the day in question, it was the insurance adjuster who refused to even deal with me until he finally figured out that no one else was going to show up to answer his questions.

I have now been writing for agricultural publications for almost 30 years. Amazingly, that one column about how women in agriculture are treated generated more comments than everything else I’d written put together. While most of the comments were of the “Right on, sister!!” variety, one of the more thought-provoking ones came from a man who works in agriculture and was well-aware of this issue. He observed that this bias is leading a lot of smart, talented women out of agriculture and into other sectors, and that agriculture, as a whole, was the lesser for it. 

Interestingly, Andrea McCoy-Naperstkow wrote about women in agriculture this March in her role as provincial director for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. She was looking at the changes over the past 30 years and noted that today, about 30 per cent of farm operators are female. This period has also seen an 86.3 per cent increase in women running farms with annual revenue of $2 million or more. She points out that women working in businesses that support agriculture have also increased in number – an observation I would agree with. 

From my perspective on the farm, it has been some time since someone has refused to talk to me or asked if my husband is home. Perhaps I have a shorter memory than I used to or maybe I am better able to ignore these comments. But I do think things have changed – women are taking on more leadership roles and running farms, plus we have more options for mentorship, such as the AgriMentor program, and other organizations such as the Advancing Women Conference supporting women in agriculture. 

While writing about this negative experience may have been the springboard for my Rural Voice column, I generally try to bring a positive lens to my writing. I love being able to learn about different aspects of the farm and our rural life, and challenge my own biases and assumptions. It can be easy to get mulling about something while spending hours in the tractor – thinking about how I am going to bring awareness to some injustice or another. But actually writing about said injustice in a logical and legible way often shines a light and challenges me to better understand the topic. I have learned (on more than one occasion) that my knee-jerk reaction needs to be challenged – I often figure things out by writing about them. And where I end up is often not where I thought I would. 

As our communication changes and it becomes ever easier for AI and bots to produce content online that looks real and legitimate, I appreciate what The Rural Voice offers. Highlighting life in our rural area and celebrating the people who make our community a great place to live gives us all valuable opportunities to be more grounded and connected. ◊