The Extensionists

The Extensionists Conversations with great thinkers in agriculture. Find The Extensionists on all major podcasting platforms with episodes released every other week on Tuesdays.

12/02/2025

How interconnected are the ag and energy industries in Western Canada? Sabrina Perić, an energy researcher, experienced Deja vu when talking with her fellow ag researchers.

“A lot of the stories they were telling me about this mistrust and skepticism, they actually sounded very familiar…to stories I heard in Alberta,” Sabrina says in today’s episode.

For Sabrina, it really stirred an interest to investigate this skepticism in ag, which she had already been researching in the energy sector.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyRyqa2ZB7E

What can we do to combat soil health policy skepticism? Sabrina Perić is an anthropologist with a fresh and decidedly hu...
11/25/2025

What can we do to combat soil health policy skepticism? Sabrina Perić is an anthropologist with a fresh and decidedly human perspective on this issue.

In next week’s episode of The Extensionists, Jay Whetter and Toban Dyck sit down for a conversation with Sabrina, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Calgary. The three discuss the national disconnect when it comes to soil health policy and how Sarbina’s research revealed higher skepticism in Western Canada.

They also talk about how important regionalism is to combat skepticism and how more and more people are starting to doubt science. How can we work together to cultivate an awareness and love of soil?

Listen on Dec. 2 to learn more.

Listen to The Extensionists wherever you get your podcasts. Share, rate, and review to help grow our audience.

https://theextensionists.com

11/20/2025

It doesn’t have to always be a big gesture to be there for someone when they’re struggling. For “The Recovering Farmer” Gerry Friesen he simply just needed a friend to listen.

“He sat down with me and listened. He normalized and validated what I was feeling,” Gerry says in this week’s episode, adding that his friend didn’t try to fix things or offer advice. “ It was more just ‘Yeah I get it.’”

Listen to learn why support can be as easy as listening.

Thank you to today’s episode sponsor Alberta Canola.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX76w3fuRFA

11/19/2025

For many, being a farmer is an identity.

“When that identity is threatened, they feel lost,” The Recovering Farmer Gerry Friesen says in the latest episode. “In farm debt mediation, for example, if there was ever talk about having to downsize or to sell or - God forbid - something even worse such as bankruptcy, it was like, ‘But what will I do if I don’t farm?’”

Gerry didn’t feel that identity connection the same as his farming peers did. Listen to learn more about the identity struggle people can feel towards their work and how that can impact their mental health.

Thank you to our episode sponsor Alberta Canola.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-GaI8NYckI

Being a farmer can easily become your identity, but what happens when that identity is threatened? In next week’s episod...
11/12/2025

Being a farmer can easily become your identity, but what happens when that identity is threatened?

In next week’s episode of The Extensionists, Jay Whetter and Toban Dyck sit down for a conversation with “The Recovering Farmer” Gerry Friesen. The three discuss mental health struggles on the farm and where you can go if you need help.

They also talk about the role extension can play in mental health help and how you can live with anxiety.

Listen on Nov. 18 to learn more. Thank you to our episode sponsor Alberta Canola.

Listen to The Extensionists wherever you get your podcasts. Share, rate, and review to help grow our audience.

https://theextensionists.com

11/06/2025

Could we be exporting more agricultural products to Europe? Meaghan Seagrave thinks so, but not without some behavioral changes.

“We need to help ensure that our producers are using lower carbon inputs. That they’re putting in play technologies, or adopting technologies, that are going to increase their productivity,” Meaghan, the executive director for Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, explains in the latest episode of The Extensionists.

If we do these things, it will make us successful in these markets, Meaghan says. Listen to learn more about the export opportunities there are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXpzv4cp2c

11/04/2025

Are there opportunities for more land to be farmed in Canada? Meaghan Seagrave says yes.

“A lot of (agriculture land) goes unleveraged, underutilized,” Meaghan, the executive director for Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, says in today’s episode of The Extensionists. “We look at these as hurdles, but the rest of the world looks at this as opportunities. We have no shortage of land; we have no shortage of water.”

She explains the changing climate may be a positive for Canadian agriculture in some ways. Listen to learn more about how it could push our agriculture industry forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74UEGihsqTo

What kind of opportunities are there for Canadian agriculture? Meaghan Seagrave says Canadian agriculture is sitting on ...
10/28/2025

What kind of opportunities are there for Canadian agriculture? Meaghan Seagrave says Canadian agriculture is sitting on a wealth of untapped potential.

In next week’s episode of The Extensionists, Jay Whetter and Toban Dyck chat with Meaghan, executive director for Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, to learn more about the unique role her organization plays in bringing together elements of the ag sector...

As the climate changes, so has our ability to grow different, more southern crops. But support is lacking for the commercialization of these plants, Meaghan says during the episode.

Listen on Nov. 4 to learn more.

Listen to The Extensionists wherever you get your podcasts. Share, rate, and review to help grow our audience.

https://theextensionists.com

10/23/2025

Why is it important for researchers and growers to work together?

“I always wanted to help, make the people happy, make the relationship better. To me, relationships are way bigger than projects,” Rupp Carriveau says in this week’s episode.

Not every researcher invests in relationships with growers the way Rupp does, and he believes that support is vital to their success. Tune in to hear how Rupp and his colleagues are helping strengthen the southern Ontario greenhouse industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebI5OqiwCdQ&t=3s

10/21/2025

How risky is farming? Can one mistake bring down your whole business?

“Farmers don’t have time to mess around. And greenhouse is accelerated on top of regular farming because the environment is so prescriptive,” Rupp Carriveau says in today’s episode. “The production business that they’ve put themselves in, they’re not growers, they’re producers, requires flawless execution.”

Rupp shares how imperative it is to get things right when making a change in the greenhouse industry. Listen to learn more about the intricacies of the greenhouse industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HsbNuZvRec

Collaboration is key and it drives Rupp Carriveau’s work with the greenhouse industry.Through founding the Agriculture U...
10/14/2025

Collaboration is key and it drives Rupp Carriveau’s work with the greenhouse industry.

Through founding the Agriculture UWindsor Centre of Excellence (AGUWin) and the Canadian Greenhouse Excellency Network, Rupp brings researchers from different departments and workplaces together to help growers.

In next week’s episode of The Extensionists, Jay Whetter and Toban Dyck chat with Rupp, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Windsor and co-director of AgUWin, to learn about these initiatives and how one greenhouse grower inspired him to plunge into this industry.

Rupp also discusses his love of the auto industry and what happened when he hiked a treacherous trail in the Grand Canyon.

Listen on Oct. 21 to learn more.

Listen to The Extensionists wherever you get your podcasts. Share, rate, and review to help grow our audience.

https://theextensionists.com

10/09/2025

Nobody likes to be talked down to or told you need to do this or that. People are more likely to shut down and get defensive instead of taking the time to listen.

“We know we have three basic needs: we have a need for competence, we have a need for relatedness, and we have a need for autonomy,” Jolanda Jansen explains in the latest episode. “If you say to a farmer, you do this wrong or this can be improved…in our brain that works as you make me feel less competent.”

People need to feel respected. You’ll get further with making a point if you start by asking questions to get someone thinking differently. Listen to learn more in the latest episode with Jolanda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SXaqoO849M

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