Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. I think there's a huge opportunity for women to be advocates for agriculture. Everybody is more concerned today about where their food comes from and whether their food is safe, and of course women are in that more nurturing area, so women make more advocate points with the public than perhaps the males would.

Agriculture committee  I'm not sure. It spans across every industry, across every company, every program. I really don't know how to answer that question. I wouldn't know.

Agriculture committee  We've approached every province on two bases. For us to try to get sponsorship or funding for things like speakers, sponsor a meal, or do anything like that, as soon as I say, “I'm a private entrepreneur”, I get kicked out of the lineup because they say they don't fund private organizations.

Agriculture committee  I would love the list of what is available, because it's so hard to find that list. I have tried networking and connecting, and then joining forces with a group that is funded. Like the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, I said, “Let's join together. We're working on the same program.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. I think it's important that we start talking about women in agriculture in grade school, in high school. Grades 10, 11, and 12 are most important. I recently went to a conference down in the U.S. and I found it so interesting that in high school they have programs specifically for women in agriculture, talking about agriculture in grade school and the job possibilities in grade school.

Agriculture committee  Having women at a podium is innovation. I think that alone.... It's all innovation: to speak to the balance of life strategies, to find an innovative way to use your time, to learn from other women who have excelled in their career paths. There are ways to learn what's new, what they can do better, what they can change, and what difference they can make.

Agriculture committee  It's the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, which is no longer in existence.

Agriculture committee  Yes, thank you very much. First off, I invite all the women and men to come to an Advancing Women conference. I think it's a really eye-opening experience. Perhaps if more government members, employees, and people who work in the government agencies attended a conference such as this, they would really get the true feeling of what the issues and opportunities are.

Agriculture committee  First is the development of all of the local, regional, little groups of women that have developed. In Alberta, just six months ago, a group of young women who attended Advancing Women went back to their locales, and they started gathering a group of women to be on social media, to be on Facebook, to use Twitter amongst each other, to meet at trade shows, and to hold special little events for each other just to talk about things like barriers, opportunities, and what's been happening.

Agriculture committee  Yes, it is. We find it's very important to talk about succession planning. That's why at every conference we have been talking about succession planning, not only on the farm but in agribusiness, people who are shareholders in retail outlets and people who run businesses in food.

Agriculture committee  Most of the women who come to Advancing Women are very forthright, very aggressive and assertive, and already at that point. The young women who are coming out of university feel that there's a tremendous opportunity. Although they don't want to leave home and don't want to leave the university community and take on another four years of education, they feel very positive.

Agriculture committee  I think it's both. Women who come to the conference talk about different areas of barriers. Women farmers find that it's different for them when they go to the bank without their husbands. I don't know what kind of barrier that is. It's the fact that they are not recognized for the contribution they make, as I said before, and therefore, there is automatically that obstacle in place.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Thanks very much for the invitation. I'm Iris Meck and I'm the owner of Iris Meck Communications, and the host and creator of the Advancing Women in Agriculture Conference. I was raised on a farm in Manitoba, went to the University of Manitoba, and with my agriculture degree and my management certificate, worked in the ag sector all of my career.