Growing up in the rural community of Walkerton, ON, a lot of Jamie Larsen’s buddies were becoming farmers. And while his friends were thinking about what crops to plant, Larsen was always wondering why they should grow certain crops and how they would do it.

Already backlogged and bogged down by frigid temperatures and the biggest grain harvest in history, CN Rail has avoided a strike by 3,000 of its workers, averting a full-blown disaster.