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Winter
2017
Grains
West
24
Maggie Van Camp’s story showcases the
unlimited ways roles in agriculture are
constantly evolving, at times extensively
and over a short period of time. When
the mother, farm owner and senior
editor at
Country Guide
magazine
unexpectedly lost her husband, Brian, in
2013, she had to make adjustments that
would secure the future of their farm, but
also keep routines as normal as possible
for her three teens.
“Brian and I were partners from the
very beginning,” she said. “In 2000, we
quit our jobs in Winnipeg and headed
home to Blackstock, ON, where Brian’s
family farms.”
The pair originally purchased a small
broiler farm they operated for five years.
Van Camp took care of the chickens
and raised the kids, while her husband
worked nearby on his family’s dairy farm.
In 2005, they purchased the farm Van
Camp lives on and operates today. In
the period leading up to Brian’s death,
they built a new barn and expanded their
business while Van Camp also worked at
Country Guide
.
Today, the 98-acre Van Camp farm
grows a rotation of corn, wheat and
soybeans. The main enterprise is the
broiler operation that ships 25,000
broilers every 10 weeks.
“When Brian passed, we had 23,000
chickens in the barn and I did chores
that day,” Van Camp said. “It was a really
chaotic event, of course, but for me it
was important to be able to go and do
chores—to do what I know how to do
and do it every day.”
In order to handle the necessary
transitions on the farm and the affairs
associated with losing her husband,
Van Camp took a nine-month leave of
absence from her position at
Country
Guide
. “To be able to take that time, do
all the paperwork and get my head in
order to deal with everything, was a gi ,”
she said.
When she returned to work at the
magazine, Van Camp was determined to
continue her role on the farm as well. “I
tried to keep working with the chickens
and see for myself if I could do it. I made it
from fall to spring, and by then I was very
tired,” she said. “So I hired a local farmer
to take over the day-to-day chores. That’s
where I’m at now and it’s worked out
exceptionally well.”
Still, life continues to change. Van
Camp’s youngest daughter, 16, is her only
child still living at home. Her 19-year-old
son is at the University of Guelph studying
human kinetics, and her eldest son is
studying business at Fanshawe College.
Van Camp joked that she has worked
in agriculture both on and off the farm
“forever.” She holds a degree in animal
sciences from the University of Guelph
and has worked as a journalist for 20
years, entirely in ag publishing.
A couple of years ago, when she
was asked to prepare a presentation
on the changing roles of women in ag,
Van Camp had an insight that has since
intrigued others in the industry. “On the
way in to do this presentation, I thought,
‘I’m not really a feminist. But I am a
farminist,’” she said. “For me, this means
promoting more diversity on our farms
regardless of gender, age, marital status
or culture. It’s about not limiting anyone.”
Van Camp said increasing diversity
within agricultural roles is a development
that is already occurring and gaining
momentum. “It’s happening today, but it’s
also already happened,” she said. “The
amount of diversity on our farms is rapidly
changing and will continue to change
over the next decade. We need to talk
about how to adjust to and accommodate
these changes, to promote and celebrate
them. We need to embrace diversity—it
makes strategic sense.”
Members of the agriculture community
need to put their preconceived notions
away when it comes to the roles of
women in the industry, she added.
“We have to be thoughtful about how
we refer to people and how we look at
things like child care,” she said. “We have
to be thoughtful about who is taking on
which roles in our farming organization.
We need to consider that women can be
leaders—in farming, within organizations
and within agriculture as a whole.”
MAGGIE VAN CAMP:
Embracing
diversity
BALANCING ACT:
After her husband passed away, Maggie Van Camp was forced to balance
the demands of her job at
Country Guide
magazine with those of her farming operation.