JUNE 2026
CELEBRATING 147 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
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INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE WOMAN FARMER
Planning and executing -- that’s the heavy lifting for women farmers
The UN has designated 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer to spotlight the essential roles that women play in agrifood systems, food security and economic resilience. Katie MacLennan is one of those women who has leveraged her 27 years of farming experience to the board room table as the first female chair of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. She and her husband farm at West Cape, PEI. Photo by Victor Karki.
KAREN DAVIDSON Skilled. Articulate. Worthy. Women farmers have always been a force in agriculture, but now their numbers are formalized in the Statistics Canada census of agriculture. At last count in 2021 – and soon to be updated – the numbers stand at a hair under 80,000. To put a face on those statistics, meet Katie MacLennan, the first female chair of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. She’s been farming for 27 years with her husband Jonathan near West Cape, PEI. As a seed and processing potato grower of 725 acres plus more acreage for rotation crops, she’s lived through a roller-coaster in the last five years: COVID, the potato wart crisis that closed the border for exports to the U.S., then drought. Elected in November 2025, she and her board are now
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dealing with provincial permitting to set up irrigation systems for potato growers. Other issues include improving access to labour, reducing the regulatory burden, strengthening the management of phytosanitary risks and addressing climate-related risks. Agronomy initiatives seek to increase farm production and improve efficiency. The board is continuing to push for new and expanded market access for Canadian potatoes. All of this work comes back to one goal: strengthening the long-term profitability and sustainability of Island growers. “I’m interested in what it takes to work together as a province and a country,” she attests. “We come from a small area but we’re a tough group. Let’s see how far we can advance together.” The United Nations has declared 2026 as the Year of the Woman Farmer to spotlight the essential, yet often unrecognized, roles women play in global agrifood systems. By any measure, Canadian women have moved forward in spades in terms of access to agricultural
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resources, technology and financing. “Ten years ago, my husband and I changed banks and it was made very clear that we were partners in the business,” MacLennan recalls. “Most times, the bank calls me.” Ontario greenhouse grower Twenty years younger, Sydneigh Wilson is in the first decade of her career, after graduating with a science degree and working as a research assistant at Agriculture Canada’s Harrow, Ontario station. Since her first visit to the Kingsville, Ontario area in 2018, she’s been gobsmacked by the growth of the greenhouse vegetable sector. During COVID, she and husband Emilio Mastronardi operated Ridge Farms, working morning to night on every task imaginable: stringing, clipping, J-hooking, planting and packing tomatoes. Continued on page 3
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