Canada Beef announces new president
Eric Bienvenue will become president of Canada Beef next March following a six-month transition period and mentorship under current president Michael Young.
Bienvenue will join the organization as incoming president Oct. 3.
Young has been president of Canada Beef for five years.
Bienvenue has previously been president and chief executive officer of Boire et Frères Inc.
He also worked for Olymel S.E.C. for more than 20 years, where he held various jobs from line supervisor to executive vice-president of all pork operations, with responsibilities for 13 plants across Canada and a team of more than 6,500 people.
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He has a master of business administration degree from Université de Moncton, a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of New Brunswick and various leadership certifications from Harvard University and the Institut de Leadership.
Suicide prevention program announced
AgSafe and the British Columbia division of the Canadian Mental Health Association have developed the AgLife Network and expanded Mental Wellness in Agriculture resources.
The project hopes to improve mental health and well-being resources and access to supports and build awareness around suicide prevention for the province’s agricultural community.
AgSafe is using provincial funding announced in June to develop the network, which is intended to develop and implement a peer-support service focused on suicide prevention and life promotion.
Influenced by the Association Québécoise de Prévention du Suicide (AQPS) Sentinel program, the AgLife Network will be adapted to meet the specific needs of British Columbians.
It will include training service providers to identify risks and intervention strategies, building a peer network of B.C. farmers and farm families with learned intervention skills and providing supportive clinical counselling.
The network will begin on B.C.’s south coast, which has the most commodity diversity and highest concentration of agricultural production in the province, and eventually expand across the province.
More details about the AgLife Network are expected to be announced by next spring.
Master of plant ag program planned
Ontario Agricultural College will introduce a new master of plant agriculture program in the fall of 2024 to address the demands of employers in the private and public sectors who are looking for professionals with advanced expertise in plant breeding, crop production and plant science.
The hands-on, course-based program in the college’s plant agriculture department will allow recent graduates and professionals to quickly upgrade their education and training without the need of conducting academic research through a traditional thesis-based program.
Its flexibility will allow students to study on a full- or part-time basis and select courses that match specific career goals in breeding and genetics, biochemistry and physiology, or crop production systems for agronomic and horticultural crops.
Students can complete the program in three or four semesters, allowing international students to be eligible to apply for a post-graduate work permit.
The college will also continue to offer its thesis-based MSc and PhD in plant agriculture degrees, which are ideal for students wishing to pursue careers in research in the private or public sector.
The program is waiting for approval from the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance.
