And they Farmed Happily Ever After : Farm Girl at Heart Part 2
Farm Girl Meets Farm Boy
Picking up where we left off in the last blog…so yes, Billy and I met as kids, our families knew one another, my older brother was friends with Billy, my sister went to colledge with Billy, I met him again as teenagers and then again as young adults when he was no longer Billy but rather Bill. It wasn’t until after travels, schooling, degrees and a long time dating that we were wed. And while we both grew up on the farm and technically work on a farm, I’m not sure if REAL farmers would call us farmers at all. Bill’s the type of farmer that wears dress shoes to work and sits in meetings or in front of a computer most the day…not the kind of farmer who wears boots all day and drives tractor.
What the heck is Agri-Business
Bill is a farm boy and he loves farming but he studied animal sciences and has a passion for agri-business, which quite simply is the business of agriculture. After getting his Masters in Animal Science he came back to the valley and worked as an animal nutritionist at CGM for the dairy farming community. But he couldn’t sit still … or more like his brain couldn’t be still and he kept thinking up, stumbling upon or implementing different agricultural innovations … and he hasn’t stopped yet … not even slowed down.
Which brings us to today: NUTRIVA Group
Nutriva Group is a bunch of ag-related businesses ranging from farm animal feed additives, feed analysis, farm transport, Vitala dairy & egg products, agri-tourism, research & development with a bunch of new ventures on the horizon like HydroGreen, which is basically growing wheat grass in 6 days and specialty grass fed beef. There is never a dull moment and always a new project on the go.
Hatching the EcoDairy Plan & Giving Back to the Farming Community
With Bills animal science and animal health and welfare expertise (Masters in Animal Science) and my teaching expertise (Bachelor of Education) and our shared experience and respect and appreciation for farming being farm kids at heart, we hatched a plan to give back to the farming community. The Bakerview EcoDairy was born. EcoDairy invites people to get their farm hand experience on a working dairy farm, meet our animals, explore the farmland and barns and get a better sense of the importance of farming and discover where their food comes from. Science World in Vancouver loved what we were up to and helped develop displays and programming and now voila EcoDairy in Partnership with Science World.
And They Farmed Happily Ever After
I’m proud to be a part of EcoDairy and Vitala Foods and Nutriva Group. I am thrilled to get to work alongside amazing team to achieve our goals of inspiring agricultural advocates, bring healthy food to the world and find ways to innovate agriculture .
I love how EcoDairy and the amazing team there welcome people to the farm to meet the animals face to face and discover how things work on the farm and to witness how we treat our animals with care and respect.
I’m proud of our Vitala dairy and egg products we put on the shelves in select grocery stores. I know we treat the animals that produce them well and I know they taste great and are good for you.
I am excited for all the agriculture innovations, projects, people and endeavors that Nutriva develops and will continue to develop.
Like I said before, farming and this agribusiness we find ourselves in is not always easy, or glamours but it is necessary and brings me great fulfillment.
A Tribute to Farmers
It may come as no surprise that I am a fan of Paul Harvey’s speech, So God Made A Farmer from 1978 that more recently resurfaced in a Super Bowl Dodge Ram commercial. Check it out! https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/paul-harveys-1978-so-god-made-a-farmer-speech/272816/
