Passion in Agriculture and Environmental Stewardship

As an arts and business student at the University of Waterloo, I joined Cleanfarms with limited knowledge of the Canadian agricultural and recycling industries. After training in my first weeks, I jumped into customer service responsibilities, and with the help of my colleagues, I was able to get comfortable with our recycling programs relatively quickly. In speaking with farmers, our collection site partners and ag-retailers, I noticed a consistent passion for environmental stewardship – a passion which is hard to come by in other industries, like the business world I am accustomed to.

My first few months on the job were during the winter when collection sites are closed, which meant I could devote a significant amount of time to helping manage backend interfaces like our contact databases, online systems, and data analysis. This was a great opportunity to get my feet wet during this period and aid the team in administrative tasks behind the scenes.

As March began, I was reminded of the positive spirit of the industry when I attended the London Farm Show as part of the Cleanfarms booth. It was fantastic to be able to interact with farmers that use our programs firsthand, and I was impressed with their eagerness to share their thoughts on the kinds of recycling programs that would benefit their communities. This was my first opportunity to interact face-to-face with our member companies and I enjoyed seeing so many recognizable company names on show booths. Here, I was also aware of how family-oriented businesses in the agricultural and farming industries are in seeing a lot of young children in attendance with their parents. Though often distracted by the free candy, I was impressed with the kids’ eagerness to understand their parents’ craft.

This sentiment continued as I visited the Canada Dairy Expo in Stratford the following month to better understand the dairy sector. I was again enthused by the number of families I saw and the overall excitement levels towards meeting other dairy farmers and retailers. I hope to bring this passion back to my schooling when I return in the fall, and to my career thereafter.