Charles Russell

Tara's Bio

Although, she wasn’t raised on a farm, Tara’s experience in agriculture spans over 30 years, first in dairy, then cattle and now chicken (25 years).

In 2011, Tara’s first husband lost his battle with cancer. During this difficult time, she was faced with the choice to stop farming or forge ahead. Her passion for agriculture persisted and with the encouragement from her father-in-law, the support of her church family, and neighbouring farmers she persevered.

Today, alongside her husband Darren, they farm near Devon, Alberta.

“I am very passionate of the fact that if we don’t tell our story someone else will… and we know that it won’t always be the correct story. Being out in the community has given me the opportunity to firsthand correct some of the myths around our industry. And hopefully our story gets spread just a little more with each encounter.”

Family plays a huge part in Tara’s life and when she isn’t busy volunteering at agriculture education events, hosting a farm tour, helping to create videos to counter myths, or tending to her flock, Tara spends time with her three children, their spouses and her and Darren’s nine grandchildren.

Alberta Chicken Producers 

Tracey's Bio

Tracey combines academic expertise with entrepreneurial experience in agriculture. After two years of graduate research in honey bee biology at the University of Alberta, she founded Beanstalk Honey, running it for over a decade while building strong connections in the farming community. With a background in conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and industry leadership, Tracey brings a vision for innovation and community engagement to her role at Organic Alberta.

Organic Alberta

Tyson's Bio

From Blood Tribe, Tyson lives in Standoff, Background in Agriculture specifically growing forage Alfalfa and Timothy. Involved in growing vegetables (produce) in community gardens, Tyson also raises and trains horses. Tyson is a traditional learner in his culture. He also works with Rural Routs to Climate Solutions as a Project Coordinator.

Siksikaitisitapi Project

Victoria's Bio

aGRO’s founder, Victoria Ross, hated seeing her father John working full-time as a rancher but also needing an evening job to keep the farm going (nearly 50% of Canadian farmers face the same problem). aGRO was born from Victoria’s drive to help these sustainable smaller players profit and have better livelihoods (the UN family-run scaled producers as the most environmentally productive class of food production).

Victoria Ross started market research for aGRO Systems during her BCOMM at the University of Calgary, and launched business operations shortly after graduating in June 2018. Through Victoria’s continuous efforts (and the team!), aGRO has successfully diverted over 50 million pounds of spent grain from entering the landfill to be repurposed as nutritional animal feed. 

Victoria was one of the first women recognized for SHEInnovates, the Alberta Chapter, by UN Women. Most recently, Victoria has spoken at the 2022 Advancing Women in Agriculture, the 2022 Cultivate: Agriculture Summit with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, and hosted the 2022 Alberta Beer Awards in Red Deer. She is aGRO System’s leader in managing sales, market research, and bringing the company’s vision to life.

aGro Systems