Keynote Speakers
John B. Fletcher
Keynote speaker
John Fletcher is a counselling therapist, educator, and small-scale farmer from Miramichi, New Brunswick. Combining his love for
nature and farming with his professional expertise, John leads Fletcher’s Four Seasons offering innovative mental health services
such as Nature and Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy, on-the-land mental health excursions, workshops, public speaking, and consulting.
Peter Chapman
Keynote speaker
Peter Chapman not only understands the food industry, he has a passion for seeing others succeed in this business. Peter’s experience includes the entire supply chain and retail merchandising. Starting at store level, he learned the importance of listening to consumers and the challenges of implementing strategies at retail. He went on to Canada’s largest food retailer, Loblaw’s, for nearly twenty years. Expanding his knowledge working in various departments, including merchandising, marketing and advertising.
In 2007, Peter started a company to support producers, processors and retailers across Canada. SKUFood works directly with producers and processors to help them understand their customers, the retailers. Peter is the author of A la cart, a supplier’s guide to retailers’ priorities, he is a past president of Food and Beverage and the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. He has provided food industry insights to Canadian Grocer, The Globe & Mail, CBC Newsworld, Maclean’s magazine, Canada AM and he writes a monthly column in the Grower.
Shaun Haney
Keynote Speaker
Shaun Haney is the founder of RealAgriculture, a leading North American ag media platform delivering news and insights on policy, agronomy, and farm management. He hosts RealAg Radio on SiriusXM’s Rural Radio Channel 147 and RealAg on the Weekend across Saskatchewan and Alberta. Shaun is also a regular contributor to RFD-TV, Agritalk, and US Farm Report, and co-leads RealAgristudies, a farmer-focused market research initiative launched in 2019.
Concurrent Speakers
Dr. Aitazaz A. Farooque
Environment and climate change
Dr. Aitazaz A. Farooque is a Professor and Director of the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Prince Edward Island. His research focuses on developing climate-smart technologies to support sustainable agriculture in Atlantic Canada. A recognized leader in his field, Dr. Farooque has co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed journal articles and secured more than $17 million in research funding. He was named one of Canada’s top 125 researchers and received the prestigious NSERC Discovery Accelerator Grant. In 2024, he was inducted as a Member of the Royal Society of Canada College. His accolades include numerous national and international honors, such as the King Charles III Coronation Medal and the 2025 Next Generation of Ag Engineering Leaders Award. As both a Professional Engineer and a registered Professional Agrologist, Dr. Farooque also directs the Centre of Excellence in Food Security and Sustainability. His work has received global media coverage for advancing innovation and building resilience in agriculture.
Chris Callahan
Controlled ENVIRONMENT agriculture, small fruits, vegetables, industry development
Chris Callahan is the Associate Director of Extension, an Extension Professor of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Vermont, and the Director of the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS). His work focuses on the application of the engineering practice to food systems. Specific engagement is with food producers, processors, and distributors to improve efficiency, quality, safety, and cost control through the integration of technology, systems integration, and process controls. Areas of work include protected culture, postharvest handling and storage, produce safety, and sustainable energy.
François Biron
VEGETABLES
Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences from McGill University (2005), Master’s degree in Plant Biology from Laval University (2010). Worked at the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation Québec (MAPAQ) between 2006 and 2016. Started his business in 2012. The company’s business model is to grow a few vegetables in larger quantities and sell them wholesale. The focus is on production efficiency, products in demand and more specialized products, and very low production costs. Diversification with greenhouses began in 2015, exploring ways to use this infrastructure for as long as possible. Winner of the MAPAQ Relève award and the FADQ Tournez-vous vers l’excellence award in 2019.
Jess Vickruck
Pollination and Wild Blueberry
Jess is a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based out of Fredericton, New Brunswick. The lab is generally interested in better understanding the role that beneficial insects play in delivering ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control. In particular, they study how off-field features or uncropped areas can promote beneficial insect diversity. While she started working primarily with wild bees, they now have projects in the lab working with carabid beetles and soil dwelling insects. They also collaborate on projects working with Colorado potato beetle.
Neil Mattson
Controlled Environment Agriculture
Neil Mattson is Professor and greenhouse extension specialist at the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. Neil joined Cornell in 2007 after completing his PhD from the University of California Davis and Master’s from the University of Minnesota. Mattson is the director of Cornell’s Controlled Environment Agriculture program and his research is focused on the physiology of both vegetable and floriculture crops in controlled environments. Research interests include strategies to reduce greenhouse energy use, sustainable and organic fertilization practices, rootzone management, and plant stress physiology.
Pierre Giovenazzo
Pollination and Wild Blueberry
Pierre Giovenazzo, received a PhD in veterinary sciences at the University of Montréal (Varroa IPM strategies). He is professor at University Laval’s Biology Department and holded a Chair in Educational Leadership in apicultural science 2016-2021. His recent research focuses on honey bee breeding and reproduction, pollination services, honeybee nutrition and varroa IPM strategies. He has published over 90 scientific research publications/reports and his communication skills are recognized not only in academia, but throughout the beekeeping community. He was vice-president of the Canadian Association of Professional Beekeepers of Canada (2014-2017) and is member of various national and international beekeeping stakeholder associations. He was president of the 46th Apimondia 2019 Congress Montreal.
Ralph C. Martin
Environment and climate change
Ralph C. Martin grew up on his family farm in Wallenstein, ON. After earning a Ph.D. (Plant Science, McGill University, 1990) he taught at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. In 2001, he founded the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada and in 2011, was appointed as Professor, University of Guelph. In 2019, he retired and published the book, Food Security.