Many independent actors, adapting together

Food systems are changing faster than most of our institutions can keep up.

The Future Herd is a podcast about understanding where our food actually comes from—how it’s grown, governed, financed, regulated, and lived with—and what it will take to adapt together in the decades ahead.

Hosted by Jesse Hirsh, the show explores leadership through collaboration across agriculture, policy, technology, labour, and climate. Rather than treating food as a sector to be optimized, The Future Herd treats it as infrastructure: ecological, social, economic, and political.

Season One is developed in alignment with the Agri-Food 2050 process, a long-term effort to think beyond short political and market cycles and toward the resilience of Canada’s food system over the next generation. The show’s founding partner is the Agricultural Adaptation Council, whose role is to create space for experimentation, dialogue, and collaboration across parts of the system that rarely speak to each other. Additional partners and perspectives are welcome.

This introductory episode sets the foundation for the season by introducing the core idea behind the “future herd”: food systems are made up of many independent actors—farmers, animals, ecosystems, institutions, technologies, and communities—coordinating without central control. Adaptation emerges from interaction, not command.

Across Season One, conversations return to a set of recurring themes, including long-term thinking and the meaning of 2050, interacting drivers of change, labour and the future of work, climate resilience, digital infrastructure and AI, public trust and narrative, equity and inclusion, governance as coordination, lived experience from the frontlines, and the persistent gap between vision and action.

The Future Herd is for farmers, producers, policymakers, technologists, and anyone who eats—and wants to better understand the system they depend on.

What does it really take to prepare the agri-food sector for the future?

In this episode of The Future Herd, Jesse Hirsh is joined by Ruth Knight, director with the Agriculture Adaptation Council and chair of the Agri-Food 2050 committee, for a wide-ranging conversation on foresight, leadership, and cultural transformation in agriculture.

Rather than treating the future as something to be predicted or controlled, Ruth argues that future readiness is a mindset—one rooted in curiosity, patience, dialogue, and imagination. Together, they explore why resilience emerges from conversation rather than consensus, how play and experimentation can unlock innovation, and why engaging younger generations is essential to the long-term health of the agri-food system.

This episode examines the tension between problem-solving and big-picture thinking, the limits of top-down planning, and the need to shift from systems of control toward systems of emergence. At its core, the conversation asks how leaders can create the conditions for adaptation, learning, and collaboration over the next 25 years.

1. Why foresight is a practice, not a prediction
2. Curiosity and patience as leadership strengths
3. Dialogue versus debate in sector-wide planning
4. Play, imagination, and safe experimentation
5. Intergenerational leadership and youth engagement
6. From control to emergence in agri-food systems
7. Building cultural capacity for long-term resilience

Ruth Knight

Director, Agriculture Adaptation Council

Chair, Agri-Food 2050 Committee

Independent Agronomist and Rural Development Consultant

The Future Herd explores leadership, collaboration, and long-term thinking in agriculture and food systems. Through conversations with sector leaders, policymakers, producers, and innovators, the podcast examines how we adapt together in an era of uncertainty.

In this episode of The Future Herd, Jesse Hirsh speaks with Jennifer Wright of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council about what it will take to prepare Canada’s agri-food workforce for the decades ahead. Their conversation explores why technology alone cannot deliver the future many envision, and how skills, training systems, and collaboration form the real foundation of innovation.

They discuss the growing importance of micro-credentials, upskilling and reskilling the existing workforce, and hybrid training models that meet people where they are—from farms to living rooms. The episode also tackles a persistent challenge in future-focused work: how to move from conversation to action, and how short-term deliverables and shared accountability can sustain momentum toward 2030 and 2050.

At its core, this is a conversation about people—how we prepare them, how we support them through change, and how collaboration becomes the infrastructure that allows a sector to move forward together.

In this episode of The Future Herd, Jesse Hirsh sits down with Rene Van Acker, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Guelph, to explore the evolving role of universities in shaping the future of agriculture and food.

At a time when climate volatility, technological disruption, and political short-termism are redefining the operating environment for farmers and institutions alike, what responsibilities do academic leaders carry? And how can universities foster the collaboration, interdisciplinary research, and entrepreneurial energy required to build a more resilient food system?

Van Acker reflects on the University of Guelph’s agricultural heritage and its culture of practical engagement—where research is designed not just to generate knowledge, but to put that knowledge into action. The conversation explores the importance of extension and public engagement, the power of cross-sector collaboration, and the growing role of students as drivers of innovation.

The discussion also confronts climate change directly. While political rhetoric may fluctuate, farmers are experiencing increasing weather volatility firsthand. The challenge for institutions is to embed long-term foresight into planning processes that often default to short-term thinking.

This episode is a thoughtful exploration of leadership, institutional responsibility, and generational momentum in the agri-food sector.

1. Why collaboration is foundational to long-term agricultural resilience
2. The evolving role of extension and knowledge mobilization
3. Interdisciplinary research and entrepreneurialism in agri-food
4. Leadership as the creation of “open space” for new futures
5. Students as engines of innovation and transformation
6. Climate volatility as the defining foresight challenge

The Future Herd is a podcast about collaboration and leadership in a changing food system. Each episode features conversations with leaders, innovators, and thinkers shaping the future of agriculture and food.