Katelyn Duncan is a primary producer, a columnist for the Western Producer, and a graduate student in policy analysis, farming alongside her sister as they work through a farm transition together. She talks through the honesty that's carried her and her sister through the hard parts of that transition, why she refuses to use the word sustainability without a way to measure it, and the personal framework she leans on to stay grounded, called the Four Agreements. The conversation closes on identity: who a producer is once the roles of farmer, sibling, and public voice are set aside.
Katelyn Duncan sprays, writes a column for the Western Producer, holds a graduate degree in policy analysis, and is working through a farm transition with her sister. Ask her which of those she identifies with most and her answer is none of them. All of it is external validation, she says. The real question is who you are underneath the roles.
That question runs through everything else in this conversation: how she and her sister navigate taking over the family farm, why she won't use the word sustainability without a way to measure it, and what she tells young producers texting her at midnight wondering what their purpose is.
What's Inside
- Why Katelyn refuses to use the word sustainability without a way to verify and measure it
- How she and her sister built the honesty that's carrying them through a farm transition, including the hard days neither wanted to have alone
- The Four Agreements framework she leans on, and how it changed a conversation that could have ended in conflict
- Why she thinks most farm transition struggles come down to one unanswered question: who are you besides a farmer
- What she tells producers who ask, half joking, if pesticides are actually safe
- Why she volunteers with White Pony Lodge in North Central Regina, and what it taught her about a completely different way of life
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