Wednesday November 3, 2021 | VANCOUVER, BC
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
Today TELUS Agriculture announced a new president, John Raines, as part of promoting their work in providing connected technology solutions and leveraging real-time data to optimize the food value chain through smart, secure end-to-end tech software solutions, toward supporting what they describe as a safer more nutritious food supply.
“I am thrilled to welcome John as a vital member of our TELUS senior leadership team,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, TELUS, in a news release today.
TELUS Agriculture was launched a year ago, in November 2020, by acquiring AFS Technologies, a global leader in sales and distribution solutions to the consumer goods market; and Agrian, a unified management platform for precision, agronomy, sustainability, analytics, and compliance.
“Global-leading innovators across the world have been brought together under one business to optimize food production and contribute to a better yield of food supply to meet the ever-growing requirements of our hungry planet,” it was stated in last year’s release.
Entwistle says the company it holds an “unwavering commitment to our social purpose to leverage our world-leading technology to create remarkable human and social outcomes”.
Connecting the global food chain:
“With over 20 years of global experience in the agriculture sector, John is exceedingly well-positioned to lead the ongoing evolution of TELUS Agriculture. Indeed, leveraging his tremendous expertise in respect of data science and digital agriculture, in concert with his genuine passion for farming and agriculture, John will further progress our goal of connecting the entire agricultural value chain with smart, secure, end-to-end technology software solutions to ensure a safer and more nutritious food supply for citizens around the world,” said Entwistle.
Raised serving farmers, Mr. Raines has more than two decades of leadership experience in the agricultural sector. His considerable tenure and expertise in the digitization of agriculture data have resulted in numerous achievements, including the completion of multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions within North America and around the globe. He also led the global commercialization of the largest digital agriculture platform in North America, South America, and Europe, and established high-performing, international operations across the agriculture sector.
“I’m very proud to be joining one of the world’s largest, pure-play agriculture technology teams, with a scope that covers over 50 countries worldwide and some of the best minds in the business,” said Raines. “I’m very inspired about TELUS Agriculture’s absolute commitment to feed the world by building a more sustainable, abundant, and secure food supply for generations to come, and I look forward to leading our digital agriculture team in realizing our collective goals.”
About TELUS Agriculture:
TELUS Agriculture leverages technology and data to enable a better flow of information across the agriculture and food industry. We deliver better food outcomes for consumers, while enabling cross-industry collaboration, with solutions that drive efficiencies and profit for farmers and ranchers, agribusinesses, and food, beverage, consumer goods and retail companies.
TELUS Agriculture’s growing list of solutions includes farm management software, precision agronomy, traceability, supply chain and trade promotion management. TELUS Agriculture is backed by a team of over 1,500 experts across Canada, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Armenia, Germany, China, and Australia.
Food sustainability:
On Vancouver Island there is enough food to last about three to five days if there’s a full interruption to the food supply chain. An earthquake or similar event causing disruption of planes and trucking would contribute to a significant interruption.
Local food growing on Vancouver Island is a continuing topic of discussion among various levels of government, elected leaders, and the food-growing community. Local MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) introduced a Soil Health bill in the House of Commons in April 2021. Local MP Randall Garrison (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke) addressed food sustainability during the recent federal election, has been addressing various issues with Agriculture-AgriFood Canada over the years, and highlighting the vulnerable food supply on Vancouver Island.
During the first year of the pandemic there were notable disruptions to the food supply chain, at worst, however, causing temporary shortages of some products. Once the cross-border trucking issue got sorted out (i.e. essential services/workers) that seemed to settle down. In other cases, it has to do with pandemic impacts in other jurisdictions (whether labour or weather), which have caused shortage and/or price increases of various food products.
