2024 Pulse Promoter

[LEP]

Congratulations Vicki on being the 2024 Pulse Promoter.

I know you have spent your lifetime promoting pulses and advocating on behalf of farmers.

Your lifetime's work is appreciated.

[sumdumguy]

You are one fine example of dedication Vicki.
I spoke to Vicki last week and she told me that she probably would never retire as pulse promoter.

Pulses saved our arses year after year during the Dirty Eighties and Nineties too, hard not to love them.

[westernvicki]

You know I had to think again about all the history.

In 1968, farmers could not move their grain, so my father decided to grow peas. That was just in front of the LIFT Lower Inventories for tomorrow's program.

We all grew peas for cash from the 70 to the '90s time.

We all worked our arses and added risk to our learning curve learning how to grow them, clean them and market them! The award belongs to all of us!

?You will be pleased to know that at the SPG AGM, a resolution was passed to investigate alternative risk management measures for the CGC bond.

[westernvicki]

Pulse Promotor Award Address.

Sharing my acceptance speech!

Thank you, Sask Pulse Growers board, for the honor of this award.
I am humbled to join a list of incredible recipients who gave fundamental contributions and made a difference in our industry over the years.

I want to thank my husband, David, for his enduring love and commitment to smart farming. We were married young, and our children, Lara, Heidi, and George, were hands-on on the farm and in the grain trade; they were instrumental in our success. Today, their vision in management solutions, builders in plant-based food, and farmers help shape the future.

Thank you, farmers.

Thank you to everyone who is here today. You are the people who show up, get involved, and get stuff done. This pulse promotor award belongs to all of us.

I want to recognize Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Board Directors, Executives, staff, and advisors who have been instrumental in investing in the pulse industry's development. Under their guidance, our levy dollars, matched by provincial and federal dollars, were invested in visionary researchers and plant breeders at the U of S and the CDC. Today, new plant breeders are bringing innovation in seed to pulse growers.

Seed is our gold: the ability to deliver diverse varieties that perform in the field and provide the best value in world markets.

I was blown away when SPG Chair Winston called me and said I had won the Pulse Promotor Award nomination. Winning this award has taken me on a journey of recollection, and I have a few conclusions to share.

On my first trip to sell pulses, I went to Calcutta, the poorest city in India.
We went to the pulse market. The market is lined with many narrow storefronts. Dirt streets worn hard as concrete; men are all sinew, wearing just a waste wrap, carrying 110 lb. sacks of pulses as big as them on their backs. Traders sit in narrow sales areas. In the warehouses in the back, traders lined one side of a worn table, and buyers were on simple chairs across. They barter, they barter loudly. I see samples of pulses on a table. The samples are what they have in the back to sell. I see Canada on samples. These are shipments from Saskatchewan. They are bartering over our shipments!

I still get goosebumps when I recall this story. At that moment, I learned the connection from a seed we grew to a market halfway across the world. Here in this market, the products come in, and every day, the best ones fetch the best price. This is an age-old selection process. This is the key lesson of the future: to be the best in the market every day.

Pulses took farmers to the world, and the world came to the farms in Saskatchewan to buy. Saskatchewan was instrumental in forming a national pulse board; Pulse Canada meetings were the first meeting place in what would become the global pulse industry.
It all started here. It began in Saskatchewan! With pulse growers.

While growing pulses, we increased our soil carbon and lowered our carbon footprint. This is all documented by The Global Institute for Food Security Study in 2022, where their research study found Saskatchewan and Western Canada to be the most sustainable farmers in the world by a country mile.

It would add significant value for us to add the sustainability brand to our label.

While we led the world in the pulse industry for decades, we are no longer the only game in town. Back in the day, buyers would wait months for their shipment. Not that they liked it, but they had no choice. We no longer have that luxury. When the railway or a union shuts down the ports, the buyers have other options and more daily.

We are also no longer the cheapest suppliers. Countries we used to export to are competing to supply the client base. But we can be the first choice for the best supply.

The plant-based food and feed sector and the vision of SPG and Pulse Canada are paramount to a diverse future. The goal of 25 billion is achievable. But last week's announcement that Ingredion was shuttering its plant tells a story about Canadian competitiveness and how hard new markets are to build.

Nothing in agriculture is easy. It’s a long game requiring resilience, strategic thinking, deliberate management, and administration as we adapt.

Agriculture is a renewable source of wealth that thrives and fails within national and international agendas: Policy, Trade relationships, and direction are as essential as production.

We compete with every nation, and every nation competes for citizens' food dollars. In an urban ivory tower world, it is easy not to connect the dots between farmers, economics, and the environment. Being an ambassador for your industry is essential. Your voice matters.

Saskatchewan is a province where survival made an interdependent community necessary. Having traveled, I can confidently say that the agricultural community we built in Saskatchewan is unique and highly valuable.

We have much to be proud of and much to do.

I am forever grateful to be a Saskatchewan farmer and honored to address the world's most innovative community: Saskatchewan Pulse Growers.

Thank you!

Vicki Dutton
January 15, 2025


Thank you all.

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