What We’re Reading | Focusing on the future while facing a pandemic

Canadian Cattlemen by Piper Whelan

When Bob Lowe was elected president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) in March 2020, he couldn’t have anticipated everything the year ahead had in store.

Mere days after CCA’s annual general meeting, Canada was in lockdown due to the pandemic, changing the trajectory of everyone’s year and presenting numerous challenges to the Canadian food industry.

“I don’t think anybody could have predicted what it was going to bring,” says Lowe, reflecting on 2020, a year that saw CCA holding online town halls and weekly press conferences to update beef producers on how the association was working to remedy major supply chain disruptions.

It certainly wasn’t how Lowe expected his first year in the role to play out. “I came into the position with the idea of trying to increase consumer awareness and confidence in their beef supply — just trying to increase the awareness of food in general,” says Lowe, who is the managing partner of Bear Trap Feeders at Nanton, Alta. “One of our major problems is people take food for granted.”

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