International Rural Exchange promotes agriculture at home and abroad

Jun 13, 2023

The heart of the International Rural Exchange (IRE) has always been agriculture and facilitating relationships.

Farmers started it as a solution to find workers for their fields in 1985, and it has turned into an act of fostering international relations.

Executive director Anita Warriner started with the IRE as a host, welcoming young adults from all over the world to her and her husband’s farm. It wasn’t until 2009 that she took over in the running of the IRE, moving it to its current location in Alameda.

“It’s all about connection with the host and bringing people into Canadian culture, bringing them to community events. If people use them as cheap labour it doesn’t work,” Warriner shared. “This develops good and close relationships, if the host can be patient with the English and training, it’s incredibly enriching.”

At the IRE there are two halves of the same coin, inbound and outbound. For inbound, over 200 young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 come into Canada on a work permit and are hosted on a farm.

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Video: Democratizing Gene Editing - Pairwise’s Vision for the Future of Agriculture

Pairwise has built its business around an idea that runs counter to how many companies approach innovation: make transformative technology easier to access.

In this Seed World interview, CEO Tom Adams discusses why broader access to gene editing could speed crop improvement, expand innovation opportunities and help agriculture address emerging challenges. He explains why Pairwise believes no single company can solve all of agriculture's problems alone—and why making advanced breeding technologies available to more organizations could accelerate progress across the industry.

The conversation explores how consumer trust influences technology adoption, why innovations like pitless cherries and seedless blackberries matter beyond convenience, and how future crop improvements could help address labor shortages, automation, harvest efficiency and other production challenges. Adams also shares his perspective on what the industry may be underestimating about the next wave of gene editing innovation.

Watch the full interview to hear why Pairwise believes agriculture is approaching an important inflection point for gene editing, and why the pace of innovation over the next decade could surprise the industry.

Topics Covered:

o Democratizing agricultural innovation

o Consumer trust and technology adoption

o The business case for sharing innovation

o Expanding innovation beyond major crops

o Next-generation breeding technologies