WHAT DO YOU WANT?

MARGARET RIGETTI
LANGBANK, SASKATCHEWAN

Margaret Rigetti finds it hard to imagine the future. “Earlier generations couldn’t imagine where we are now. They just kept adapting,” Rigetti says. “The general principles are to embrace innovation and involve family. Any business requires the energy of youth to keep going.”

Rigetti will always remember the day back in 2003 when her uncle came to her and said, “From now on, you can do the marketing.” She had never thought of taking over the marketing. It wasn’t on her radar. “He was getting tired of it, so he gave me the job and mentored me.” Rigetti has been the farm’s marketing lead ever since.

“I was always told there were opportunities on the farm for me, which was maybe an extra important thing for me as a girl to hear,” she says.

Rigetti has three children – two sons and a daughter. “I just had a conversation with my daughter. I told her she would be running the grain cart,” Rigetti says. “She was nervous, but I said ‘you can do it and we need you to do it’.” The two sons are also involved.

“We’ve found success in grain farming. Is that where my children will find success? Maybe.”

A big question Rigetti has for farming in general is whether agriculture will be allowed to innovate. “The Prairies have seen incredible positive changes as a result of technology,” she says, giving glyphosate, herbicide-tolerant canola and zero-till drills as examples. “Will agriculture be able to reach its full potential without too much outside interference, misinformation and disinformation?”