News Category: Read

As the first woman ever to lead the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Minette Batters wants her legacy to be a ‘clear road’ for other women to lead the organisation and others like it.

The Wiltshire farmer, who runs a 100-head suckler herd and successful wedding diversification, was elected in 2018 after serving two terms as vice-president.

Since then, she has made regular appearances on national television and radio, grilled politicians, including the Prime Minister on agricultural policy, all whilst leading the union through what has undoubtedly been the biggest shakeup in farming since World War Two.

But the pressure she places on herself is just as acute now as it was when she took the NFU’s reins three years ago.

“I suppose I might be slightly more conscious than my male counterparts before me because it is a different pressure,” she says.

“The thought of ever doing anything wrong, in that when doing media work it is so easy to drop the ball or have a slip up that you are known for that – I am really aware of that.

“If I am on Newsnight or Question Time I really work hard on my briefings and knowing my subject because I want the road clear for future women to come forwards.”

When she was elected, Ms Batters made national headlines, but said she looked forward to the day when a woman in charge of an organisation was ‘not a news story’.

She drew similarities with jockey Rachael Blackmore, who, after securing her place in history as the first woman to win the Grand National, said she did not ‘feel male or female right now’, adding: “I don’t feel human.”

Ms Batters says: “When you watched Rachael Blackmore jumping that last fence you would not have known it was a woman or man, you just thought that is a really good jockey. And I just want people to think the same about me – not being seen as necessarily different, but as someone who did the job as NFU president as well as any male counterpart.

“Most important to me is doing the day job well and making sure the road Is paved for future women to be president of the NFU.”

She said the explosion of women in farming groups has been a useful tool in encouraging more women to come into the industry or move up the ladder, but said a balance needed to be struck.

Ms Batters adds: “I hear criticism from both men and women saying why do we have women in agriculture events and why can’t we have a more collective approach.

“I agree these groups need to speak to both men and women but this movement has brought more women off the farm and the more we can broaden horizons the better.”

Highlighting traditional family farming units, Ms Batters says that for some women, engaging with these groups has been ‘life changing’.

“People come up to me and say they are inspired to get off the farm and do other things.

“Even if it has not taken them into political roles like mine, it has got them involved with commercial boards, co-operatives and so on,” she adds.

“We just need to keep on showcasing what support is available, particularly now with the challenges around mental health and well-being.

“Women are often stuck with all the ‘other’ jobs and they put themselves last on the list. Women in agriculture is about saying there are lots of us in the same position and asking how we can support each other.

“This all has to be for the greater good of the industry. The more we can get farming families out there and engage with them, the better.”

And with agriculture increasingly being recognised for the societal benefits it brings, from its contribution to GDP, to food production the environment and its role in mitigating climate change, Ms Batters says there is a huge opportunity to attract new talent into the industry.

She adds: “With the focus on food, diet and climate change, the opportunities for agriculture and the associated jobs that go with it, everything is in place to attract a whole new generation of people.

“These are people who have probably never had access to or ever will have access to land, coming in and doing those jobs which are very different to what they were 10-15 years ago, never mind 50 years ago.

“Agriculture is about to transition into a major degree of revolutionary change in terms of what it offers. And, by its very name, ‘the culture of working the land’, I think it is something people will be drawn to, especially on the back of Covid.”

In this article we join Coralie Danks in a conversation about her career and how she came to serve as an advisor to the Alltech executive team. As you will read, Coralie brings to the role a wealth of experience from a career that has taken her around the world.

In addition to learning about pivotal aspects of her career, we also delved deeper into the issue of diversity at Board level. Despite many studies indicating that a broad range of backgrounds improves the performance of a business, there is still an imbalance at an executive level in many organizations throughout the food and agriculture industry.

[WFA] Can you start by talking us through your career history and how you rose through the ranks?

[Coralie Danks] I think the best way to describe my career path is ‘non-linear’ but always progressive. After graduating from university in Australia with a Bachelor of Economics, I headed to China to study Chinese and ended up starting my career at Pricewaterhouse in the Beijing office. In the mid-1990s, Pricewaterhouse had been engaged by the Chinese Central Bank to help build out the Bank’s oversight function of the financial sector. I spent my first two years with them working on projects supporting this, focused on creating financial sector charts of accounts and reporting systems, as well as gathering data from China’s largest financial institutions. This might be considered relatively boring work but given the time and place I found it fascinating and I feel fortunate to have been able to learn about and experience China’s development.

Following this I transferred to the Pricewaterhouse New York office and spent the next part of my career working on a range of projects, mostly at financial service companies. I consider this period my ‘apprenticeship’.  I learned a ton – everything from organization design, to large enterprise software rollouts to building digital retail banks from the ground up, so to speak. The latter especially, was a full on ‘baptism of fire’ in the hotbed of what was to become one of the most influential aspects of modern business. I also spent six years at Goldman Sachs as a Vice President in the Compliance Department. This was another great learning experience as my tenure spanned the global financial crisis and gave me lessons in risk management, company culture and, most importantly, communication.

Although I did not know it at the time, my work in New York was great training and it gave me an incredibly useful toolkit when, in 2011, I decided to head back to China. I had accepted the COO position at a growing food and beverage company. I was also a co-owner of the business and after a couple of years took over running the company. It more than tripled in size and became a national brand within China. All my prior experience and learned expertise was brought to bear in that venture. I also learned on the job how to develop and scale a business that was outside my prior career trajectory.

[WFA] How did you get to the position you are in now, serving on the Alltech board as an advisor to the Alltech executive team, including President and CEO Dr. Mark Lyons?

[Coralie Danks] Mark and I got to know one another while both of us were living and working in Beijing. We connected through a shared set of values and interests, as well as the experiences of being executive ex-pats. When he returned to Alltech’s corporate headquarters in Kentucky, we continued to stay in conversation and exchange ideas. It was an honor – and yet also somewhat of a natural evolution of our relationship – to be asked by Mark to serve on the company’s advisory board in 2020. This role has opened the opportunity for broader engagement with the Alltech team globally.

[WFA] What do you feel has been instrumental to your success?

[Coralie Danks] I think a significant element of my personal career journey has been a willingness to take risks, although I was not always aware that was what I was doing at the time. I was saying ‘yes’ to opportunities that came my way or, through a combination of curiosity and wanting to keep learning, I sought out new roles. I think the latter, curiosity and continuous learning, also helped me overcome a pitfall many of us experience and not let “what ifs” or limiting beliefs cloud my judgement on what was possible.

Later in my career, a great piece of advice that helped me grow my own company was to “work on your business, not in your business” which is from the book The E Myth. It may sound a little obvious, but I think it is easy to fall into the trap of doing what we know and are used to doing, rather than focusing on the broader business and its growth. I think this applies to anyone in a management role not just in the C-suite.

[WFA] Why do you think diversity is so important at the board level?

[Coralie Danks] One of the primary roles of an advisory board is to help the leadership team achieve profitable growth, and diverse organizations have been shown to outperform less diverse competitors on profitability and other metrics. With the pace of change today and the complexity of the global business environment, there is too much for any one person or any group of like-minded individuals to personally tackle. Multiple perspectives and a diversity of experiences, backgrounds and skillsets help the leadership team to avoid groupthink and get beyond unconscious biases.

Working and living within different cultures for most of my career has made me more aware of the different lenses through which we view things and how this can lead to very different assumptions and conclusions. On this point, I recently read an excellent book as part of the Alltech book club called Factfulness by Hans Rosling.  The book challenges personal biases and is especially good for this moment in time with its hopeful yet fact-based message. Finally, I’d highlight the importance of ‘setting the tone from the top’ – inclusion in the boardroom sends a signal to the rest of the organization that diverse people and backgrounds are valued throughout that business.  

[WFA] What do you think is the biggest barrier to gender diversity at this level? What can be done to address these issues?

[Coralie Danks] In addition to tackling bias, as I mentioned before, we need a progressive approach to search and hiring. A traditional board configuration is often made up of CEOs, CFOs etc. Given that women are already underrepresented in the C-suite, they are therefore also underrepresented on corporate boards. Consequently, companies seeking to improve their diversity at the board level need to cast a wider net.  We should consider female candidates with relevant and modern skillsets rather than limit the pool to female former CEOs. I am not suggesting that experience at the CEO or CFO level is not important, but there are other skill sets and experiences that are also crucial for boards today. In my case, I am grateful that Mark Lyons looked outside the norm and appreciated and valued the experience I had of scaling a company and building a brand in China.

[WFA] Have you seen any effective approaches to try to improve diversity in the boardroom? 

[Coralie Danks] In addition to better recruitment strategies and looking at experience and skill sets more broadly, I also think women benefit from diversity in their networks. In my experience, invitations to interview for a board position, and/or being asked to serve on a board, often come from within one’s network so I think it is important to build your business network and ensure it includes both women and men. Ultimately, to speed up the pace of change we need the support of men as well as women. I would encourage each of us within this network to engage the men in our organizations and encourage them to get involved with campaigns like WFA.

[WFA] Finally, can you say a few words about why you think the WFA campaign is so important?

[Coralie Danks] Given the role that agri-food has to play in solving the challenges we face, from hunger to affordable nutrition in all our communities to sustainability, we need both men and women at the table. WFA provides a platform to share our ideas and to promulgate this shared vision.

Having recently participated in the 2020 summit, I enjoyed being part of the community and having the opportunity to hear and learn from other members. I especially appreciated the breakout sessions and ability to connect with a diverse group of great women from across the globe. It’s an opportunity to be reminded that we are not in this alone and our experiences and aspirations are shared.

Published in association with Alltech

Eveey Hunter and Sarah Howesman have built a solid friendship working together in what can still be seen as a male-dominated sector. Growing up on the family farm in Hertfordshire, Ms Hunter developed a passion for grain farming and now manages crop activities and diversification on the farm as well as assisting with harvest. Ms Hunter, aged 26, said farming was all she had ever known.

Passion

“I’ve always loved being in a farm setting and feel extremely privileged to play a part in the supply of a life-sustaining commodity,” she said. “It’s a perfectly natural way of life to me and I can’t imagine working anywhere else. Grain farming is in my blood; it’s the future and where I’m meant to be”. But when her father learned she wanted to follow in the family footsteps, he tried to dissuade her. “Dad wasn’t sure if it was the right career path for me and wanted to be sure I wasn’t making a mistake, but this made me even more determined to join the business as I couldn’t stand by watching him take the pressure of running everything almost single-handed,” she said. She added there was no way he could have deterred her as she loves every day. As part of her role she facilitates the sale of grain to the farm’s agricultural commodities client Cefetra which then sells them on to customers across Europe. And building a relationship with the buyer led her to meet Ms Howseman, her opposite number in Cefetra’s Lincolnshire office. “We share so much in common, including a mutual passion for grain growing – the likelihood of which is probably very low,” Ms Hunter said. “Whilst I love my family, working with men all the time can get a bit intense and nothing beats a girly laugh and work banter with another female in a male-dominated industry.” Ms Howseman, based in Lincolnshire deals directly with the firm’s grower customers. And she said before she met Ms Hunter there was no one who understood her love for her job.

Family farm

“Being a farm manager is in the family – both my granddads and dad managed farms and like Eveey, I can’t imagine doing anything else and want to be part of the future of sustainable farming,” she added. Ms Howseman, who is studying at Harper Adams University and works at Cefetra during holidays, said they had a great relationship both to support and learn from each other as well as discussing the intricacies of grain farming. “It’s like going forward together in a partnership which not only complements our own mental well being, but enhances the relationship between our respective businesses,” she said. Both women agreed there was much more opportunity in farming than driving a tractor or milking cows in an industry such as technology and science. And with International Women’s Day today (March 8) Ms Hunter believed it was the ideal time to encourage women to consider farming as a serious career option. “Brexit has given us more opportunities to develop and support UK and local farming and agriculture communities, and what we sell is unique. “We’ve moved forward a lot and farming offers a highly rewarding future, mentorship and lifelong inspirational friendships for women worldwide. I wouldn’t be without Sarah for all the grain in the world.”

Originally published in Farmers Guardian.

Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties. How you can bounce back when faced with adversity in way that is better than to be expected. Stress can be beneficial, with adrenaline allowing you to work through a situation to the best of your abilities, but resilience is needed when we face existential challenges. This practical workshop allowed attendees to learn, share their thoughts and ask questions around how to become more resilient.

To begin, Caroline explained that resilience can fall into four categories: physical, mental, emotional and societal. When our attendees were asked in which areas they would like to improve their resilience, challenges that were raised included becoming more resilient in the workplace, resilience in the face of failure, emotional and societal resilience in conflict situations, health related resilience, and resilience when external influences impact moods. The COVID-19 pandemic has meant we are all facing new challenges and many mentioned that improving resilience to cope with some of these developments would also be beneficial.

Caroline went on to explain how we can all create learning strategies to become more resilient. People react to adversity in different ways and these responses could be split into five groups: rubber ball, glass, boomerang, sieve, or a sponge. If you are a rubber ball then like this object you can absorb the energy from a challenging situation, bounce and by doing this and let go of the energy. If you are a glass, then you shatter and break when faced with adversity. People who are boomerangs take the stress and anxiety and pass it on to somebody else. If you are a sieve then the adversity does not phase you, it just goes right through you. Finally sponges absorb the problems and bottle them up until saturated. These categories allowed all attendees to think about how we deal with different problems and how we could adapt our behaviours to become more robust.

To build resilience Caroline explained that when faced with a challenge you should consider “what is the worst thing that can happen?” followed by “what is the best thing that can happen?” and then “what is the most likely thing to happen?”. She also highlighted the importance of thinking things through to assess why you are behaving in the way you are in a given situation. We were also provided with some practical tips to adopt when dealing with an issue that might require resilience. Firstly, to try to stay in the real world rather than going to the ‘disaster place’ in our heads. Then, try to understand what is causing the reaction we are displaying. We also should prepare a plan B, remain optimistic and importantly be kind to ourselves.

After this thought-provoking introduction, the attendees split into groups to share their thoughts further. When feeding back to the main group in the session summary, an interesting question that arose was how vulnerable we could actually be in meetings to ensure that we share the load, but not to an extent that it would impact our careers negatively. Groups also asked about the impact of social media and how it contributed to the issue of resilience by adding additional pressure on people’s lives.

As an attendee, I felt really inspired to try to change my behaviours and think about situations slightly differently. I can safely say I am well on the way towards becoming rubber ball I want to be.

For more information about Caroline Jackson Levy and her work you can contact her at [email protected]

For the full calendar of events for WFA Community, have a look at our Community page.

Agri-businesses are becoming more inclusive in terms of gender and racial diversity, but while awareness of equality in the sector is growing there is still more to be done, a new survey has found.

The Women in Food and Agriculture (WFA) survey, which attracted 3,200 responses from 80 countries, aimed to assess how the events and challenges brought by 2020 impacted the industry and asked where agribusinesses across the globe are measuring on the scale of gender and diversity.

While 64 per cent of respondents believe their organisation is becoming more inclusive, the figure has dropped from 79 per cent in the 2019 survey. Olympia Theocharous, head of content for WFA, said: “We suspect these figures demonstrate a feeling that our industry could do so much more to address issues associated with inequality, but it is positive that there is more awareness of the issues.

“We at WFA hope to support companies and the wider sector in making positive steps in this area.” After a year like no other when home working became the norm, the survey, launched in partnership with Alltech, also gauged how the pandemic impacted on companies’ approach to flexible working and the potential impact on women’s careers going forward.

A quarter of women working in food and agriculture (26 per cent) are the primary caregiver for children the majority of the time while working from home, as opposed to just 8 per cent of men.

When asked if their organisation offered flexible work hours before Covid-19, 46 per cent said yes, 28 per cent said no and 26 per cent said sometimes.

Fifty-four per cent of organisations were offering flexible working hours before Covid-19, as opposed to just two in five larger companies.

When asked if they were currently working from home due to Covid-19, over half of respondents said yes (52 per cent).

Asked how the pandemic had affected their mental health, 28 per cent of men agreed, while the figure rose to 48 per cent for women.

On equal pay, 82 per cent of men and 54 per cent of women agreed that men and women are compensated equally for similar roles at their organisation.

Asked about career advancement, men are significantly more likely (66 per cent) to believe there are opportunities within their organisation for advancement, compared to 52 per cent of women.

While over two-thirds of men (71 per cent) agree women are well represented in the leadership of their organisation, only about half of women agree (52 per cent).

When compared to WFA’s 2019 survey results, 65 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women agreed, showing some positive change.

Ms Theocharous added: “This campaign is not about giving women special treatment or an unfair advantage, but about ensuring we have the facts and skills required to create a level playing field in the food and agriculture industry.”

More on the barriers faced by women

Over two-thirds of women agree (70 per cent) that a lack of female role models is a barrier faced by women in the industry, as opposed to just half of men (49 per cent).

Over two-thirds of women agree (68 per cent) that gender bias in the workplace is a barrier faced by women in the industry, as opposed to less than two in five men (38 per cent).

Twice as many women as men agree that lack of equal pay for the same skill and experience is a barrier faced by women in the industry (60 per cent versus 30 per cent).

Women in Food and Agriculture (WFA) is a global movement which promotes gender diversity across the agribusiness supply chain.

Read the full article here

10 Feb 21 – The results of the 2020 Women in Food and Agriculture Survey have been released and members of the WFA community joined an online session discussing how the findings could be used to benefit the entire industry.

The session started on the WFA Community Platform with an interview featuring Lauren Dozier from Alltech, partner of the Women in Food and Agriculture Survey. The conversation gave an excellent overview of the most interesting findings and was followed by members of the community joining an interactive session to discuss how to use the results to improve gender equality in our sector.

Following the discussion, small groups came together to share ideas. The first area discussed focused on the obstacles women face in our industry. Some of the biggest barriers to emerge in the 2020 survey were the lack of female role models, lack of mentors and gender bias in the workplace, and the contributors debated on how we as an industry could address some of these. It was raised that although some areas of food and ag are more diverse that others, many companies have more male leaders. Women who had been supported by male mentors in the past, shared how much value they brought and how they benefited from a different perspective. However, it was raised that other people’s impressions might be a problem, as for instance, it wouldn’t necessarily be well perceived when a male senior manager takes a younger female out to lunch, compared to a male senior manager taking out a younger male. This behaviour can even sometimes go against company policies. The groups made the practical recommendation that using virtual meetings where senior men can mentor women in a safe space, would be a solution to this, especially since we are now well accustomed to this.

In a post-COVID world where we have had to get used to video calls, this approach would also mean the meeting could even be recorded to make it more comfortable for everyone involved. Another practical suggestion was that individual companies should put together mentoring lists, containing people from in and outside of the business who could offer support to more junior members of staff.

Throughout the survey WFA analysed the different views of men and women. We noticed that women had a more negative perception than men on aspects of our industry that impact gender equality. It was felt that one area we could address as an industry is the issue of pay, as we saw that 82 percent of men agreed that men and women are compensated equally for similar roles at their organisation, but only 54 percent of women agreed. The group felt the key here was transparency, as this is the only way to change perceptions and give an accurate picture of what is happening in our sector. The group discussed how we could encourage companies in food and ag to publish gender pay gap data to reassure members of their organisations that they are being paid fairly. This also would allow organisations to see if there were differences between male and female pay and give them the opportunity to implement changes to address any discrepancies.

One clear figure that emerged in the survey was the difference in the average number of promotions that men and women had in their current organisation, with men experiencing an average of 1.39 and women 0.97. In trying to understand what was behind the figures, the group discussed the differences we have all observed when the opportunities to promote oneself arises. It was felt that many women were just not as vocal or confident when talking about their own abilities as men. This brought in the theme of ‘Imposter Syndrome’ and how we as industry need to find a way to culture that feeling of self-belief amongst women in food and agriculture. It was suggested we could all play our part by making a commitment to support others by consciously giving out praise for excellent work. The group felt this behaviour could give individuals the belief to start going for promotions and help encourage colleagues who might not be as confident.

The final area we discussed was about inclusivity in the sector. In 2019 we saw that 77% of respondents thought the industry as a whole is becoming more inclusive, but this year that figure dropped to 62%. When thinking about what was responsible for this decrease our contributors felt there may be there is some complacency in the industry. Those who have been working in the industry for 10 or 20 years may be happier than younger employees, because improvements have been substantial since they entered the industry. However, as an increasing number of young people contribute to surveys like this and join our discussions, maybe it this decrease highlighting the work we still have to do in the perspective of younger generations. New joiners tend to join organisations with totally different perceptions of what working life should be and understanding this dissatisfaction will help us to improve gender equality across the industry.

So what can we take from this insightful session? We need to break down any barriers there may be for men mentoring women and virtual meetings may help that. The WFA campaign and members of its community should be actively encouraging companies to start calculating and sharing with employees their gender pay gap data, to give members of staff a full picture of how fair the industry truly is. We need to counteract feelings of imposter syndrome to get women promoted as readily as men, and that starts with individuals boosting confidence of others by praising excellent work more readily. Finally, those who have been in the industry for a few years must not get complacent. There is more to be done and we can act now to make the food and agriculture industry more inclusive.

At WFA we view our Digital Festival as an opportunity to reach people who wouldn’t normally be able to attend our show!

Running an online event of this size takes a huge amount of time, money and dedication, so we still have to charge a modest fee to attend. However we understand that even that is too much for some people.

Do you know a customer, a supplier, a farmer or a student who you think would enjoy this content and gain value from the networking sessions? This week we’re offering you the chance to gift a ticket to someone who could not or would not buy their own ticket.

• We’ll match any ticket purchased with a free ticket for someone who needs it
• The tickets cannot be for colleagues / people in your company
• If the person you nominate already has a ticket, we’ll offer them the opportunity to pass the ticket on to someone else
• Please nominate someone who will benefit from the opportunity to connect with our community

Whether it’s due to geography, corporate policy or simply money, we know lots of people wanted to join us in Amsterdam last year but couldn’t. We also know how much the community benefits from hearing from new people with different ideas and perspectives.

Women in Food and Agriculture will be rounding off the year with a Digital Festival from the 8^th to 9th December 2020. This online global event will address how to make a measurable positive impact on gender diversity in food and agriculture, while also inspiring attendees to transform our industry for the better. 

The WFA Digital Festival will continue to develop the movement that began at last year’s summit and provide new attendees with the opportunity to become part of a community driving forward positive change. Over two days attendees will gain access to live and on-demand sessions, alongside virtual roundtables and networking sessions; all within the WFA virtual community platform. Featuring thought leaders from across the industry providing unmissable insights and inspirational stories, this event will allow attendees to reflect on what has been a disruption filled year and set out their plans for the year to come, all while making new connections from within the WFA community.

The event has been designed by the industry, for the industry. With the help of our WFA advisory board, the event will feature valuable content for all professionals within the food and agriculture value chain, from large multinational agribusinesses to independent consultants and farmers. One thing all attendees will have in common is the desire and drive to make a positive impact on our industry in terms of strategic change and diversity & inclusion.

Olympia Theocharous, Head of Content for WFA said: “The food and ag sector is tasked with the enormous responsibility of feeding the planet. The WFA Digital Festival will build on the 2019 Summit to bring together the world’s leading agribusinesses and food companies to share insight, challenge, inspire and act on gender diversity.”

“We cannot wait to welcome you to what promises to be a fantastic online experience on 8 & 9 December, to be the change you want to see in the food and agriculture industry.”

Speaking at last year’s summit, Jackie Applegate of Bayer said ‘It’s always inspiring to be together with women leading the way in the food and agricultural industries! Together, with a united voice, we can do so much more for our industry!”

Women in Food & Agriculture unites the prominent players of the industry, creating a community that enables different sectors within the supply chain to learn from each other, build strategic relationships and pinpoint partnership opportunities. It’s not a conversation about men versus women, instead, it focuses on how we can help each other as women in leadership to advance our sector and promote diversity.

Understanding the reasons behind diversity issues in the agribusiness industry is key in overcoming them. Although we are seeing more diversity and inclusion in the industry, there is still a visible lack of women in the boardroom and in other high-ranking positions.

We spoke to Vesselina Shaleva, Deputy General Counsel at Bunge for Europe and Asia, and member of the WFA Advisory Board to understand more about the diversity issues faced in the industry and what companies like Bunge are doing to ensure a more diverse and inclusive environment.

[WFA] To start it would be great if you could tell our readers a bit about your career background and how you came to sit in your role?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “I graduated from law school in Bulgaria in 1998 and joined the Ministry of Justice immediately after. At the time Bulgaria was negotiating to become a member of the EU, so I was rather excited to be part of the process. In 2000, I earned a Fulbright scholarship to complete an LL.M program at Georgetown University Law School, and the time I spent in Washington, DC had a profound impact on my career development and aspirations. When I returned to Bulgaria I joined DGKV, one of the biggest law firms in Bulgaria, where as a young associate I had the incredible opportunity to work on major privatization and post-privatization transactions that were taking place in the early 2000s. In 2005 I joined Bunge in Geneva to focus primarily on its business in Eastern Europe and Russia and in 2010 I took over as General Counsel for Europe, Middle East, & Africa (EMEA), a role that later expanded to cover also Asia.”

[WFA] With your diverse background operating in the food and ag industry and outside it, do you think your gender impacted your career path in any way?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “I do not think that my gender has had a significant impact on my career or determined my professional growth. I grew up surrounded by working women and I never thought that my gender could jeopardize my professional career. However moving in-house to a commodity trading company, I started to realize that I was often the only woman in the room. I found networking and socializing were challenging at times. It was a new situation both for me and probably other women in similar positions to mine to which we had to adapt.”

[WFA] Thinking specifically about our industry, why do you think we have fewer women than men at many levels within the food and agriculture sector?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “I certainly cannot speak on behalf of the entire food and agriculture industry but based on my experience at Bunge, women are well represented at the mid-management levels, but the bigger challenge is to improve the representation of women at senior levels. In my view, traditionally agribusiness has been touted as a ‘male’ industry. In particular, the trading community has been closely-knit, often influenced by networking and contacts and that might have made it harder for women to penetrate this sector and gain insider status.”

“In addition, I believe there are unconscious biases towards women such as customers’ preference to deal with men, and the thought that pressure, competition, and intense travel schedules in trading were challenging for women with families. Regardless of the significant industry changes over the past years, the percentage of women on the trading floor continues to be low. The industry has to reckon with lingering conscious and unconscious biases, raise awareness, and openly face them to continue to advance towards diversity. We also have to recognize that significant strides were made as a result of which today we find ourselves in a more inclusive environment that offers women opportunities for a career path in food and agribusiness.”

[WFA] You mention that we an area we need to focus on is women moving into senior roles. What do you think are the main barriers here?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “More than barriers, I would say that there is a need to work on a robust talent pipeline to impact the presence of women at higher levels. We need more women at entry and mid-management levels so that more can make it to the top, especially in core business positions. Sometimes it can be easier to hire from outside of the industry for certain roles but having good knowledge of the business is always beneficial and a sine qua non for a successful business leader. To see more women at the leadership level, we need to work harder to make agribusiness an appealing and attractive option for women at entry levels, then retain them as they advance in their professional careers.”

[WFA] What will happen if we do not act now? How do you think having fewer women across businesses impacts our sector?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “Our sector is exposed to the same challenges and competitive pressures as most other businesses – we all need to adapt and evolve to be sustainable. Research has shown that the case for diversity is a predominantly business case. In other words, the industry will miss out on the benefits of having a gender-diverse workforce. First, gender diverse businesses tap into the entire talent pool available on the market being able to attract and retain professionals of all genders. Second, such companies tend to outperform their peers by benefitting from diverse viewpoints, ideas, and market insights. Last, gender diversity enhances the company pride and reputation and enables it to better serve today’s customer base, which is increasingly diverse.”

[WFA] I think the benefits are clear but it is also evident that action is vital for our industry. What are you doing at Bunge to address this issue and balance gender diversity at all levels?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “Different initiatives and employee resource groups inside Bunge have worked in recent years to raise awareness around diversity topics, make data more transparent, and promote some specific targets in certain issues. We are conscious we are in an early stage of a journey with long term objectives.”

“We make diversity data visible to our management by level and we have specific goals to increase the percentage of women leaders in higher management levels since it is where we see gender balance decreasing. However, success will not come if we only tie this topic to bonuses, KPIs, or quotas. At Bunge, we believe diversity must be embedded in our culture and that is where we are focusing now. The work around culture involves our top leadership and aims for a more global approach to diversity. It is important to raise awareness of unconscious bias within the company and among managers, making the uncomfortable conversation comfortable, and this will be part of the focus of the culture task force we are about to start. Having biases is natural, human, but opening our eyes and acknowledging them is key to move forward.”

[WFA] It is clear at Bunge you are putting in place the measures needed to start making a positive change. Is there anything we could do as an entire sector to address this problem?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “As an industry we have the responsibility to raise awareness of the possibilities this amazing industry has to offer to everyone, independent of gender. Certain areas or functions have indeed been more male-dominated in the past, and I believe we are all doing things to change that or to better promote our professional opportunities for all. The same way engineering was traditionally a male profession, we see nowadays more female engineers joining and succeeding at industrial operations positions in our processing facilities. Yet, gender balance is not frequent in certain professions along all our supply chain. As an industry, we have a role to play to ensure all types of careers in our companies are appealing to all and contribute to achieving higher diversity along all the supply chain. Again, I believe we have to promote gender balance not only as a “women’s issue” with initiatives raised and led by women. A collective effort is required and needs to be driven by all.”

[WFA] Thinking specifically about women in leadership, what processes could be implemented to ensure we do not lose women along their career journeys?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “We need to make more visible all the great career opportunities that an industry like ours has for women. Not to mention being part of a company that plays an essential role and whose purpose is to feed and fuel the world.”

“Having strong talent management and career development programs should trigger women’s interest to continue to look for professional growth in higher levels in the industry. Also creating and building a culture that focuses on taking unconscious bias out of the system will set the foundation to overcome the bias in the long run. Consistent deliberate discussion around diversity issues should be incorporated in all meetings, reviews, team training, and planning, making everyone part of the conversations, regardless of gender.”

 

[WFA] Finally can you say a few words about why you think the WFA campaign is so important?

[Vesselina Shaleva] “As mentioned earlier, the WFA campaign is a fantastic opportunity to keep the diversity conversation going both at an industry level and with our people and organization. Being intentional is at the core of boosting diversity in the basis of the WFA campaign, the intention is loud and clear. Moreover, it has created an open space for us to learn from each other, exchange ideas as well as identify common root causes and best practices based on the experience of our counterparts, and I think that is very important because collective thinking is always an empowering tool. Leading change in this topic and moving the needle together will impact not only in our companies but society as a whole.”

Hear from representatives from Bunge and other leading food and agribusiness stakeholders at the WFA Digital Fesitval.

Survey to probe impact of Covid-19 and where agribusinesses across the globe are measuring on the scale of gender and diversity

Has Covid-19 acted as a catalyst for change in your business? Has it provided the reset moment your company needed to introduce more flexibility or even adapt to become more resilient?

A new international survey launched today (October 28) by AgriBriefing’s Women in Food and Agriculture, which promotes gender diversity across the agribusiness supply chain, will act as a barometer to track change over the last 12 months. The 2019 WFA survey revealed several barriers for women in agriculture but reflected an optimistic outlook. As 2020 ushered in unprecedented challenges for the industry, how has gender equality been impacted?

After a year like no other when home working has become the norm, the survey will assess how this has impacted on companies’ approach to flexible working and the potential impact on women’s careers going forward.

Recent studies have highlighted the positive impact of diversity and inclusivity on business performance, with a recent survey by McKinsey* showing firms with a more diverse executive team and board are more likely to see better than average profits. This shows that the agri-food industry must act to understand the scale of inequality and for companies to boost diversity and inclusion to maximise results.

AgriBriefing’s Group Events Director Elisabeth Mork-Eidem said: “The mission of Women in Food and Agriculture is to make a measurable positive impact on gender diversity across the global food and agricultural industry. This annual survey in partnership with Alltech plays a crucial role in tracking how the industry is doing in driving diversity and inclusivity.”

“In order to achieve a Planet of Plenty^TM, it is more important than ever for the agri-food industry to perform at its full potential.” Said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “Human ingenuity is our Earth’s most valuable resource, and a diverse workforce is essential to building a more sustainable future. We are excited to once again partner with AgriBriefing in supporting a more equitable environment for women.”

The survey, available in six languages, will also take a deep dive into sexism in the workplace, career progression, opportunities for young people and impacts on mental health.

Results will be announced in a full report in January 2021 with some preliminary findings presented at the Women in Food and Agriculture Digital Festival which takes place on Tuesday December 8 and Wednesday December 9, 2020.

Take part in the survey here.