A Future Herd spectacular event on AI and agrifood

Building the
Open-Source Future
of Canadian Agrifood

A half-day gathering for people who care about where food, intelligence, and collective possibility meet.

OnlineDiscordHalf-dayFour sessions

Why gather

Canadian agrifood is changing quickly. New forms of intelligence are moving through the food system, from the farm and the field to processing, distribution, retail, and the places where food is shared and eaten.

Choices being made now about knowledge, technology, and who gets to shape them will stay with us for a long time. This gathering brings people into the middle of that change: farmers, food-chain workers, researchers, technologists, policy people, and others who care about Canadian agrifood.

We want to bring together the people whose knowledge and experience can help us understand what open-source AI means for Canadian agrifood.

The day

Who → What → How → When

Four ways of being together. One day to see what becomes possible.

Who

Power goes to those who show up ready to do something

Canadian agrifood is shaped by people who grow, move, study, govern, build, and care for food. This is where we meet one another—not as an audience, but as people whose experience and imagination belong at the centre of the conversation.

What do you see that others may be missing? What are you hoping to understand, change, or make possible? Bring your perspective, your questions, and your curiosity. The day begins with the people who show up ready to do something.

What

Intelligence begins on the farm and in the food

From farms and fields to food processing, distribution, shops, kitchens, and communities, intelligence is taking on new forms. We will travel across the food system and encounter the people already building, testing, questioning, and living with these changes.

What might become possible when knowledge, tools, and experience meet in the same room? We will look toward the horizon without losing sight of the ground beneath our feet—and ask what kind of future is worth building together.

How

The Future Is Something We Practise

Then the day takes a turn. A sudden crisis moves through the food system, and the familiar ways of coordinating, deciding, and carrying on are no longer enough. The situation is fictional, but the questions it raises are close at hand.

What would you notice first? Who would you turn to? What could people make possible for one another under pressure? We will step into the moment together and see where our collective imagination takes us.

When

The Plot Thickens

After the surprise and the speculation, we gather the threads. The day may have changed how we see the food system, the technologies moving through it, or the people alongside whom we are trying to understand it.

What stayed with you? What new possibility appeared? What question became too interesting to leave behind? We will share what we noticed and leave the conversation open to whatever comes next.

Come as you are

You do not need to be an expert.

Bring a question, an experience, a concern, a possibility—or simply a willingness to pay attention. Speak, listen, ask questions, share what you know, follow the conversation, or stay with it.

Join us to explore the changing relationship between food, intelligence, and collective possibility in Canada.