FARM24 - "Wheat" Pete Johnson travels province-wide to preach farming's stories
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Peter Johnson is a man of many hats. He’s both the Resident Agronomist for RealAgriculture and the Environmental Advocate for the Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario. He’s also a farmer, a researcher, a podcaster and a crop consultant. But most people just know him as “Wheat Pete”.
Following one of his frequent public speaking engagements, the gregarious gentleman was kind enough to sit down with The Citizen at the Stanley Community Centre in Varna for a quick discussion about what he loves about being an agricultural advocate.
“Agriculture is so diverse,” he began, “and it’s exciting! People think that farming is kind of dull, but that’s so far from the truth! It’s a biological system, and there’s so much we don’t know! To be a part of the incredible world of agriculture, to try to drive something forward that has so many nuances that we don’t understand, and so many interrelationships that we’re still discovering, to try and help people to do that well, and to do that better - how could you not love it?”
“Wheat Pete” is also drawn towards the world of performance. “A lot of people are absolutely petrified of speaking in public - I’m the reverse! It just pumps me up, to be able to interact with people!” It’s clear from the energetic chatter amongst the crowd after his community centre talk that “Wheat Pete’s” enthusiasm tends to be infectious. “I bring the science, and I bring the enthusiasm, and I try to get growers excited about what they’re doing, and I try to help them do it better, and that’s what I love about being an educator - leaving a room more excited than when they came in.”
He also values all forms of engagement from his audiences. “I want the questions, because questions mean that the person is thinking about what you said, which means they’re engaged, so you can have an intelligent discussion. And sometimes you agree to disagree - that’s ok!”
Does “Wheat Pete” have any thoughts about crop trends? Absolutely! “Yields continue to go up, and that means we need to support those yields with inputs, but those inputs cannot have negative environmental consequences. So it’s this balance. And how do we do that better? I’m a big ‘more yield’ guy - I’m ‘Wheat Pete’! I want higher wheat yields. I want higher corn yields. And we’re seeing those! But we’re also seeing algal bloom in Lake Erie. We’re seeing a ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico. We have to sort out how we mitigate those consequences. We do have some environmental concerns, but it astounds me how the focus is always on the negative, when the overall story is hugely positive!”
Despite the name, “Wheat Pete” doesn’t just talk about wheat - he’s passionate about all things agricultural! “Wheat Pete” first took on the mantle of his rhyming moniker during the 30 years he spent with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, when he was the Provincial Cereal Specialist. “The Cereal Specialist oversees wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, and spelt. Why buckwheat? Nobody ever knows! Regardless, when Twitter came along, everybody needed a Twitter handle, and my first name has always been Peter, but ‘Wheat Peter’ just doesn’t work. ‘Wheat Pete?’ Now that works!”
These days, podcasting is a pretty popular way to have your say, but way back before the dawn of the new millennium, there were a lot fewer ways to get the word out about wheat and other agricultural wonders. “Back in 1991, all I had to work with was a voicemail system attached to my phone. The way things evolved, I got up in the morning one day and they said the forecast for the day was 32 degrees Celsius. And then I was out for the day, and I put on my voicemail system - ‘Peter Johnson, out for the day! Don’t spray Dicamba today, it’s too hot.’ That’s where it started. It wasn’t really a podcast, but we didn’t have podcasts then. And so that evolved into what we called ‘CropLine’ at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. CropLine was my baby.” For many years before rural internet was commonplace, the CropLine Hotline was a way for farmers to ask questions and convey important information and thoughts to the Ministry. The hotline evolved into the CropLine Podcast, which remained in operation until 2015. Wheat Pete’s current podcast, Wheat Pete’s Word, continues to field questions from farmers on a wide range of subjects.
People ask “Wheat Pete” all the time what his predictions are for the coming growing season, but he doesn’t think that’s an easy question to answer. “The problem is, right now you’d say it’s a warm winter, so we should have an early start to the season. An early start to the season, in general terms, should be a good thing. Well, guess what? It could start raining tomorrow, and it could keep raining until June, and we could have nothing in the ground, and the winter wheat crop could be half drowned out. So my only expectations are that it’s going to be different, that it’s going to be challenging, that it’s going to be fun, and that we’re going to make the best darn crop we can out of it!”