Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60YOUmight say Peter Entz is a busy guy. The assistant vice-president of seed and trade for Richardson International keeps a schedule that often sees him working long hours and travelling a great deal. His responsibilities take him across Western Canada. Germination recently caught up with Entz on a Friday in July, during the so-called busy season when he’s kept hopping. “Wednesday night we had a function with some key cus- tomers. It was at our Kelburn Farm south of Winnipeg, and it went until about 10 p.m. I caught a 5:40 a.m. flight to Saskatoon, drove north to view seed plots, got home late that same night, and then this morning I had to go back to the office and catch up on things. Now I’m back at our research farm going through plots and seeing how it’s all going,” he says, with a hint of fatigue in his voice. Entz, 56, is one of thousands employed in the Canadian seed industry — a sector known for being extremely busy during the annual planting and harvest. According to statistics from the Canadian Seed Trade Association, more than 14,000 Canadians are employed in the seed industry. Members of the seed industry strive for work-life balance. But can such a balance truly be achieved? Finding a Balance A study conducted by the George Morris Centre in 2013 esti- mated the total economic impact (direct and indirect) of the seed industry to be $5.61 billion. The sector’s estimated con- tribution to Canada’s GDP is about $2.5 billion. And it’s the people working in the industry that keep it all going, at a time when technology dominates our lives like never before and workplace stress is high. According to Statistics Canada, more than one in four Canadian workers describe their day-to-day lives as highly stressful. Persistently high levels of stress among such a large share of the workforce present a challenge to both employers and to the health care system, the research notes. People who identified their job or workplace as their main source of stress were well educated — almost three-quarters had a college or university education — and more than one- half held white-collar jobs in management, professional or technical occupations. Like seed. “Some parts of the year it is just very, very busy. There’s annual meetings, tours, a lot happening. In the ag industry, you only have 100 days in the summer to watch crops grow. A lot rides on that,” Entz adds. David Hansen agrees. He’s president and chief executive officer for Manitoba’s CANTERRA SEEDS. At 57, Hansen has been in the industry for several decades, and been forced to learn how to cope with stress during that time. “We’ve all had that experience of saying yes when we prob- ably should have said no, and you end up disappointing somebody or yourself,” Hansen says. “Seed is cyclical. I often say it gets busy around the first of January and stays that way until the end of December. “I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the fact is you’re always busy.” 12