With a new CEO and a vision of “getting more acres of nature in the ground,” ALUS Canada boosted its presence significantly this year at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show.
“This is the first time that ALUS national has had a presence at the Show,” confirmed the organization’s Director of Partnerships Jill Weaver, speaking to Farmtario on Wednesday at the organization’s booth.
The environmental conservation activities of ALUS, originally known by its longer form “Alternative Land Use Services,” are governed through local Project Advisory Committees (PACs) that are created after farmer/landowners approach the national organization with an interest in having them co-ordinate funding of on-farm initiatives.
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Over the three days of the farm show, stickers were added to a map of southern Ontario at the booth – green stickers by farmers already participating in ALUS projects overseen by one of the 10 PACs in the province; blue stickers by non-participating farmers from anywhere in Ontario who are interested in ALUS.
Weaver noted that ALUS Middlesex has had a booth at COFS for a few years but having additional personnel from across the country in attendance was “a great opportunity for ALUS national to support the work that ALUS Middlesex and the other local groups are doing.”
In April 2025, Jordan Sinclair — who was previously the vice-president of strategy for ALUS — took over as CEO from Norfolk County farmer Brian Gilvesy.
In the early 2000s, Gilvesy joined with a group of farmers in Manitoba to form ALUS and he served as the organization’s founding CEO.
