Food & Beverage

McCain's Global Marketing SVP on How Virtual Reality Is Helping Real-World Farms

Christine Kalvenes on sustainable farming and the new 'togetherness'

Christine Kalvenes is expanding McCain Foods into the metaverse.McCain Foods

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Farmers continue to face myriad existential challenges: climate change, regulation, rising costs and slimmer margins. And family farms are being driven out of business: According to 2022 Canadian census figures, the number of farms has fallen by 44% in the last 45 years, from 338,552 in 1976 to 189,874 farms in 2021.

Canada-based McCain Foods is doing its part to “reimagine” how its partners grow, harvest and sustain the brand’s staple product: potatoes. Perhaps surprisingly, this includes building a sustainable and successful farming experience in a virtual world.

“We’re