"New Generation"

19 January 2026

3 mins

There's no udder way.

As Canadian dairy farmers fret over trade talks between Mark Carney and the US, Les Producteurs de lait du Québec and director Vincent René-Lortie focus on a farm run by the Girard family. For years, father and daughter worked as a team indoors and outdoors; when the work was done, she had total freedom—the kind with proper fresh air and green, green grass as far as the eye can see.

The older she gets, however, the more restless she becomes. That 5am alarm lost its charm a long time ago, as has the farm that once fired her imagination. How can it compete with the skate park, the garage band, the road trip, and sundry other opportunities to express herself? It's a tough pill for her dad to swallow, but when university and the big city call, she answers.

Yet life surrounded by concrete instead of cattle and towers instead of trees is not all it's cracked up to be. The contrast is rammed home when she runs past a solitary tree, desperate to feel like she did way back when—to make matters worse, her dad's taken to hospital. What's a farmer's daughter to do, eh?

She goes back to her roots, of course, and Les Producteurs de lait du Québec hopes many others follow her example. It's clear that the province cares about the future of agriculture, and René-Lortie helps make it look like an attractive, honourable proposition—we just hope no else has to be hospitalised to help seal the deal.

Canada

Milk