Farm Management Canada recently held its annual Agricultural Excellence Conference where Steve Funk was announced as the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Wilson Loree Award. Now in its twenty-first year, the Award honours individuals or groups who have made an extraordinary contribution to advancing farm business management in Canada.

Funk retired earlier this year as director of MNP’s Agriculture Risk Management Resources where he helped producers and industry understand AgriStability and other business risk management (BRM) programs, how these programs impact and support farm financial viability, and how to optimize program coverages and payments within the context of an overall farm insurance risk management strategy. He oversaw the firm’s provision of AgriStability, AgriInvest, Ag Risk Management Projector and other risk management services, where he was instrumental in service design, development, implementation, training and monitoring of service delivery systems and processes.

Funk has been a leading authority on AgriStability and other BRM programs in Canada. Over the last 27 years of Steve’s career, he dedicated himself to helping government shape the current BRM framework. He has also educated hundreds of people across Canada on business risk management to create awareness and further educate the industry on BRM helping make a positive influence on many policy decisions related to BRM.

The cumulative dollar value he has single-handedly secured for Canadian Farmers would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars over his career.

More recently, Funk has been a strong supporter of financial fluency in Canadian agriculture. He has drawn a key correlation between a farmer’s level of financial fluency and his/her ability to understand risk management and support farmer mental health through risk management planning.

Source: Farm Management Canada December 11, 2023 release