How Isabelle Thibault is embracing sustainability

This is part of a series of profiles of young egg farmers. They are all young leaders taking part in Egg Farmers of Canada’s national young farmer program, an initiative designed to prepare the next generation of industry leaders.

Isabelle Thibault

Drummondville, Quebec

Isabelle Thibault didn’t grow up on the farm, but she grew up close enough to understand what was being built there. It was that distance, it turns out, that would shape her future role.

Isabelle is the third generation of her family’s business in Quebec, where her grandfather began farming in the 1960s after being given land and a small poultry farm from his own father. Step by step, he built it into what is now Groupe Inovo, spanning egg production, feed manufacturing and fertilizer, with operations and partnerships across multiple provinces.

The piece that would define Isabelle’s path came during a fateful trip to Europe her mother took back in 1995.

“She saw a unique technology where you could dry manure directly on the farm,” Isabelle says. “She brought that idea back and created her own company.”

That company became Acti-Sol, a fertilizer business built on a simple but overlooked idea: what if the byproduct of egg farming wasn’t waste at all?

“Before, manure didn’t really have value,” Isabelle says. “Now we dry it, transform it and give it a second life.”

Today, she works across the family’s operations at Groupe Inovo, but much of her focus is on helping tell the story of how hen manure can become a natural, usable fertilizer for gardeners and farmers alike.

“I handle communications and marketing, and a large part of my time is dedicated to Acti-Sol,” she says. “It’s about showing people how we can take something natural and make it useful again.”

The process itself is precise and efficient. Manure is collected directly from the barns and dried within 24 to 48 hours using the heat harnessed from laying hens—no additional energy required. From there, it’s processed into natural fertilizers certified for organic farming, while preserving nutrients and reducing environmental impact.

“It’s a circular system,” she says. “Nothing is lost. What comes from the hens goes back into the soil.”

That idea of closing the loop using circular economy thinking is what resonates most with her.

“We’re feeding people, but we’re also feeding the soil,” she says. “It fits with our values and our mission.”

The family business has grown well beyond its original footprint. Isabelle’s mother and uncle, Claudia and Jean-Philippe Désilets, now lead the company, each overseeing different parts of a business that employs dozens of employees and produces millions of eggs each year.

For Isabelle, stepping into that environment wasn’t immediate. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing at Université Laval, then spent a year at a communications agency building experience outside the family business.

“The goal was to learn somewhere else first,” she says. “To bring new ideas back.”

Since she joined Groupe Inovo two years ago, her role has been less about production and more about perspective—connecting what happens on the farm to the people who ultimately use the products.

“A lot of people don’t realize how much goes into it,” she says. “Or how much potential there is in something as simple as manure.”

That potential continues to expand. In 2018, the company added a new line of fertilizers made from sustainably harvested North Atlantic seaweed and hydrolyzed fish—complementary products designed to support soil health alongside their hen manure-based fertilizers.

“It’s like a toolbox,” she says. “Different products for different needs, but all working toward the same goal.”

It’s a goal that is rooted in something both practical and forward-looking, she says.

“I think there’s a lot of room to grow in this industry,” she says. “It’s creative, it’s evolving and there’s so much you can build around it.”

While Isabelle is still early in her career, she’s already looking ahead to deeper involvement, greater responsibility, and eventually, a larger role in leading the business.

For now, she’s focused on learning—through the Egg Farmers of Canada’s national young farmer program, through her daily work and through the people around her.

“It’s a great way to understand the industry quickly,” she says. “Not just from books, but from others who are passionate about what they do.

“Egg production has a relatively low environmental impact. And what we’re doing with fertilizers shows that we can go even further.”

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