Communication strategy planned

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Published: April 9, 2015

Canadian farmers who blog and reach out to consumers through Twitter are making a difference, says the head of Farm & Food Care Ontario.

However, money and national co-ordination will be needed to restore public trust in agriculture,

“There’s a lot of people communicating about different aspects of food and farming … but it’s about one species, or in one province or one product. We (farmers) are only two percent of the population. If you subdivide that by species, commodity or organization … you’re into the .001 percent of the (population),” said executive director Crystal Mackay.

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“If we’re going to have an impact and actually have a conversation with Canadians about how food is grown … we need to join together and have a united front.”

With that objective in mind, Farm & Food Care is finalizing plans for an initiative that will potentially lead agriculture communication efforts in Canada.

The organization created the Farm & Food Care Foundation a few years ago, which was a charitable organization with a mandate of public outreach, agriculture communication training and special projects.

“We have the structure but we haven’t done a lot of work nationally,” Mackay said from her office in Guelph, Ont.

robert.arnason@producer.com

About the author

Robert Arnason

Robert Arnason

Reporter

Robert Arnason is a reporter with The Western Producer and Glacier Farm Media. Since 2008, he has authored nearly 5,000 articles on anything and everything related to Canadian agriculture. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but Robert spent hundreds of days on his uncle’s cattle and grain farm in Manitoba. Robert started his journalism career in Winnipeg as a freelancer, then worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Nipawin, Saskatchewan and Fernie, BC. Robert has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba and a diploma in LSJF – Long Suffering Jets’ Fan.

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