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
