October is Agriculture Month in Saskatchewan.
According to Clinton Monchuk, executive director of Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan, the goal of Agriculture Month is to celebrate the industry and be mindful of the fact that Saskatchewan’s farmers and ranchers produce a bounty of healthy, nutritious food.
“The big thing is celebrating agriculture,” said Monchuk, who also operates a mixed farm near Lanigan, Sask., producing eggs, cereal grains, pulses and oilseeds.
“We want to make sure that not only are the farmers, ranchers and the people who are involved in agriculture celebrating the industry that we’re involved in, but we also want to make sure that those who aren’t involved in agriculture have the opportunity to celebrate the bounty that is produced in this province….”
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It’s not a stretch to assume that every Thanksgiving meal that’s dished up in Canada will include a few food items that originated on a prairie farm, said Monchuk.
From the Thanksgiving turkey to the potatoes, the fresh vegetables, the wheat that’s used to make dinner rolls and stuffing, and the canola oil that goes into preparing the meal, Canadian farms produce an abundance of nutritious and delicious food, he said.
“A lot of time people don’t realize that, even right here in Saskatchewan” Monchuk says.
“They don’t realize that when they sit down for breakfast in the morning, there’s an extremely strong chance that the egg they’re eating came from a Saskatchewan farm, or the milk they’re drinking, or the beef that they’re eating is either going to be from Alberta or Saskatchewan.”
Agriculture organizations are eager to promote that fact and want to strengthen the connection between producers and consumers.
Monchuk said many people in Saskatchewan — including those who live in cities — still have ties to the farming industry. Many have brothers, sisters, aunts or uncles who are still farming or ranching.
Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan along with other farm organizations in the province are encouraging people to share their Ag Month messages using a pair of social media tags, #celebrateag and #mealsfromthefarm.
Maintaining a strong connection between the province’s farmers and ranchers and the province’s urban and non-farming population is important, he said.
It ensures that consumers have a better understanding about how food is produced and how principles such as animal welfare, food safety and environmental sustainability have been embraced by the industry.
“Any time you can actually have consumers talking about food, that level of knowledge grows and that level of wanting to know where their food comes from increases,” Monchuk said.
