Ask a farmer what he grows and he’ll most likely name the commodity. Wheat. Barley. Cattle. Canola. Lentils. Hogs.
Farmers are generally a literal bunch. Maybe that’s part of the problem they have in getting others to understand the need for agricultural support.
In an essay provided to a number of Saskatchewan papers, University of Regina professors Sylvain Charlebois and Wolfgang Langenbacher added this perspective: “More than ever, farmers are part of the food industry and we need to recognize it. … Because of globalization, adding value to agricultural commodities is key. … A simple cucumber should be seen by farmers as a pickle in a jar, or a grain of mustard as a finished product on the shelf of the grocery store.”
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Adding value is indeed the new mantra of prairie agriculture but perhaps there is untapped value in something as simple as talking more often to consumers about food instead of commodities; the pickle instead of the cuke.
What do you grow, they ask. Bread. Beer. Filet mignon, you reply.
This idea isn’t a stretch for dairy and egg producers, whose production is used by consumers primarily in its original form. But it may have scope for grain, oilseed, pulse and livestock producers.
On today’s diversified farm, a tour could show consumers quite clearly how dollars allocated to farm programs have benefits ranging from the culinary to the sartorial.
Farmer/tour leader: Over here is the pasta field and beside it is where I grow the oatmeal for your breakfast cereal.
Consumer/tourist: What kind of pasta?
Farmer: Well, I planted Navigator but the end result could be linguine or penne. Hard to tell at this stage. Now, if you’ll step this way, I’ll show you where hummus comes from, right over here in my chickpea crop. That yellow field you can see over there is where I grow canola oil for your french fries. And that yellow field you passed a few miles before the farmyard is a condiment, mustard for your hotdogs.
Consumer: I’m hungry.
Farmer: That’s a common reaction here where people are surrounded by so much food. It just so happens I grow all the makings for a ham sandwich here on this farm.
Consumer: I’m cold.
Farmer: Well, let me show you the sock and sweater production facilities, otherwise known as sheep. Then maybe some of the echinacea processed from one of my other fields will keep the sniffles away.
Consumer: All this information is exhausting. I’m going home.
Farmer: Home? We’re just getting started. I haven’t shown you the field where linoleum comes from, or the leather production units or ….
