The new Ag for Life trailer is designed to educate the public about the advances that have been made in Alta. agriculture
EDMONTON — As Wren Harder-Tessier and his mom Ann-Marie Harder walk through an agriculture education trailer, a few things surprise the pair.
“I didn’t know ostriches and emus were farmed commercially,” said Harder-Tessier, who had seen the large birds at fairs.
His mom also was surprised that some of the sugar on her kitchen table may have come from Alberta sugar beets.
“I didn’t know sugar was from sugar beets. There is always new stuff to know,” said Harder while spending time in Ag for Life’s new mobile education trailer Know Your Food, which was parked at K-Days in Edmonton.
Agriculture has changed a lot since she grew up on a farm in the LaCrete, Alta., area in the 1960s, but Harder said she is happy to read about livestock traceability and the five freedoms of animal welfare.
“I very much appreciate that,” she said.
The mother and son read almost every panel in the new agriculture information trailer, which is designed to raise awareness about food and agriculture in Alberta.
Harder has just reread Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the 1960s-era book documenting some of the environmental damage caused by pesticide use. As she read the panels, Harder said the details of regulations and standards now followed by farmers is comforting but she still has nagging doubts about pesticide use in agriculture.
“I still wonder about pesticides and herbicides today. They still make me nervous,” she said.
It’s these kinds of discussions that Ag for Life chief executive officer Luree Williamson hopes to generate with the trailer.
“It is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate Alberta farmers and ranchers and raise awareness of how much we produce in this province,” said Williamson.
While not everyone walks through the trailer as thoroughly as Harder and her son, many are surprised at the variety of crops grown in Alberta.
“There have been a lot of ‘I didn’t know that’ moments, which is our goal,” she said.
“It has been fantastic. There have been people who live on the farm and come through and love it and are so excited to see we have this type of promotion available. We have city people who have never been on a farm and are learning and starting to understand.”
The trailer was built after the success of Ag for Life’s Farm Safety trailer that travelled to schools and fairs to promote farm safety. The Know Your Food trailer is also a learning classroom that will be taken to schools and other events to spur the conversation around agriculture in Alberta.
“It gives us a tool to launch a lot of programs and resources,” said Williamson.
The interactive trailer can be custom designed to work within the junior and senior high school curricula to emphasize the importance of agriculture to the province, she said.
