The FarmOn Foundation is urging young farmers to show the public their farming reality through social media on Earth Day, April 22.
The Bashaw, Alta.-based group, which has 700 members around the world, wants farmers to post a photo or comment to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #FARMVOICES.
“I’m sick and tired of groups like PETA (People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals) trying to tell my story,” said Sarah Wray, a foundation board member. “It’s our turn.”
Jackie Northey, FarmOn executive director, said the organization began in 2008 as an online educational website for young farmers.
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The group felt that the public didn’t know much about farming, so decided to tell its side to counter stories about animal abuse and chemicals in crops.
Northey, 55, who is part of what she calls “the parent generation,” wants to work with young farmers in their 20s to deal with the demographic challenges facing them.
“The generation that owns the land now still must retire,” she said.
In the next decade, $50 billion in agricultural assets will be transferred to the young farmers in Canada, said Northey.
The public doesn’t recognize the number of mortgages and loans that represents or the mentoring that is needed.
Wray said 70 percent of young farmers work more than 40 hours a week in off-farm jobs to support their operations.
“When did feeding the world become a pastime?” she said in a news release.
“Nobody would expect a restaurant owner to run his establishment, not even break even, and then take a second job in the oilfield just to make ends meet for his family. But this is exactly what is being expected of farmers.”
Northey hopes the Farm Voices project can raise awareness of farming but also generate support and cash by having the public buy items like seeds through the foundation’s website at www.farmon.com.
She said the foundation would like to raise money to help pay for its members to gain agricultural scholarships, attend short business courses or be coached by experienced farmers.
