French farmers have a earned a reputation for their creative and aggressive protests.
Whether they’re spilling three million litres of milk next to a monastery or dumping manure outside a McDonald’s in Paris, French producers know how to grab the media’s attention.
However, an agricultural awareness campaign in Ontario is taking a friendlier approach.
“You could imagine that a giant yellow balloon flying in the air would attract a ton of attention … especially when it has a statement like Farmers Feed Cities on it,” says Jenny Van Rooy, campaign co-ordinator for the awareness program.
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“The media coverage generated by this project is outstanding.”
Hot air balloons are just one of the amiable methods that Van Rooy and her colleagues use to increase agricultural awareness in Ontario.
Farmers Feed Cities began five years ago and is funded by Ontario Grains and Oilseeds, a coalition of grain producers. The campaign’s mission is to remind Ontario residents that farming is important.
“(We’re) trying to let people know that agriculture is the second largest industry in Ontario, which is kind of a little known fact, but a very important one,” Van Rooy said.
The initiative didn’t start out to make city folk more aware of agriculture.
“Originally the campaign was focused solely on political lobbying,” Van Rooy said.
“If they (the public) are saying that the agriculture industry is important to them, then the government is going to pick up on it.… Eventually (we) will have more support and understanding from the government.”
The less political approach appealed to Jim Olmstead, marketing and sales manager for Hyland Seeds in Blenheim, Ont., which sponsors the hot air balloon.
“Sometimes you (can) take dramatic action to get a message across, but you can’t sustain that. You have to have firm roots behind you,” Olmstead said.
“We (food producers and processors) need support from the city folks. They outnumber us by a great amount.”
Van Rooy said the campaign is always looking for new ways to share information and promote the value of farming.
One idea is to team up with farmers’ markets and U-pick businesses.
“Going out there and driving (encouraging) the people from the urban areas into the country so they can get a first hand experience on the farm,” she said.
Van Rooy also participates in more conventional ways to spread the word about farming, such as speaking at conferences and seminars. She focuses on four themes when speaking to an urban audience – that “farm families are important to the way we eat, breathe, work and play.”
She said the eat part is obvious, but “breathe” refers to farmers’ contributions to the environment, “work” to job creation and “play” to the recreation opportunities in rural areas.
Van Rooy said it’s difficult to know if the four themes are resonating with urban residents. To find out, Farmers Feed Cities is initiating a survey this year to measure the public’s knowledge and interest in farming. The coalition plans to conduct the survey again in a few years to see if the campaign is making a difference.
However, Van Rooy said the campaign appears to be doing a good job building up its brand recognition, based on sales of hats, t-shirts, buttons and toques.
“I get merchandise orders from all over the world,” she said.
“From Europe and Australia … people are ordering this stuff on-line.”
