“This vote represents an historic opportunity for Ontario’s dairy goat producers to unify under a structure that reflects their unique needs,” said Natalie Miltenburg, chair, Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative, in the release. “We are proud to have worked alongside industry partners to bring this proposal forward, ensuring our sector’s voice is heard and our future is secure.”

There has been a nearly 50 per cent growth in the productivity of the Ontario dairy goat industry since 2017, with 198 Grade A farms producing 60 million litres of milk a year.

Ontario dairy goat producers account for 90 per cent of Canada’s goat milk production. The proposed Dairy Goat Farmers of Ontario won’t manage production quotas or establish fixed pricing for goat milk, but will advocate for inclusion in provincial programs, support research and producer education, and promote consumer awareness.

It will focus on several key industry priorities, including regulatory and policy advocacy and representation; development of a provincial Business Risk Management; ongoing cost-of-production studies; research; producer education tools; and consumer education and outreach.

The initial consultation and the formal application petition show strong producer support for the DGFO, with additional consultation sessions through November and December to ensure producers are educated and have an opportunity to ask questions and share perspectives ahead of the anticipated Expression of Opinion vote.

“The Commission’s decision to conduct an Expression of Opinion Vote validates the hard work and vision of our producers,” said Jeff Smith, chair, Gay Lea Foods’ Goat Producer Advisory Committee, in the release. “A local board will provide the tools and stability needed to ensure long-term sustainability and growth for the dairy goat industry in Ontario.”

The post Ontario dairy goat producers move toward forming provincial board appeared first on Farmtario.

“After so many years of work and assembling a group of talented individuals, we’re being recognized as experts in the field of agriculture and food education,” said Kathryn Doan, AgScape board chair, at the provincial agri-food education organization’s recent annual meeting in Guelph.

“About 75 per cent of our programs are still for virtual activities, so not only does this mean that we can offer some stability to the educators that we work with, but it also means that we can reach farther than ever.”

Why it matters: AgScape provides factual curriculum-linked food literacy programs and resources for educators and students throughout Ontario.

In 2022, AgScape provided approximately 797,500 educational experiences to students across the province, including seven northern school districts serving diverse communities. The experiences would have been inaccessible previously due to high expense and travel costs.

“(That) is staggering,” said Mira Lyonblum, AgScape executive director. “Even more so when you stop to consider there is a real person and a real story attached to each and every one of those (student experiences).”

The lessons and resources housed within AgScape’s digital library were downloaded more than 45,000 times, reaching 2,600 classrooms, and those only represent the ones teachers report, said Lyonblum.

“We know that our resources get shared beyond that in other ways that we can’t even track. We held 16 virtual field trips, which reached over 1,100 classrooms, plus the recorded videos were accessed many times after the event.”

The Teacher Ambassador Program (TAP) reflects the evolution and growth of AgScape with development of new lessons and reach to include Grade 4 to Grade 12 students instead of a Grade 7 entry point.

The TAP program offers opportunities to deliver content outside conventional classrooms, hire more teacher ambassadors and streamline the program management system to enhance booking and administration, said Doan.

By continually assessing its resources, AgScape ensures program content and delivery reflects diverse cultures, communities and abilities.

“Camp AgScape welcomes new audiences like students who are homeschooled or on school breaks, along with those in classrooms,” Lyonblum said.

In 2022, the Think Ag Career Competition held 12 in-person events with 4,000 students hearing from 63 industry volunteers at activity stations that demonstrated agricultural career opportunities.

It’s easy to forget AgScape is a small team because of its impact numbers, said Lyonblum, but its success reflects the extraordinary flexibility demonstrated by the staff.

In March 2023, AgScape’s programs, resources and events reached more than 100,000 youths in 600 classrooms during the Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month through TAP, digital resource packages and teacher discovery kits, virtual field trips and events involving maple syrup production, beef farming, tractor dealerships and genomics.

“This small but mighty crew fields a daily deluge of emails from educators requesting our program, put together funding proposals which allow our resources to remain free, and in their extra time put on events like this (annual general meeting),” she said.

AgScape’s 2022 to 2025 strategic plan is to continue building partnerships and community, sustainability and excellence in agriculture and food education, said Doan.

“Our problem is not a lack of demand for our programs. On the contrary, we’re at the point where we can’t expand our programming further in an effective way without investment and making sure that our future is sustainable.”

By diversifying its support base, AgScape developed new membership packages and supporter levels, which helped its fiscal forecast despite the pandemic.

Doan said AgScape will build on the success of the strategic plan’s first year and extend its reach into school boards across the province.

“Our commitment to excellence in agriculture and food education allows us to prioritize adaptive innovation,” she said. “The wider we can spread the message that we need to take action in raising the next generation of leaders in agriculture and food, the better it is for all of us.”

The post AgScape continues to evolve and thrive in the classroom appeared first on Farmtario.

Enter the Ask a Farmer kiosk, Farm and Food Care Ontario’s interactive video booth at which people pose questions to farmers.

FFCO unveiled the mini-barn-like structure with a bench and standalone iPad-style recording stand, constructed during the pandemic, last year at the CNE.

Why it matters: The kiosk is an interactive and fun way to pose questions to agriculture experts.

“Remember Speaker’s Corner in downtown Toronto? This is the agriculture Speaker’s Corner,” said executive director Kelly Daynard. “We challenge non-farming Canadians to go into it, hit the record button and ask a question of a farmer.”

Daynard said questions range from the philosophical, like what came first, the chicken or the egg, if there’s a difference between brown and white eggs and whether horses sleep standing up. Others queries addressed concerns about how farmers care for sick animals, if people should buy organic, and the best place to grow crops in Canada.

Daynard said some people expected immediate answers.

“They walk in there and think Farmer John will pop out of the screen and answer their question. We’re not quite there yet, but it’s a good next step and a fun, new way of engaging.”

Daynard said the kiosk was rolled out at farm shows and association meetings this winter to collect answers to the accumulated questions from experts, but it wasn’t without its challenges.

Farmers have 100 seconds to formulate answers, and it took many of them a few tries to fit inside the time limit.

People don’t have a long social media attention span, so Daynard advises farmers to be short, funny, engaging and talk about what they love to do.

“We’re airing them on a new TikTok channel that basically the consumer — mostly children — ask the question, and then (the farmer will) say, ‘Hey, I’m Farmer Murray, let me answer your question.’”

The Ask A Farmer’s reach is expanding with new applications for farmers’ markets, including Ottawa’s Byward Market, and several fairs across Ontario, including the CNE and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

“We have big visions for this,” Daynard said. “We have this dream of eventually having a full-time student that could take (the kiosk) places and get those questions asked and answered.”

Funding advantages

Over the past three years, Farm and Food Care has used funding provided through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s AgriCompetitiveness program to develop several successful campaigns to raise the profile of Ontario and Canada’s agriculture sector.

“We have done this beautiful Faces Behind Food campaign for the last number of years, interviewing people across Canada that work in agriculture,” said Daynard. “It could be a hoof trimmer; it could be a milk truck driver; it could be a seasonal agricultural worker and telling their stories on Instagram and Facebook.”

In the last year, 99 new profiles generated more than 56,000 likes, shares and comments and added more than 22,000 images to FFCO’s photo library.

The spin-off More Than a Migrant Worker project, launched in 2021, won the best social media campaign award directed at the general public at the Canadian Agri-Food Marketers Alliance in 2022.

The project allows the public to gain insight into Ontario’s seasonal worker program while learning about the individuals who help Ontario farmers grow food.

FFCO and Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association, who partnered on the project, shared the award and a certificate of merit for the website directed at the general public.

In 2022 the project generated video and photographs of 50 workers and six growers across the province’s greenhouse, berry, apple, potato, asparagus and grape operations. As a result, its YouTube channel has 41 videos that garnered more than 2,300 views and Facebook reached more than 370,000 users.

The post Interactive Ask a Farmer kiosk brings consumer questions to the experts appeared first on Farmtario.

Starting with an interactive Pig Mobile, a spring Hambassador training event, and building on a collection of new online resource tools, the industry is ready to hit the road.

“About two per cent of Canadians have a direct connection to a farm anymore, leaving a huge gap where most people don’t understand the work and care it takes to raise animals and produce pork,” says Stacey Ash, director of communications and consumer marketing with Ontario Pork.

Why it matters: The pandemic provided an opportunity for farm organizations to develop updated consumer education tools.

“That’s why we’re invested in meeting consumers where they are, at events and shows, and helping producers and industry spokespeople develop the skills and confidence to represent Ontario’s pork sector effectively.”

When the pandemic paused in-person events and education opportunities, Ontario Pork took the opportunity to reinvent its popular Pig Mobile. The original unit, a 26-foot trailer, featured three stages of a pig’s life — a sow and litter of piglets, three-month weaner pig and a six-month market animal. The new 24-foot trailer extends the farm to plate story to include the entire food value chain.

“The Pig Mobile has proven to be a fabulous tool, and we’ve extended the messaging to help people feel more confident about the pork industry,” says Ash.

Ontario Pork consulted event organizers, producers and industry representatives so the new unit reflects the diversity of the pork sector. Information about career opportunities, an interactive supply chain story, animal care videos and displays are new features to the trailer.

The main attraction, live pigs, has been scaled back to a single display featuring a larger viewing area and modern equipment including in-barn monitors and an expandable stall for a sow and piglets.

Connecting with consumers

“If we don’t use our own voice to tell people how we raise our animals, someone else will,” says Charity Veldhuizen, Ontario pork producer and Pig Mobile volunteer. “It’s important we step out of our comfort zones and step off the farm to meet consumers in person. It means a lot to people when they can ask us questions and hear answers from real farmers.”

It’s been nearly 40 years since agriculture education pioneers Ron and Sharon Douglas developed the concept of a pig mobile and introduced it to showcase the pork industry. The couple participated in the recent Hambassador training day that saw more than 30 pork industry volunteers in attendance. They listened to first-hand experiences from seasoned event volunteers, learned about the new trailer and got tips for interacting with consumers and sharing stories on social media.

Known as Hambassadors, this group of producers, veterinarians, feed specialists, processors, students and livestock transporters will support the Pig Mobile at consumer events including the Canadian National Exhibition, Western Fair and Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, along with regional events across the province.

Ash explains that, while everyone is passionate about their role in the pork industry, the goal of the Hambassador program is to help participants feel more confident when interacting with the public.

The spring training day focused on understanding the audience, identifying the types of information and level of detail they are looking for and the importance of being honest and accurate when answering questions.

“We’re all experts in our field, but when we interact with consumers at the events, it’s important to meet them where they are and understand what they want to learn about,” says Ash.

Veldhuizen says it’s been rewarding to connect with people and share on-farm experiences. She looks for ways to connect with people, like relating to their experiences as pet owners.

“It’s always gratifying to watch people have light bulb moments when they make a connection or learn something,” says Veldhuizen. “And people often amplify the information when they walk away and share what they’ve learned with their kids or friends.”

Adjusting to post-pandemic crowds

Ontario Pork has enhanced its online pork education tools and resources through ExperienceOntarioPork.com. Focusing on parents and teachers, a new suite of printable resources, interactive games and videos were introduced and grew throughout the pandemic.

The resources can also be accessed from QR codes included in the design of the Pig Mobile. Ash notes the use of QR codes became popular again as a result of the pandemic and can replace some traditional educational handouts.

Last year saw a surge in attendance at most agriculture-related events across the province. Ash believes people were excited to be out after pandemic restrictions were lifted and took advantage of the ability to attend in-person events.

“Attendance will be hard to predict this year,” she notes.

Those interested in representing the Ontario pork industry at an upcoming event can contact Ontario Pork for more information.

“You don’t have to be producer. We have an amazing supply chain, and we’re always looking to people to share their story,” says Ash.

The post Ontario Pork recharged and ready for education, promotion events appeared first on Farmtario.

“I truly feel that this partnership between CFFO and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is one of the best ways we, as Christian farmers, can be charitable,” said Ed Scharringa, CFFO president.

“I’m glad to see that our community feels the same way.”

The month-long campaign, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 29, 2022, raised $45,850, with CFFO matching donations dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000.

Scharringa said it’s the second year CFFO has partnered with Canadian Foodgrains Bank for the fundraiser.

While it allows members to make a difference in the world, it also allows members to align their generosity with a cause close to the heart of many.

As many as 825 million people are experiencing hunger globally, and the funds raised will provide emergency food for those impacted by a crisis like violent conflict and natural disasters.

It also supports families with agricultural and income programs to lift them out of poverty in the long-term.

“We are delighted that, once again, Ontario farmers have chosen to share of their abundance with others around the world. I’m so very grateful,” said Any Harrington, Canadian Foodgrains Bank executive director. “Each gift from a member of the Christian Farmers Federation, no matter the amount, means the world.”

The post Giving Tuesday success increases CFFO donation to Canadian Foodgrains Bank appeared first on Farmtario.

The associate dean at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon frequently spoke to the media in the early 2000s, when BSE was a national issue in Canada.

One day, a reporter from B.C. called him, wanting to check facts about Canada’s beef industry.

“Her questions were: is it true that most of the calves born in B.C. go to feedlots in Alberta?” Clark said during a phone interview. 

Clark told the reporter, yes, most of the calves from British Columbia farms likely go to Alberta feedlots.

Why it matters: Scientists can play an important role in communicating about agriculture with the media and consumer groups. 

She then asked what age they go to the feedlot. He said: usually nine to 15 months.

Then she asked a question that Clark has not forgotten: ‘What age are they when they come back (to the farm in B.C.)?’ That was the person who was trying to write the story on BSE. I always use that (story) as the example of why you should engage,” Clark said.

“The person working in the general media may know nothing about agriculture… and they get the wrong end of the stick because they know nothing about it.”

Clark is one of the university scientists and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) researchers who routinely attend public meetings and regularly speak to the media about agriculture.

Their voices are important because the public does want to hear from food and agriculture experts.

In 2020, the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity published a report on public trust in Canada’s food system. Part of the report found that Canadians have a high level of trust in farmers and university scientists. Farmers ranked first and scientists were a close second.

“(Often) people come to me with questions because they don’t know enough and it’s something I know something about,” Clark said. “In that vacuum, where there’s a lack of information, any information that is at least factual is really, really valuable.”

One recent example is ivermectin.

Last summer, some Canadians started buying ivermectin, a livestock dewormer, to use as a treatment for COVID-19. Clark took many, many media calls about the drug and explained why humans should not take it.

“You’ll notice on the label that it says do not use in humans. And it says that for very good reason,” he told the CBC in September. “And I know it seems impossible to have to say this, but you need to trust what it says on that label more than what some guy said on Twitter or Facebook.”

Clark did get pushback for his comments.

“I don’t have much of a social media presence …. I got a bunch of phone calls from people who wanted to argue with me,” he said.

“I’ve got a fairly thick skin … you have to be prepared that there’s always going to be someone that disagrees with you.”

Angry feedback intimidates some scientists, who avoid public controversies. If a researcher says glyphosate is safe or that cattle provide environmental benefits, Twitter trolls will react.

They will label the scientist as an industry shill who is corrupt or worse.

Some scientists may not like playing defence, where they must stand up for the status quo in agriculture.

But that’s not their role, said Tim McAllister, a researcher in ruminant nutrition and microbiology with AAFC in Lethbridge.

“It’s not our job to defend it. It’s our job to state the facts,” he said, adding publicly funded scientists have an obligation to share their knowledge and findings with the public.

“A big part of what we’re trying to do … is give the public information so (people) can make informed decisions.”

If agricultural scientists don’t participate in the public arena, there is a risk that extremists can take over the debate.

In December, Time magazine published a piece with the headline: “Cows are the new coal.”

And last winter, the Guardian wrote an article claiming that livestock are destroying nature and a plant-based diet is the best way to save wildlife.

Clark said scientists can help clear up some of the misinformation.

“I would like to see more informed scientists engaging in the debate,” said Clark.

“It would be good to hear more voices with expertise speaking out on these topics. I really would. They do have stuff that adds to the conversation.”

McAllister is doing his bit.

Last summer, he and Kim Stanford, a University of Lethbridge scientist, started a podcast called Cows on the Planet. They interview fellow scientists and seek answers to questions like: are cows wasting human food or eating human waste? And how much do cattle contribute to climate change?

But such outreach is not about defending cattle or how meat is produced in Canada.

“I always present it as trade-offs. There’s no one optimal solution …. If people want to consume organic produce or organic meat … people need to be aware of the trade-offs associated with organic vs. conventional production,” he said.

“Ultimately, it gets back to the consumers making their own choice. The best we can hope for is that they’re making that choice from an informed a position as possible.”

– This article was originally published at The Western Producer.

The post Scientists urged to help fight misinformation appeared first on Farmtario.