The manager of the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre says consumers want to learn more about the food they eat from someone they can trust.
“Once Upon a Time: Our Story Through the Eyes of an Advocate” was discussed last week as part of the 2019 Manitoba Swine Seminar.
Myrna Grahn, the Manager of the University of Manitoba’s Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, says the vast majority of consumers acknowledge they know little about farming but most want to know more about where their food comes.
Consumers want to talk to someone they can trust and they want to know that the information they’re getting is beneficial to their families. They’re feeding young children or there’s athletes, millennial’s, seniors are all concerned about what they’re eating and what is going into the food. They’re hearing so much about what’s happening in the food industry and so it’s important then, when we talk to anyone about food, that we’re just saying the basic truth of what happens on our farm, that true transparency, answering the questions that are important to them and making sure that we are just polite, respectful, engage in the conversation and that we share our values and beliefs. We care about the animals and so they have a pet that they care about, that is how we want to make sure our animals are treated, very humanely and we’re doing the right things on our farms.
Farmers again, when the Canadian consumers were asked who they trust, they actually trust the farmers and so it’s important that farmers are willing to have conversations with the people around them. It doesn’t have to be speaking in front of the public. It’s just have a conversation about what you do on farm.
A lot of what we seen on TV or online, which is where people are going to for information, isn’t always accurate, balanced and current and so it’s important that we, as farmers, as anyone working in the agriculture and food industry talk about what we do in a very engaging conversation and ask a lot of questions to find out what it is that most concerns the consumers about their food.
~ Myrna Grahn, University of Manitoba
Grahn says it’s important for farmers to provide that accurate, balanced and current information about how food is produced.
