Research being conducted by the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management will be used to help enhance programs delivered by the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre to educate the public about agriculture.
The University of Manitoba’s Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, which opened just over one year ago allows visitors to explore how food gets from the farm to our plates.
To better understand how people learn about agriculture during their leisure the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management is asking visitors about their attitudes toward and knowledge of agriculture.
Dr. Christine Van Winkle, an assistant professor in Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, explains the information will be used to develop new programs at the centre.
What we’re looking at is visitors’ attitudes and knowledge about agriculture both as they arrive at the centre but also at the end of their visit and then a few months down the road what they retain and what they understand about agriculture.
We’ll be providing a report to the Farm and Food Discovery Centre with some specific recommendations about how they can reach out to various groups, how people are learning at the centre and it will hopefully contribute to further enhancing the Farm and Food Discovery Centre as space for visitors.
As well we hope to do a workshop later in the spring with people who work in agriculture who are interested in communicating about agriculture with the public and to talk about some of the attitudes and knowledge that people have about agriculture to help those people who are professional communicators better understand where people are at so that they can work with the public to develop programming around agriculture and agricultural information and knowledge and awareness.
Dr. Van Winkle says seeing the transition from a predominantly rural community to a more urban community means we need to think more about how people learn about and understand agriculture.
She expects a final report to be released next spring.
