Manitoba’s egg producers are applauding the opportunity to show the public how farm animals are raised without compromising biosecurity.
The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, located at the University of Manitoba’s Glenlea Research Station, began booking tours last month and will open officially September 16.
Brenda Bazylewski, the director of communications and public relations with Manitoba Egg Farmers, one of several organizations that provided financial support for construction of the facility, says agriculture doesn’t stand still, so it’s important to showcase agriculture.
If folks can learn a little bit more about agriculture and how food is produced, and the care of the animals, farmers are really the caregivers of their animals first and foremost. I think that can benefit all of us.
There’s such a growing disconnect, really, between those of us who live in the city and farmers who live in the rural communities, a little bit of a misunderstanding in how food is raised, and really, there are reasons that we don’t open our doors, certainly in commercial agriculture, to protect the hens from diseases coming in and/or leaving the barn.
There are reasons that we’re not able to just completely open our doors to the public, so this gives folks a chance to learn a little bit more about how the animals are raised and looked after and so on.
There’s growing interest.
We’re seeing interest all over.
You just simply have to be connected to Internet to see that there’s a huge interest in how our food is produced.
How our animals are raised is certainly a topic that’s top of mind for a lot of people.
We in agriculture need to be aware of those things, and make sure that we’re demonstrating to the public that, indeed, it’s not just that we say we care; we’re demonstrating that we do look after our animals in the best interest we can, and then share that information with the public, so that there isn’t this big gap in knowledge.
Bazylewski says the Centre will open the door to teachers, students, the public, anyone in Winnipeg, in Manitoba or across the country, who’s interested in taking a close-up look at how farm animals are raised.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
