October is Agriculture Month in Saskatchewan, a time for all of us, consumers and industry alike, to celebrate Saskatchewan food and food production.
This year’s theme, Our Food Has a Story, allows all of us an opportunity to tell our food stories of how food produced on the farm gets to the table. It also allows us to highlight the dedicated people it takes along the way to deliver healthy, affordable and safe products, sustainably.
The month-long campaign will target audiences of young mothers, influencers, industry and youth. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture initiatives will showcase the diversity of careers along the agri-food value-chain, engage producers and consumers in food story-telling contests, and utilizing influencers (inside and outside of agriculture) as spokespeople to share their stories about food and farming with their followers.
Farmers need to become storytellers, too. Consumers trust what farmers say about the agriculture and food industry, because they believe you share the same values they do. And you do, you just haven’t always framed your responses to their questions that way.
We all tend to resort to science-based arguments that, quite frankly, only go part way to help consumers understand and appreciate how their food is produced. And we all share a food connection with friends, family and our respective communities, whether we produce it, process it, prepare it or consume it. Telling stories on how those connections are made will help build public trust in our industry.
By working together as producers, processors and government, we can maximize our impact in generating consumer awareness of modern food production. Your voice is important and vital to the success of Ag Month – so use it!
Your involvement can be as simple as sharing your stories with new audiences or using the common Ag Month hashtags, #OurFoodHasAStory and #AgMonth16. Social media is a quick, simple and effective way to reach a large audience. Talking about your daily work and the role you play in food production can have a positive impact. And, as a bonus, you could be rewarded through the Our Food Has a Story Contest. By posting your stories on social media using the hashtags, you will automatically be entered. Full contest details are available at OurFoodHasAStory.ca.
As we celebrate agriculture’s many successes this Ag Month, let’s also help the public understand, appreciate and support modern agriculture. Sharing your food stories this October will do that. We look forward to hearing them!
For more information on agriculture month, visit https://farmfoodcaresk.org/ag-month/ or follow along on social media using #OurFoodHasAStory and #AgMonth16. Story courtesy of www.agriculturemorethanever.ca