The Meatrix

[cakadu]

After reading some of the posts in the "This is Progress" thread, it brings to mind the question of expansion and how that will (a) be undertaken and (b) perceived by other groups.

Check out www.factoryfarm.org for a funky little video on how our animals are raised today. It sends several messages, depending on what your thoughts are.

This type of messaging raises a couple of points - how can we, particularly those of us in the livestock industry, send out our own positive messages in this same eye-catching manner? The second point is that many people today have absolutely no idea how their food is produced and the messages contained in this little clip are valid.

[15444]

A little hard to find on the website, so here's the link to take you straight to the video:

http://www.themeatrix.com/

[15444]

Linda, operators of confined feeding operations have got to start sending these positive messages to their neighbours . In many areas applications for CFO's are met with opposition by the community. I feel that if the commodity groups were to focus on creating a positive image and ensuring that operators are seen to be members of the communities where their operations are located, it would go a long way towards public acceptance.
Some companies in AB., encourage their barn managers to join local groups et: Volunteer Fire Department, coaching hockey etc., by doing this, and operating to the standards expected of their particular species conflicts with communities may be kept to a minimun.

[dalek]

The biggest problem is that the media is still dominated by the urban point of view, so even when we try to get our message out, you can't force the media to pass it on. I think one solution is to get to the media people when they're young. In that light, our local college has an Agricultural Journalism program that unfortunately hasn't had a student for 3 years but they also have a course in Agricultural Journalism that's mandatory in their normal journalism courses, so I've made myself available to the students in that course. Just had the last visit yesterday with a young man from Alberta who has been following me for his major class project off and on for a month around the farm, on a road trip for parts, and to various farm meetings as well as the Queen's Park rally, now he's leaving next weekend for a new job working for a paper somewhere in Manitoba. I think he learned more than he would have in any other journalism program. I've probably been "interviewed" by 20-25 other journalism students in the last few years, and all most of them knew about agriculture was what they got from the weekly Greenpeace and Toronto Humane Society "info"mercials on TV. I think anybody with a college or university in the area needs to push hard to get some good agricultural information into the curriculum, particularly in journalism, political science, etc.

[farmers_son]

Actually, wasn't the message in the video accurate? If we are taken aback by what the message is saying about agriculture, rather than try to put a positive spin of some rather negative truths why not take a long hard look at where agriculture is going and maybe, just maybe say we are going in the wrong direction. There was not one thing in that video that I would disagree with.

[cakadu]

I don't disagree with the message in the video either - in fact - by and large that is what has happened in agriculture. We have industrialized it almost as much as we can.

What I was hoping to get across is that perhaps we need to look at how to best get our message out there - the positive things and the success stories.

I would even go so far as to agree that consumers need to know the truth about where their food is coming from and more importantly how it is raised, so that they can make informed choices.

There is a reason why things like Slow Food are catching on, as is buying local and buying fresh etc. etc. A growing number of people are wanting to know how their food is being grown.

There is room for all types of operations out there and if you can make money doing it the way you see as viable for your operation, then all the power to you. No one system is better than the other if it is working for you. We decided long time ago that we wanted to raise our animals the way we wanted to see them grown i.e. not confined and no artificial hormones, growth promotants or drugs and if we didn't want to eat them, then we felt our customers shouldn't either. Our growing customer base tells us that we are doing the right thing for us.

Dalek, I wish we had something like the program at Guelph (which is the one I believe you are talking about) out here in the West. SPARKS is a good thing as far as I'm concerned and I've talked with Owen about it quite a bit. Fortunately, it looks as though they will be going online with it sometime in the not too distant future, so at least students can have access to it that way.

[dalek]

Locally the college is Loyalist College, but it's through a working arrangement they have with Guelph where the journalism program is at Loyalist with some of the ag programming coming through Guelph.

[farmers_son]

After thinking about it some more, I have one problem with the message in the video. The bad guys are the agri-corporations. Really....

Maybe the agri-corporations are just taking advantage of the regulatory and economic environment that exists within North America. While agri-corporations create a suitable negative image for people to blame is it possible that there is another bad guy that is more responsible for stomping out the family farm?

I would argue the bad guys are the consumers of this country who see their self interest being served by having a RV or second big SUV or second vacation in the winter all purchased with dollars saved from their food bill with absolutely no concern or care for the cost to the enviroment or family farm.

[cakadu]

Because we have had at least two generations, and arguably 3, that have never really had to worry about food and where the next meal is coming from we see people in North America taking their food for granted.

If we have our crops wiped out, we just go a little further and import them because we have the money to pay for the imports. If we were like some countries where a crop failure could spell not eating on a regular basis, I'm sure we would look at food and food production more seriously.

We also have a primarily urban population, with producers making up less than 3% jof the population with the reality that we are fast becoming only 1%.

The cheaper we can produce the food and the cheaper it is for the consumer to buy it, the less we will be paid to produce it.

One of the biggest hurdles we must overcome is producing commodities at the lowest possible price.