Did anyone read...

[coppertop]

Per, can tell you from personal
experience the city daughter in law
wasn't much use when it comes to helping
out at calving time, nor was she
interested in learning anything about
farming !!!!!!!!! Other son is
'courting' a farm gal and she would
dearly love to be out here helping if
her job permitted !!! Of course I am
just joking, our kids will marry
whomever they please without any
encouragement or discouragement from us
! From my perspective, city dwellers
aren't any more uninformed about the
agricultural industry than many people
who live in rural areas. Many acreage
owners in my own municipalitiy haven't a
clue about how many challenges the
neighbouring farmer faces. All they see
is lots of cows and big farm machinery
and think the guy is RICH !!!

[per]

lol, coppertop, tongue was somewhat in cheek on the first part. Funny thing is though that many city people get it but don't know what to do about it. Getting them engaged (pardon the pun) is our challenge. (notwithstanding droughts and things)

[grassfarmer]

Perfecho - "So, when do we start educating the consumers about the struggle of the ag industry? I would rather spend my check off dollars on this issue!"
The NFU are designing an educational pamphlet for just this purpose at the moment. The intent is to distribute it initially through members at farmers markets and any other place we meet with the general public. They are also working on an educational/motivational pamphlet aimed at beef producers and dealing with the issue of captive supply and the need to tackle it. I too think this is a good thing to spend check-off money on and at least in a year or so you will be able to do just that if you so wish.

Coppertop, I have always found the city dweller to be more open minded and keener to learn than the rural dwelling non-farmers. The city dweller knows they are ignorant of agriculture but the rural dweller thinks they know quite a lot about it. Unfortunately all too often their "knowledge" is based on unfortunate experiences of encountering smells from farms spreading slurry or being held up on the road by tractors or guys moving cows.

[kato]

Everyone should check out http://www.eatrealeatlocal.ca/

This is just what the doctor ordered. I saw the commercial on TV for this. It's a website put up by Hellman's, and I was totally impressed and surprised by it.

This is a big step in the right direction, and the people at Hellman's need to be commended for it.

If this campaign is successful for one company, don't be surprised to see more like it. The basis for success in business is to see a market that needs to be filled, and then to find a way to meet it. Anyone who steps up and produces a product for this market will do well. Obviously the people at Hellman's have seen it, and others will too.

There's a connection broken between the farm and the plate, and we need to fix it. I also think Agriculture in the Classroom is another good way to address this as well. Maybe we all need to get more involved in this good program.

[coppertop]

grassfarmer in my community there are
two feedlots, both with large cow/calf
operations as well. The county gets
complaints when they haul silage or
manure trucks go past several acreages,
and yet on the same road there is an
oilfield trucking business hauling all
sorts of stuff night and day, pounding
the heck out of the road etc., and
nobody complains !!! Odor could have
something to do with the manure trucks
going by, but silage just coming off the
field hasn't got an odor so that would
not be the reason for complaining.
I think we are likely a generation past
when many city folks had grandparents or
uncles on the 'farm' and visited often.
I have done Ag in the Classroom many
times over the years and usually in a
class of 20 kids three or four are from
a farm, and maybe one other has someone
they visit often on a farm, so it is up
to the agricultural industry to get the
message out that's for sure.

[perfecho]

GF, certainly will support NFU on campaign, will look into it more closely in near future.
Just a quick note on roads and trucks....many of our roads were developed when 3 ton trucks were the biggest, as farmers grew, so did the machinery and number of trips. In a large feedlot, there are hundreds of trips of trucks going back and forth....not really what they were meant for.....nor the oilfield traffic. I do hope one day, the local, ethically raised trend, will allow smaller operations to be viable and not put as much stress on infastructure and society.

[coppertop]

in our municipality there are many major
home occupations that include tank truck
businesses, oilfield hauling etc.
Feedlots also must enter into a road use
agreement if it is determined that they
are doing excessive road damage on an
ongoing basis. Regardless of whether
they have a road use agreement with the
county or not the county public works
department directs them on which
roadways to use when they are doing any
major haul, either silage or manure, if
there are several optional routes.

[SimplyCanadian]

Always nice to see a discussion about buying local and getting the farm folk together to serve the local market.
For over thirty years I have watched the industry and industry sectors "try" to educate the consumers! Until the producers learn to get along with each other, market like real professionals and treat the customers like customers they will sadly fall behind the entrenched efforts of the real food retailers in Canada.
I do have to say it would be wonderful wonderful to see local product available and I for one would support that kind of program. In saying that, I'm pretty sure I will not see anything like that in my life time in Canada

[smcgrath76]

GF - did not mean to confuse. I meant
independently minded as a collective type
of statement. A group of producers who
wish to do things a bit differently and
think about things a bit differently than
status quo (independent).
I agree that self reliance is one of our
greatest strengths and possibly our
largest weakness.

[shedrow]

I love the local market idea....But is is pretty hard to do when Walmart and the retailers are lowballing meat to the masses...

[perfecho]

The Walmarts will always have their customers, but more and more, people are concerned about where their food comes from, and rightly so. A certain amount of consumers are willing, however our infrastructure is cumbersome. Even one of our local "major supermarkets" would like to find a way to get on the band wagon.
Local food should be easy to obtain, not just on Thursday Farmer's Market days between 1 and 4.......

[coppertop]

our economic development department has
initiated a project called the 100 K
Kitchen, which will encourage people to
purchase all their food supplies within
100 km from their home.
A directory has been produced with pages
of producers within 100km of our
municipality advertising their farm
grown produce. This fall there are
numerous cooking classes being offered,
each of them will only use produce grown
within 100 km. Several rural
municipalities have contributed to the
project, and it has received quite a bit
of media attention.