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Canada's First Ever Agriculture Day Highlights Winter Farming

 
While the fields of Ontario's rural heartland might be covered in a blanket of winter snow and ice, Kelly Daynard wants you to know that farmers are by no means idle just because its cold outside. 
 
She's the spokeswoman for Farm and Food Care, an awareness group looking to raise the profile of agriculture in Canada. 
 
"Agriculture is certainly not top of mind when you drive into the countryside this time of year," Daynard told Craig Norris, the host of CBC K-W's The Morning Edition, on Thursday.  
 
"Farmers are farming 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year whether you can see it or not," she said. "Crop farmers are busy getting their equipment ready for spring planting, which is not that far away and choosing their seed types and what not, but you've also got livestock farmers that are doing what they do 365 days of the year. Greenhouses are in full swing right now." 
 
Food Freedom Day
 
It's a message that's being broadcast by Daynard's group far and wide this winter as part of Canada's first ever Agriculture Day.
 
It's a national day marking farmers' efforts across the country to get consumers to think of farming and farmers in the months outside of growing and harvest season. 
 
"It's a really good opportunity for the whole country to get to together and celebrate food and farming," Daynard said, noting February also happens to be the month when Canadians celebrate Food Freedom Day. 
 
Daynard said that's the day when Canadians have made enough money from their monthly salaries to pay for entire year's worth of food. 
 
"This year, Food Freedom Day came on February 8, one day earlier than last year," she said, noting in 2016, Canadians spent on average 10.7 per cent of disposable income on food at grocery stores across the country. 
 
Source : CBC

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