Young Farmers Use Earth Day as a Platform to Share their Stories

Mar 05, 2013

FarmOn Foundation Hopes to Inspire Young Farmers to Turn to Social Media to Share their Stories

An Alberta-based organization, the FarmOn Foundation, which is behind the growing movement to inspire young farmers to share their own stories, has recently launched the Farm Voices project.

The group launched a video to help bring awareness about its Earth Day initiative set to take place April 22nd. The purpose is to rally young farmers to engage in social media and share their experience as a farmer using the hastag #FARMVOICES.

“Young people have been at the forefront of every great social movement in history,” said Sarah Wray, a board member with the FarmOn Foundation in a press release. “The power of social media means that we now have the opportunity to effectively and powerfully speak for our own industry, directly to the audience we’re trying to engage.”

The organization’s larger goal is to kick off a movement led by young farmers who can lead the way towards change within the industry and help enhance awareness about agriculture and food among the Canadian public.

“Currently, 80% of the content found online about agriculture is not favourable,” said Wray. “That’s ridiculous and has a lot to do with the fact that farmers are not speaking up and being vocal about the industry they love. That has to change.”

More information about the FarmOn Foundation or it`s Earth Day call to action campaign can be found on their website.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.