Consumers Confident in Farmers’ Ability to Overcome Challenges: Survey

Dec 13, 2022

A new survey shows consumers remain confident in the ability of Canadian farmers to overcome increasing challenges, including extreme weather events, global conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and supply chain disruptions.

According to the 2022 Perceptions of Canadian Agriculture Survey, released Monday by Climate FieldView and conducted among members of the online Angus Reid Forum, 98% of Canadians surveyed said they recognize the country's farmers importance to domestic food security, and four-in-five reported they are confident in farmers’ ability to continue meeting domestic food demand.

For those who lacked confidence, the most common responses noted concerns around extreme weather events and climate change as major factors (37%), and limitations on resources such as fewer farmers and land for farming (38%).

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Video: Democratizing Gene Editing - Pairwise’s Vision for the Future of Agriculture

Pairwise has built its business around an idea that runs counter to how many companies approach innovation: make transformative technology easier to access.

In this Seed World interview, CEO Tom Adams discusses why broader access to gene editing could speed crop improvement, expand innovation opportunities and help agriculture address emerging challenges. He explains why Pairwise believes no single company can solve all of agriculture's problems alone—and why making advanced breeding technologies available to more organizations could accelerate progress across the industry.

The conversation explores how consumer trust influences technology adoption, why innovations like pitless cherries and seedless blackberries matter beyond convenience, and how future crop improvements could help address labor shortages, automation, harvest efficiency and other production challenges. Adams also shares his perspective on what the industry may be underestimating about the next wave of gene editing innovation.

Watch the full interview to hear why Pairwise believes agriculture is approaching an important inflection point for gene editing, and why the pace of innovation over the next decade could surprise the industry.

Topics Covered:

o Democratizing agricultural innovation

o Consumer trust and technology adoption

o The business case for sharing innovation

o Expanding innovation beyond major crops

o Next-generation breeding technologies