Interaction Among Consumers and Food Producers Builds Trust in Our Food System

The Executive Director of Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan says when consumers are given the opportunity to interact directly with those who produce their food, confidence in that food builds. Earlier this month Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan hosted the third Annual Saskatchewan Open Farm Days.

Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan Executive Director Clinton Monchuk says, when people understand how their food is produced, it generates a higher degree of confidence in the food system.

Quote-Clinton Monchuk-Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan:

We had roughly about 36 different venues and locations throughout Saskatchewan for Open Farm Days this last year and it truly was a wide variety of different events that you could take in. Everything from going to the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon where they had a variety of different booths set up from some of the different commodity groups including SaskOilseeds talking about canola, truly a lot of different experiences there, a way for families and people to just talk about agriculture, all the way to going to commercial farming operations where they could see large-scale modern equipment and ranching techniques.

Really a wide variety of different things that people could see this year.We know that having conversations directly from farmers or ranchers or people who work in the industry with consumers builds that trust.Creating an opportunity where farm gates are open to the general public, people can go out and talk to farmers, ranchers, people who work in the industry.

This just creates more trust within the industry and we know through time when people are more confident in their food they're less likely to share things on social media that are not factual with our industry.Again all these things lead to a higher level of trust and allow us as farmers to continue to use new science and technology to grow food for the rest of the world.

Monchuk says having that opportunity to talk to people and let them understand what truly happens on farms is just nothing but positive.Further information on the activities of Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan can be found at farmfoodcaresk.org while information on Saskatchewan Open Farm Days can be found at skopenfarmdays.ca.