New resource brings agriculture resources into Canadian schools

Feb 22, 2022

Guelph - A successful partnership between Farm & Food Care (FFC) and Agriculture in the Classroom Canada (AITC-C) has led to the completion of a national classroom online resource designed to give students and teachers across Canada the opportunity to dig deeper into the virtual farm tours available at FarmFood360.ca. It was released today in celebration of Canada’s Agriculture Day.

FarmFood360° virtual reality farm tours allow Canadians to tour real, working farms and food processing facilities on tablets and desktop computers, as well as through mobile phones and VR (Virtual Reality) devices. These tours are a natural fit for thousands of teachers and students for use in online learning and for agricultural organizations seeking to connect with consumers virtually.

Since students across Canada turned to online learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a growing number of requests from educators wanting to find ways to use the tours in their classrooms. In 2021, the site hosted more than a million visitors who viewed the 22 tours available.

The online resource that now accompanies the FarmFood360° VR tours was produced by AITC-C, working in collaboration with FFC. There are activities for all 22 tours – each encouraging students to watch the videos and take a virtual tour and then answer questions about what they saw. With the help of AITC-C’s provincial agriculture in the classroom organizations, it will be distributed digitally to classrooms across Canada.

Bonnie den Haan, Chair of Farm & Food Care Ontario, said, “The partnership between AITC-C and Farm & Food Care builds on the strengths of both organizations. Working with AITC-C to create this curriculum-based program will extend the reach of our innovative resources. We’re excited to see this partnership taking FarmFood360° into classrooms from coast to coast.”

“We are pleased to bring the virtual tours at FarmFood360° into the hands of Canadian educators,” said Johanne Ross, Executive Director of AITC-C. “We want students to be curious and excited about learning about Canada’s agriculture and food story. Through this resource, we are providing teachers with a link to bring this story to life in the classroom.”

Source : Farm & Food Care

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.