Farmers’ assistance to build public trust encouraged

Re-building public trust in agriculture is the theme of Farm Food Care Saskatchewan. And building trust with consumers is necessary, Clint Monchuk, executive-director of Farm Food Care Saskatchewan told Cropsphere 2019.

Surveys by the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity show a decline in trust since 2016, partly caused by 2017 links in the media of cancer and the chemical Roundup. From 2006 to 2016 positive attitudes by Canadian consumers to agriculture increased from 49 per cent to 61 per cent.

In the two years following up to 20l8, the positive attitudes slid to 55 per cent.

Erosion of trust can result in policy changes as evidenced by California wanting to crack down on Roundup/glyphosate.

Telling consumers about farm practices will help build trust, but the means of telling them is critical to building trust.

Just sharing facts and figures won’t do. Talking about shared values is up to five times more important to build- ing trust as reciting facts.

Farm Food Care Saskatchewan conducts a number of events to share values from the chef series A Taste of Saskatchewan – over 100,000 people reached – to food influencer and student tours.

Tour participants range from chefs, travel bloggers, dietitians, film producers to editors, newspaper columnists and students – all with huge social media impact.

The events have moved the bar with 60 per cent of Taste of Saskatchewan visitors saying they now have a better understanding of agriculture.

From the culinary tours, very positive attitudes went to 80 per cent from 57 per cent, while nutritionist attitudes went from 47 per cent to 91 per cent positive. Monchuk said individual farmers can speak up and contribute to building trust by posts on social media — Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Farm Food Care Saskatchewan offers tips and training on the website farmfoodcaresk.org.

Farm Food Care Saskatchewan is an organization of agricultural stakeholders – commodity groups, manufacturers, food processors. distillers, RMs and government — with a focus on increasing public trust in agriculture. Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net