Ag conference focuses on farm to table
Alberta Newspaper Group
The demand is rising for farm-to-table products like grass fed beef and other “local” or sustainable food products, but so is the pressure on producers and processors, delegates to an ag conference in Medicine Hat heard Wednesday.
Perry Deering founded Deerview Meats 13 years ago near Irvine, processing wild game for hunters and cattle for specialized operations that market their more-direct connection between farmyard and dinner table.
But for the sector to operate efficiently, said Deering, participants need to play to their strengths and may need to depend on partnerships.
“The business has grown and when their business grows our business grows,” said Deering, whose company takes the food safety and inspections responsibilities off beef producer’s plate, so to speak. “It’s like any business in that you have to partner with the right people.”
Deering spoke during a presentation on farm-direct marketing with local ag advocate Nichole Neubauer and Big Marble Farms general manager David Hoekstra. The major greenhouse markets and handles its own brand despite massive wholesale contracts with major grocers.
On the other end of the spectrum, farm operations looking to augment income by “cutting out the middlemen” often require some help selling themselves or getting product out the door.
In recent years higher production costs coupled with increasingly cost conscious consumers dealing with general food inflation works against the industry from both directions, said Deering.
“There’s more demand for it, but meat plants are struggling,” said Deering, a former Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce, also citing wages and available workforce.
About 350 delegates took part in the Ag Connections Conference, hosted by Cypress County’s business development office.
Other topics touched on the global economic outlook for ag commodities, mental health awareness, drone and other technological innovation, drought management, general business operations and renewable energy.
Organizers of the event were pleased by the registration and corporate support.