Myrna Grahn, the Manager of the University of Manitoba’s Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre said consumers want to learn more about the food they eat from someone they can trust.
Grahn spoke recently at the 2019 Manitoba Swine Seminar in the session ‘Once Upon a Time: Our Story Through the Eyes of an Advocate.’
She said the vast majority of consumers acknowledge they know little about farming, but most want to know more about where their food comes.
“Consumers want to talk to someone they can trust, and they want to know that the information they’re getting is beneficial to their families,” said Grahn. “They’re feeding young children, or they are athletes, millennials, seniors, all concerned about what they’re eating and what is going into the food. They hear so much about what’s happening in the food industry, so it’s important when we talk to anyone about food, that we’re just telling the basic truth of what happens on our farm. That true transparency, answering the questions that are important to them and making sure that we are just polite, respectful, engage in the conversation and that we share our values and beliefs.”
She said those same people care about the animals and so they have a pet that they care about, that is how they want to make sure farmers treat their animals, very humanely and doing the right things on their farms. When asked who they trust, the Canadian consumers said they believe the farmers, and so it’s important that farmers are willing to have conversations with the people around them.
“It doesn’t have to be speaking in front of the public but to have a conversation about what you do on the farm,” she said. “A lot of what we see on TV or online, which is where people are going to for information, isn’t always accurate, balanced, and current. It’s important that we, as farmers, as anyone working in the agriculture and food industry talks about what we do in a very engaging conversation and asks a lot of questions to find out what it is that most concerns the consumers about their food.”
Grahn said when government bodies or other organizations come up with Food Guides that look a little different talking about keeping those bodies as healthy as possible.
“So for the past year at those value chain round tables, all of the Ag sectors have been talking to the federal government about that even before they launched it,” she said. “To try to make some changes to learn why and learn what was happening with the food guidance and some of the policies and recommendations that they will make. Now that it’s here, we have to know that dietitians, home economists, and home ec teachers are going to be using that information with their clients.”
Grahn said there might be different amounts and different recommendations of helping sizes but still vital; how to make the bodies as healthy as possible.
“How do you get the right amount of protein? So I find some of the Ag sectors and commodity groups are putting out information if you want protein, this is where you can get your best sources of protein, including all of them,” she said. “And people still have that choice. Yes. In the food guide at seeing less of some things, but people still have to get the same amount of protein or calcium or whatever it might be. And as long as we’re spelling out all of the different amounts that you’re getting in serving sizes, then I think it’s again, communicating that message and getting the story out.”
She said it is essential to talk about everyday things that relate to people, because that’s what’s important to them, not in technical or scientific terms.
“So if we can have the conversation, engage, don’t be afraid to talk about what we do on the farm or in our industry, because people need to hear it,” Grahn said. “There’s so much information out there, but it still feels that by word of mouth and meeting the real person wins out over all of the media that they might see through social media, through websites, YouTube, whatever it may be. We have always thought, oh, everyone loves food, trusts food. They’re just going to continue to eat it.”
Grahn feels that for decades farmers forgot to tell them their story about making the changes and why.
“People see this big change in agriculture. They hear corporations and factory farms, and it gives a different impression in their mind than what that means on the ground or the farm. And I think we’ve missed a group of people that need to hear the messages and we need to talk to them in basic, simple terms,” she said. •
— By Harry Siemens