Everybody eats. And so everybody has to buy food.
But not everybody knows how their food is produced. How is it grown, how is it processed? Is it healthy? Is it even safe?
This weekend’s Alberta Open Farm Days set out to put people’s minds at ease by welcoming the public onto farms and downstream producers of agriculture products, and inviting them to ask questions.
The agriculture and agri-foods sector has faced criticism in the past couple of decades—some of it justified—about how our food finds its way from farm to fork. But for every legitimate criticism, there is a wagonload of bad information and unfair negativity.
As Guy Bonneau of Charlotte Lake Farm puts it, “it’s really important that we get our message out because if we don’t, somebody else will.”
Over the weekend the public had opportunities to see demonstrations of old-time farming techniques, modern-day beef operations, and new crop-growing technology. People were welcome to visit a bison-hair “wool” mill, a seed plant, a coffee roastery, and much more.
The St. Paul Ag Society provided a bus tour to several sites in the region.
Charlotte Lake Farm in the M.D. of Bonnyville hosted Open Farm Days visitors for a fourth time. In previous years, Guy and Leona Bonneau had offered their farm as a site for various vendors and information booths, and offered food and entertainment.
This year they simplified their presentation, focusing on a tour of their Angus beef operation and their U-Pick pumpkin patch.
“Deep in our hearts, we both want to do education. Education is important to let people know how important farms are, and why not to be so scared of them or have negative attitudes of them. Please come out and talk to us and get to know your farmer. They know where your food comes from,” Guy said.
He was pleased to have lots of questions to answer, and to see many “aha moments” among the visitors.
“That’s been really positive for us,” he said.
“And,” he added, “the kids really like to see the cows.”
