What questions do Canadians ask about our food supply and farming practices?
• How are farm animals raised on today’s farms?
• Are there hormones or antibiotics in our food?
• How does food production impact our environment?
• What does organically-grown food really mean?
• What effects do farming practices have on our health?
The answers to all these questions – and many more – about food and farming in Canada can be found in the new booklet, ”The ‘Real’ Dirt on Farming 11 – The People in Canadian Agriculture Answer your Questions”.
The national publication has been published by the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) with input and involvement from farmers and farm groups, educators and agribusinesses across Canada.
John Maaskant, chicken farmer and Chairman of the Ontario Farm Animal Council, said “In our fast-paced, 24/7, 140 character News environment, sensation dominates the headlines. This makes it difficult for proven information and solid food facts to be heard.”
For example:
• Did you know that 98% of Canada’s farms are still family owned and operated?
• A Canadian farmer could only feed 10 people a century ago, but can now feed over 120 today.
• Farming productivity has jumped by 300 per cent since the 1950s – and at the same time, we’re using fewer resources, less land and newer, better technologies to produce more food.
Anyone who wants to know more about farming and issues such as farm animal care or food safety will find this 44 page full-colour booklet to be a helpful resource – perfect for students, educators, politicians and the media. This booklet is an update to an older version published in 2006. The new version contains all new facts and statistics as well as much new content on topics that have emerged over the last four years.
Maaskant continued, “This resource has taken more than a year to produce but has actually been in the making since the last edition’s release.
It provides statistics and perspective on a variety of topics ranging from agricultural demographics to biotechnology to organic agriculture to environmental issues.
It’s designed to provide the basic facts on some common but complex topics in farming, with lots of references for people who would like to find further information.”
Over the next few weeks, 100,000 copies of the resource, in both English and French, will be distributed nationally to politicians, media, libraries, school boards and through the project’s various funding partners which include national, provincial and local agricultural organizations .
New with this edition, a secondary-school level teacher’s guide has been published with funding from Farm Credit Canada and will be distributed to high schools across Canada with the help of the Agriculture in the Classroom organizations in each province.
The resource is also available for viewing on OFAC’s website at www.ofac.org. Additional copies will be sold through the OFAC office.
