The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity hopes to act as an unbiased platform for information about agriculture and food
By Jackie Clark
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Two Canadian agricultural organizations have come to an agreement to transfer the Agriculture More Than Ever advocacy platform from Farm Credit Canada (FCC) to the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI).
CCFI is excited to assume leadership of the forum, John Jamieson, president and CEO of CCFI, tells Farms.com.
“As we were looking at CCFI’s role in connecting the food system with the consumer, one of the things that we’ve talked about over the last year is for CCFI to play a stronger role in being a trusted third party that can provide neutral information to the consumer,” he explained.
“Agriculture More Than Ever has a very strong following. Across the social channels there’s 94,000 people that follow it and I think it’s a really good opportunity,” he added.
The Agriculture More Than Ever platform is a space where CCFI can provide unbiased communications about the scientific, economic and social realities of the food system. The organization can collaborate with industry partners to do so, Jamieson said.
“One of the things that we’ve been hearing very consistently over the last year is an interest in the industry to have a united voice to speak to the consumer on certain things,” he explained. If the agriculture “industry sees value in speaking with a united voice, I think an opportunity exists for CCFI and our industry partners to really take a strong ownership of communicating in one voice to the consumer and I think there’s a huge value in that”
CCFI also plans to continue to use the Agriculture More Than Ever forum to promote and engage with farmers and consumers around Canada’s Agriculture Day, he added.
“We really appreciate the fact that we came to this agreement with FCC,” Jamieson said. “FCC were also kind enough to provide us with a secondment of one of their employees that will help with the transition.”
CCFI leadership is currently working on hiring someone to manage and grow the platform, he explained. “We’d love, in the short term, to hit six figures in followers.”
The organization established a steering committee to generate a growth strategy.
“We’re at the point where we need to roll up our sleeves and decide how we can take it to the next level,” Jamieson said.
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