Ontario Agriculture Week Celebration Underway

Oct 01, 2012

Ontario PC MPP Celebrates Ag Week with Agriculture Open Houses

The first week of October marks Ontario Agriculture Week. This celebration has been an ongoing tradition since 1998, when former Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Bert Johnson (Perth-Wellington) started the initiative.

Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece is doing his part to ensure that Ontario Agriculture Week doesn’t go unnoticed. Pettapiece will be hosting two agriculture open houses in his riding on October 5th. The first open house one will take place at the Arthur Public Library from 9:30am-11:30am and the second one will take place in at the Royal Canadian Legions in Mitchell from 2:00pm-4:00pm. All interested constituents are asked to RSVP by calling 1-800-461-9701.

“The week leading up to Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reflect on the importance of agriculture in Perth-Wellington and in our province,” said Pettapiece. “It’s a chance to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of our farmers and all those who work in the agriculture and agri-food sectors.”

The Ontario agriculture and agri-food sectors together contribute more than $33 billion dollars to the economy and employ almost 700,000 people in the province.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.