Canadians Sure Like Farmers

Canadians are feeling pretty good about farmers these days.

 

Grassroots public affairs just put out its third annual survey. It shows a whopping 91 percent of respondents are very or somewhat confident in the safety of food grown or produced in this country. Nearly that same amount, 86 percent endorse increased government support for the ag sector.

 

Senior consultant, Peter Seemann said overall support dropped a bit from last year's report but he has a theory about that. "When COVID first started impacting Canadians, we saw something none of us probably have seen in our lifetime and that was periodic shortages of certain items in stores.  A lot of concern around food security and whether or not stores were going to remain fully stocked, that is something Canadian hadn't faced in generations.  As a result there was a lot of talk and conversation around the agriculture industry, a lot of talk around workers and the inability for farmers and processors to have the necessary help to produce the food that they do.  There was a lot more awareness a year ago. To the credit of the industry and maybe in some cases governments collaborating and assisting, where possible, those concerns have largely been dealt with respects to Canadians concerns day to day."

 

In the same survey Canadians are not as likely as last year to recommend people enter the ag industry.  Seemann shares that seeing 70 per cent of people in Canada have never been on a farm and the industry has not shown the diversity of careers in agriculture, he is not surprised.  He also shares that the industry must do a better job at highlighting the many different careers available.