This year’s annual Tiffin Conference, held on March 11, made it known that those involved in the agriculture industry must make a stand in order to overcome pressing obstacles this year.
“We hope (by the end of the conference) that you will all be charged up to go out and challenge agriculture,” said Vincent Ellert, Tiffin committee organizer. The theme chosen for this year’s conference was Championing Agriculture: A Call to Action.
The idea was to show people in the agriculture industry what is happening and how to deal with some of the issues surrounding it.
The committee selects the speakers for the conference depending on what’s happening. “The agenda is the industry,” said Ellert.
One of the issues focused heavily on was the how animal advocacy is affecting the industry.
Bob Treadway, a futurist with Treadway and Associates in Washington D.C., talked about how the documentary Food Inc. makes the agriculture industry seem like the “bad guys.”
The Academy Award nominated film exposes the different practices food processors use to make what people eat: faster, bigger and better.
Treadway described the film as a “masterpiece of persuasion.”
He said the film plays on emotions to make money at the expense of farmers and ranchers.
Crystal Young, assistant director of public relations for the American Angus Association said, “I read articles daily about how agriculture is not healthy.”
She went onto talk about how in the U.S. different organizations like PETA and the Humane Societies of the United States are affecting the reputation of agriculture.
She said they do it by putting out ads with footage from slaughterhouses and farms depicting workers torturing animals. She also affirmed that the HSUS say they if one were to donate $20, it would never go to animal shelters, it would be sent to their lobbyists.
Crystal Mackay, executive director for the Ontario Farm Council, said 95 per cent of Canadians know little or nothing about farming.
Mackay also encouraged audience members to invite different groups to their operations so people can get a first hand look at what goes on at the base of the agriculture industry.
Guest speaker Rosie Templeton, a native of the Coaldale area, said people need to know that they are involved in agriculture. She recalled going around with her mother to different classrooms to tell them about their farm.
“My mom would ask ‘How many of you are involved in agriculture?” Maybe only three or four would raise their hand. By the end on the presentation (after learning more about farms and ranches), everyone could say they were involved in agriculture.” Templeton posed a question to many of the college and university students present.
She asked how many of them were going to return to the farm once they were done their schooling. About 80 per cent of them put their hands up.
“When my grandfather graduated from the University of Alberta, only six out of a class of 25 said they were going to return to the farm.”
This year’s Tiffin Conference was meant to demonstrate even though agriculture faces many challenges, there are ways to make a stand and the next step is to make a call to action.