Farmscape for November 18, 2016

Saskatchewan's Agriculture Minister says it's important for those involved in agriculture to share their story with the non farming public.
More than ever public opinion is affecting the operation of farms.
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart says our agriculture industry feeds millions and millions of people around the world and, in so doing, creates thousands of good paying jobs in Saskatchewan, some of which the public might directly connect with agriculture and some that are spin off jobs they would not necessarily connect but that would be badly missed if they were gone.

Clip-Lyle Stewart-Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister:
Increasingly, as time goes on, there are more and more people who have no connection with agriculture.
The vast majority of people in this province already are generations removed from production agriculture on farms.
I'd like to say the public gets it but I don't think we're quite there yet.
I don't think a fairly substantial portion of the public do really understand the economic benefits and the economic spin off that comes from substantial livestock operations and expanded trade in meat products.
We need to reconnect people with the source of their food and modern agriculture and create a better understanding of the positive story that modern agriculture has to tell about how we produce safe healthy food in an environmentally sustainable way, much more sustainable than it ever has been in the past.

Stewart says, from agriculture's perspective, what's at stake is the right to operate agricultural enterprises without undue scrutiny that can get to the point of interference in ordinary agricultural practices and limit production and competitiveness.
He believes, if the public had a better understanding of the positive stories of what we do in agriculture, they would be less inclined to push for regulations that are a hindrance to production.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork