Farmscape for July 26, 2011   (Episode 3631)

The executive director of the Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan says, as the public becomes increasing interested in issues related how the food they buy is raised, it becomes more important for those who produce that food to be involved in keeping that information available.

The Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan's "We Care" billboard campaign has been running since 1996.

This year's campaign kicked off in mid-May and billboards will remain on display across the province until November.

Farm Animal Council executive director Adele Buettner says, because this is an annual campaign, we've see a steady increase in the recognition of the efforts of livestock producers across the province.

Clip-Adele Buettner-Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan:
We call it the "We Care Campaign" because our producers, we focus on the top three areas of production in the consumers interest perspective it is environment, food safety and animal care so the message we're sending about is that we care about our animals.

This is the largest campaign of its sort in Canada and there's 35 billboards in our province plus one superboard and they are located in various locations around Regina, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, North Battleford, Glaslyn and Herbert.

Our target audience is really two-fold.

We want to reach out to our consumers.

With only three percent of the Canadian population having direct ties to modern agriculture we certainly want to reach out to them and send a visual message that our industry is active in our province, we have young producers that are interested in each commodity and we showcase that accordingly.

We also want to send a message to all the public about the dedication that producers provide to their livestock.

Buettner observes consumers are making more informed buying decisions and suggests the livestock industry needs to keep that messaging out there to make sure those who have questions about production have accurate current information.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       * Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council