In This Issue

• Food Freedom Day: February 9, 2024
• Celebrate Canada's Agriculture Day: February 13, 2024
• FFCO's Annual Meeting and Speakers' Conference, April 11, 2024
• Nominate a Food & Farming Champion
• FarmFood360 - Agricultural Adaptation Council support
• Last chance to register for agricultural media training: April 3, 2024
• ICYMI: FFCO Member Forum meeting
• The Real Dirt on Farming booklet available to order
• Member Accolades
• Culinary student tour testimonial
• Renew your FFCO membership

Food Freedom Day

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has calculated that by February 9th, 2024, a Canadian household of average income will have earned enough to pay for their entire year's grocery bill, which lands on the same date as 2023.

With food prices continuing to inflate at a rapid pace, it's important to provide further context on the Food Freedom Day metric, as the average Canadian disposable income is not representative of every Canadian's experience or the effects that rising food prices have on them.

Due to this, CFA has begun to analyze Food Freedom Day by different quintiles of income of Canadian households in Canada to show the percentage of disposable income that they spent on food last year.

Analyzing through this lens, it shows there is a large difference in the impact on food prices for low-income Canadians. While the lowest income households are spending 28% (a jump from 23.1% last year) of their disposable income on food, the highest income quintile is spending 5% of their disposable income (down from 5.2% last year).

CFA will be releasing a press release on the day of Food Freedom Day outlining these statistics as well as farmers' minimal influence on retail prices.

FFCO's annual general meeting and speakers' program will be held at the Grandway Events Centre in Elora on Thursday, April 11, 2024.

The members-only business meeting will start in the morning at 9:30 a.m with the full program to follow afterwards beginning at 11 a.m.

Early bird tickets are now available with prices increasing on March 28th.

FFCO is accepting nominations for its annual Champion Award. The award is presented to individuals, organizations or businesses who have taken initiative to help engage consumers about agriculture in our province. Nominees have used their skills to help inform consumers or correct misinformation about production practices, and done a measurable job of promoting our industry.

Nominations are to be submitted by March 8, 2024. If you know someone you think should be honoured, please review the nomination form.

Pictured here is 2023 Food & Farming Champion Award winner Jean Sullivan.

FarmFood360 Program - AAC support

The Agricultural Adaptation Council (AAC), in partnership with FFCO, is accepting applications from its members for the FarmFood360 program.

The AAC FarmFood360° Program will assist AAC member organizations in creating Virtual Reality tour projects of their commodity association or agribusiness. The project will be funded through AAC’s Strategic Initiatives Fund and will support up to 50 percent of the cost (approximately a $17,000 savings) to create a series of five videos to be housed at www.FarmFood360.ca. Funds will be available for up to three members to participate.

Today, the site features online tours of 28 Canadian farms and food processing facilities. A new educator resource was developed in 2022 by Agriculture in the Classroom Canada to augment the website, giving teachers suggestions on how to use the site in their classrooms and options for curriculum-based learning activities for each tour. Annually, the site and its tours receive more than one million visitors.

Completed applications must be emailed as a Word document to [email protected], no later February 16, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. (EST). If you have any questions, please reach out the AAC staff at [email protected].

Last chance to register for agricultural media training: April 3, 2024

Space is still available in Farm & Food Care 's day-long agricultural media training session on April 3, 2024 in Guelph.

This day-long, interactive session will give the participants the understanding of the media, the tools needed to prepare to face the media and an interview process that will give each person real life interview experience using cameras and interviewers.

The cost is $400 per person (FFCO member rate) or $500 per person (non-member rate) and includes coffee breaks, lunch and workshop materials.

The program is useful for board members and staff at commodity associations who speak regularly about issues related to their sectors or any primary producer who is asked to give farm tours or speak on behalf of agriculture at municipal council meetings or other events.

The day will cover learnings on:

• Understanding the media
• Media tips and techniques
• Key messages - what are you saying, who are you saying it to and why?
• Interview/public speaking techniques
• Dealing with difficult questions 
• Key Message – story development

To register, email [email protected]

In case you missed it: FFCO Member Forum Meeting

FFCO’s first Member Forum of 2024 took place on January 24. FFCO was joined by members both in-person and virtually and welcomed member/guest speakers on a variety of topics:

• Jim Rovers, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AFIMAC along with Amy Paterson, Lead Online Investigator, spoke on the current state of online activism surrounding the agriculture industry with a focus on A.I. and social media.
• Ashley Bruner, Interim Executive Director and Research Manager at the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI), presented the findings of CCFI's 2023 research report around public trust in Canada’s agri-food system.
• Marianne Muth, Program Manager at Mushrooms Canada along with Brittany Stager, Director of Food Marketing at Rees + Stager, Mushrooms Canada’s social media partner, presented their consumer campaign that focuses on increasing their digital presence, and looks to make mushrooms a grocery staple for Canadians.

Many of our members shared industry updates including market statuses, upcoming events, campaigns and current issues.

Member Forum meetings for 2024 (open to all Platinum, Gold and Silver members) will take place on June 26 and September 25.

The Real Dirt on Farming booklet available to order

The sixth edition of The Real Dirt on Farming is now available to order!

Dive deep into the roots of Canadian agriculture with our latest booklet.

The 2023 edition features farmer and researcher profiles from across the country – from the Yukon to Newfoundland and all points in between. It covers big topics being talked about currently in Canadian agriculture – from farmer mental health to the critical work done by seasonal agricultural workers; sustainability, food inflation, food insecurity and food waste, climate change, plant breeding, animal welfare and more. The booklet is available in English and French.

Member accolades:

Grober is celebrating 50 years

Congratulations to Grober Nutrition on the celebration of its 50th anniversary. Grober is celebrating their commitment to quality and hands-on research to bring the latest innovations to market.

Mark Hamel named chair of Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Congratulations to FFCO's board member, Mark Hamel, on his appointment to the role of chair of Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO). Mark has been on the DFO board of directors since 2018 and farms in Bruce County.

CFFO raises over $9,000 in partnership with Canadian Foodgrains Bank

The Christian Farmers' Federation of Ontario (CFFO) is grateful for the generosity Canadians showed during its year-end campaign supporting an end to global hunger through Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Fanshawe culinary student tour feedback

"Thank you very much for giving your precious time to us students by sharing information, knowledge, and experiences that will last."

"I learned more about products that I will one day use, reinforcing the importance of getting to know our local producers

see firsthand how much work goes into the products we use daily."

"It will help us put our kitchen knowledge to the test and help us gain an understanding of how farming is important to serving good food to customers."

- Fanshawe Culinary Students in June, 2023.

Renew your membership for 2024

It's time to renew your FFCO membership for 2024. Individual and supporter members can visit the link below to renew your membership. Continue your support of the important work for Farm & Food Care Ontario and help build public trust and shared understanding of agriculture in Ontario.