The Rural Voice, 1992-01, Page 32NEWS
and the industry will be inefficient."
One of the honourary chairs of the fund-
raising campaign, Joan Huzar from the Consum-
ers' Association of Canada, agrees. But she
blames a lack of information as well as misinfor-
mation for some of the problems. "The BST
fiasco was due to consumers' emotional reaction,
because the information just wasn't there." She
adds, "If consumers believe misinformation, or
form wrong impressions of food safety, then con-
fidence in the whole system suffers — and that's
not good for anyone." Huzar says the network
will play a critical role in handling the shortfalls
of information going to the consumer. "The
network is a great step forward to solving many
communication problems."0
Kevin K. Stewart
FARMERS MUST
SPEAK UP
In a hard-hiuing address to the annual con-
vention of the Christian Farmers Federation of
Ontano December 5, farm broadcaster Ross
Daily of London lambasted farmers for not doing
enough to educate the public about agriculture
and its problems. Communication with consum-
ers is essential to everyone, he stated, "but you
have to do it yourselves because no one else will
do it for you." It appears that farmers don't care,
judging by what Daily interprets as sparse atten-
dance at farm meetings.
Daily believes that consumers, by and large,
are ignorant of agriculture. They must be con-
vinced that: using locally produced food is vital to
everyone; farmers provide healthy food; agricul-
ture has a tremendous economic impact; and
caring for the environment is to everyone's bene-
fit. The public is not able to put these facts
together by themselves, said Daily. "You must do
that," he urged. "You have the background. And
when you promote agriculture, be accurate," he
cautioned. "Explain the price farmers pay to
produce food — the pain, the long hours, the
break -downs."
Information can be conveyed to consumers
by such effective means as pickets showing, for
example, bread selling for nine cents or com
flakes for five cents. It is not only convincing,
said Daily, but it also gains media attention.
According to Daily, agricultural lobbying is gen-
erally ungraceful and makes society angry.
Another poor image, he said, is created by
beef producers who, in an age of feminism, persist
in using the term, "cattlemen" and whose adver-
tising portrays only men. Daily suggested it
would be preferable to show a woman beef pro-
ducer with her son, or a male beef producer with
his daughter. In a time of fat consciousness, Daily
continued, beef producers still talk about "fat"
cattle. He also advised against using the words
"butchering," "slaughter," and "killing," which
can lose customers. "Don't hide reality," he
added, "but don't flau,tt it, either."
Who speaks for agriculture? Not the media
— it speaks about it, said Daily. For this reason,
farmers must use all opportunities to speak on
behalf of agriculture.0
Adrian Vas
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