Most consumers just don’t understand what farmers do or why we do it. Why do consumers have so many questions about food? Aren’t they happy they have an abundance of food? So, with every good problem therein rests an answer, but it’s not always an easy answer.
Consider how much things have changed in the past two or three generations. We are seeing a significant increase in the proportion of Canadians living in urban centers rather than rural ones. In the past 65 years, the proportion of urban Canadians moved from 69% of the population up to 82%, as our country has grown. With that, information technology and choices in your grocery store have ultimately increased. News is no longer just news, it’s social media or ‘that’ type of broadcast, in the same way that eggs are no longer just eggs. We have numerous different choices.
In psychology, this is called the ‘Paradox of Choice.’ Effectively, this theory suggests that we often think that if we have more choices, we are ultimately happier and more content, however the opposite is often true. An abundance of choice leads to more anxiety, indecision, questions, and dissatisfaction. Think about the last time you went to buy a different vehicle: you may have specific qualifications that you’re looking for, but if you have a few similar vehicles, there is a good chance that the person who was selling it had more to do with the sale than the vehicle itself. This is the transfer of trust.
In agriculture we deal with a very difficult topic: food. Consider for a moment the perspective of an urban consumer, not knowing a farmer or rancher, having an influx of information pushed on them daily and an overwhelming number of choices when it comes to buying food. All these factors create confusion and in turn, people ask questions. This is where the training from Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan comes in, Speak Up!
Speak Up training highlights the perspective of Canadian consumers through real data. We know consumers continually have questions about their food, but as with the vehicle example, we need to figure out avenues to transfer some of our trust. Ironically, the first step is to build your own confidence to speak about food, farming, ranching or what you do in agriculture to someone else. Right out of the gate, if you can’t speak to the person beside you at community events about agriculture, who can you speak to? Turns out the people next to you at these events have lots in common. They have questions and you have answers. When you open up the world of agriculture to those in an urban setting, we find a flurry of questions that will be unleashed and guess what, you are there to answer them. Remember this can happen anywhere, so be open to speaking up!
If you or your organization is interested in learning more about how to speak up to consumers about food and farming consider taking our training. You can find more about our workshops and presentations at https://farmfoodcaresk.org/presentations-courses/.