March news from Farm & Food Care Ontario

Registration opened today for our 2013 Annual General Meeting on April 3 in Guelph. We're excited to be hosting Dr. Wes Jamison, Associate Professor of Public Relations at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida, as our keynote speaker.

Again this year, we're offering two special, free admission, members-only communications workshops on the day before our Annual Meeting - with space restricted to the first 100 participants.

Details on all three events are below. Early bird registration rates for the Annual Meeting are in effect until March 22.

In June, we're excited to be working with a number of Ontario commodity groups and Foodland Ontario to bring the first ever Breakfast-on-the-Farm program to this province. The Michigan equivalent of this program brings thousands of visitors to farms in that state each summer. We're hoping for a similar response but will need help from many volunteers and sponsors to make this event a success. Let us know if you're able to help.

April 2-3, 2013

Annual General Meeting and Communications Workshops

Workshop: Proactive Dialogue with

Canadians about Food and Farming

Tuesday, April 2, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

(Registration opens at 1 p.m)

The Farm & Food Care Foundation has commissioned an ad agency to draft a new proactive strategy to talk with Canadians about food and farming. Come and hear what they have in mind and provide input on what this major initiative should look like.

The goal of the five-year project will be to create a social contract between Canadians and the people who grow, process and market their food with consideration for the five principles of sustainable food and farming: human health, food safety, economics/food affordability, environment and animal welfare.

The draft framework will be presented at this afternoon session on April 2 with facilitated discussion for your input on the strategy and the approach.

Free registration. Open to paid Farm & Food Care members and Foundation donors only. Register by emailing to info@farmfoodcare.org

Workshop: Using Social Media to Advocate for Agriculture

Facilitated by Andrew Campbell of Fresh Air Media

Tuesday, April 2, 2013,

7 to 9:30 p.m. (Registration opens at 6:30 p.m.)

Social Media Workshop event flyer

Twitter? Facebook? Pinterest? What are they all about anyway and how can they help us tell the story of food and farming

Andrew Campbell

This social media workshop will look at best practices, do's and don'ts and how easy it is to talk about what farmers are doing day in and day out. It isn't hard, it just takes a few minutes a day to help improve the image of YOUR business and industry.

Who should attend? Those interested in attending should use a smart phone in their day to day farming activities (and be interested in using social media tools) to get the most out of the course material. Course material will be geared to primary producers although there will be application for industry staff who want to take it too

Free registration for Farm & Food Care members and supporters only. Space limited to first 100 participants. Register by emailing to info@farmfoodcare.org

2013 Annual General Meeting

Theme: Turn Up the Volume -

Telling the farm story louder, clearer and with conviction

2013 Annual Meeting Agenda event flyer

Wednesday, April 3, 2013,

9:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Registration opens at 8:15 a.m.)

Keynote Presentation: "Making Sausage" - Learning how to construct messages that work.

Dr. Wes Jamison

by Dr. Wes Jamison, Associate Professor of Public Relations at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida

Is telling your story enough in this crazy world of YouTube and negative headlines?

Wes Jamison teaches Public Relations classes, Persuasion, Political Communication, and Communication Theory. Dr. Jamison's expertise combines public relations, political science, and political communication (especially related to agricultural politics).

Presentation: Begin with the end in mind - what do our customers really think?

Colin Siren

by Colin Siren, Vice President, Ipsos Agriculture & Animal Health

Colin's presentation will focus on the results of a Farm & Food Care-commissioned Canadian public attitudes study on food and farming.

Plus:

Highlights of Farm & Food Care's 2012 activities
Launch of a Young Farmer social media outreach program.
Presentation of the Farm & Food Care Champion award
Elections by the membership for the 2013-2014 Board of Directors
And much more.

New Location: Hanlon Convention Centre, 340 Woodlawn Road West, Guelph (at the south/west corner of Woodlawn Road and the Hanlon Expressway)

Registration Cost: $75 (Early bird registration fee); $100 (after March 22). Register online at www.farmfoodcare.org

Accommodations: Planning on attending both days? A block of rooms has been booked for April 2 for those wishing to attend both April 2 and April 3 meetings. Call the Hampton Inn & Suites, 725 Imperial Road North, Guelph at 519-821-2144 and request a room under the "Farm & Food Care block" if you'd like to reserve one. The cost is $125 which includes breakfast.

Breakfast on the Farm

Farm & Food Care will be piloting its Breakfast on the Farm program at Heritage Hill Farms of New Dundee, ON. The event will take place on Saturday, June 22, 2013 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Johnston and Dore families' dairy farm.

The program will feature a complimentary breakfast and then self guided tours of the dairy farm.

Other agriculture commodity organizations and groups are also invited and encouraged to participate in the event with educational displays.

Farm & Food Care is looking for volunteers to help at the event and is also seeking financial support.

For more information about the event, how you or your organization can be involved, and the volunteer and sponsorship opportunities available, contact Heather Hargrave at heather@farmfoodcare.org or by phone (519) 837-1326 x222.

The faces behind FFC's
social media efforts

We've been asked a few times lately about who's behind our social media efforts on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Farm & Food Care has been fortunate to gain the help of two outstanding agricultural communicators who work on a part time basis, managing our ever-explanding social media channels.

Kim Waalderbos and Pat Grotenhuis

Patricia Grotenhuis was raised on a farm near Sarnia and now lives with her husband and two young sons on a dairy farm in Wellington County. She attended the University of Guelph, where she received a bachelor of science in agriculture and a diploma in agricultural communications.

Pat has managed the organization's social media efforts for two years now, creating a Facebook page, a Twitter following of more than 3,000 subscribers and a new presence on Pinterest. She's also been responsible for many of the blog postings at www.caringfortheland.com and www.letstalkfarmanimals.ca

Kim Walderbos has recently joined the organization and will be managing the activities during Patricia Grotenhuis' current maternity leave. Kim was raised on a dairy farm in the Maritimes and also attended the University of Guelph where she received a bachelor of science in agriculture and a Masters in Dairy Science. She is now the proud co-owner of a dairy farm in New Brunswick.

If you have ideas for ways we can expand or improve our social media presence, email kim@farmfoodcare.org

Seeking Champion Award nominees

Farm & Food Care wants to recognize an Ontario "Champion" who works to get the message out about agriculture.

The "Champion" Award is presented to individuals, organizations or businesses who have helped to inform the public or the agri-food industry about issues in agriculture.

Award winners will be honoured at the upcoming FFC annual meeting, April 3, 2013 at the Hanlon Convention Centre in Guelph.

Nomination forms are available at: http://www.farmfoodcare.org/about-us/champion-award

Nominations must be received at the Farm & Food Care office by March 22, 2013.

Nominations are open to any who have taken an active role in getting the message out about agriculture. A nominated individual or group does not have to be a member of FFC to be eligible.

Nominations will be accepted from all FFC members, including the FFC Board. Current board members are not eligible for nomination. Members may nominate more than one individual, organization or business.

A panel will select the award winner(s).

If you've misplaced a copy of the newsletter or want to check an item from a past issue, they're all archived on our website under the Media Centre section.

We encourage you to forward this newsletter to other members of your company or organization who might be interested. They can also subscribe directly by emailing info@farmfoodcare.org.

100 Stone Road West, Suite 106

Guelph, ON

N1G 5L3

519-837-1326

www.farmfoodcare.org

Twitter: @farmfoodcare

Email: info@farmfoodcare.org