As part of Agriculture Month in Saskatchewan, Moose Jaw’s Food Story was held at Saskatchewan Polytechnic this past Saturday, October 21st.

As part of the month, The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and Farm Food Care Saskatchewan decided to hold the event to create awareness of farms in the area and locally produced food products.

“Just to introduce ourselves to the public so they can meet farmers and dairy producers specifically,” explained Mark Mcleod, a dairy farmer based west of Caronport. “There’s only about 170 farms in Saskatchewan that produce milk. So, there’s not a lot of us and not many people outside of the farming community know who we are, so [we're] just trying to introduce ourselves and show kind of what we do and how we contribute to the local food economy, and [we're] just trying to promote Saskatchewan products.”

Various types of producers, farmers, and agriculture experts attended the event to answer any questions that residents had.

Dairy, grain and beef producers and farmers are just a few examples of the people holding informational booths there, and agriculture experts who specialized in GMOs, hormones/antibiotics and pest management were also present.

Even the Seed Survivor trailer was on site, holding Agriculture in the Classroom activities for any children attending Moose Jaw's Food Story.

“I think the goal is just to remind people that Saskatchewan has got an incredibly strong agriculture sector and we produce a lot of the food that the world eats. We don’t just export all of our grains and beef across the continent and across the ocean. A lot of our food and stuff that’s produced is available here,” added Mcleod. “It’s not just that we produce these big bulk commodities that get shipped across the world; we produce food that people eat every day.”

Guest speakers at the event included Dr. Joanne Ernest on GMOs, Adrienne Ivey on cattle ranching, hormones and antibiotics and Melanie Warken, Public Health Nutritionist for Five Hills, was there talking about healthy eating.

“Agriculture is very tied to healthy eating and nutrition because we need people producing food in order to have food available. Anytime food is produced locally, it’s wonderful because it keeps the food close to us where we’re living,” said Warken. “So, I think it’s really important that we support local agriculture in order to keep those producers close to us. Food that’s closer to us will be more nutritious, it will be fresher, it will taste better and we’re supporting our neighbours in the process.”