Virtual Farm Tours

Ever wonder what happens on a sheep farm? Or what exactly raising ostriches entails? How about how that steak on your plate spent the first year of its life?

One of the dilemmas farmers and ranchers find themselves in is how to show people what we do every day. Of course the best solution would be for every consumer to visit a few different types of farms themselves, but we know this isn't very practical. So the Ontario Farm Animal Council has come up with something fantastic to teach you more about where your food comes from.

They're called Virtal Farm Tours. With a click of your mouse, you have inside access to a chicken, cow-calf, deer, turkey, vegetable, grain, or other types of operations. There are 15 different categories and within those even more tours you can take. I love this site because it really is the next best thing to actually being there. Using your mouse to navigate, you have a 360 degree view of the farm you have chosen, and can click on the question marks for an explanation of different buildings and objects.

Tip: Hold down your mouse and move side to side to rotate the view. Don't try to click and drag.

 Virtual Grain farm

Baby calves on a dairy farm

Egg processing on a laying hen operation

Sheep Farm

This site is a great reference source for any questions you might have about how animals and crops are raised or grown. I found things I knew very little or nothing about and educated myself by clicking through the scenes.

Try it out for yourself. I assure you, you will learn something. And probably spend more time than intended looking through all the different farms. Happy touring!

http://www.farmissues.com/virtualTour/

Meet Your Farmer!

A great new website was recently brought to my attention by my fabulous mentor, Dianne Finstad, who I will hopefully have a chance to blog about later. She sent this link to me after it was recognized by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture for outstanding Agriculture Awareness and Education. It is a project of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture..so far. But my agvocavy wheels are already spinning with how much further an idea like this could go! Before you read on, check out the Meet Your Farmer website!

As you can see, the goal of the website is to create a consumer-friendly space for people to feel like they are interacting with and getting to know the people growing their food. It seems to me like the next best thing to a real live farm visit, which are far more difficult to get people interested in. I think the NSFA has done a great job of showcasing the honest, hard-working food producers as just that. 

The best part is the diversity in the operations they've highlighted. Care for the environment and sustainable practices are common to all the bios and videos, no matter what type of farm they run. They even provide contact info of the farmers if you have more questions or would like to schedule a visit.

I'm sure I haven't found a one-of-kind-site here. Many more with the same general goals are popping up on the web, where they can be easily accessed by consumers. I am quite sure, however, that this is the only one of it's kind in Canada. So what are we waiting for? 

I like to think I have a similar goal in creating this blog. I want to teach people about agriculture in the best way I know how- by giving them an honest look at what I do everyday. So check out the website, I assure you you'll learn something about agriculture you didn't know before. And if you yourself are an agricultural advocate, use it as inspiration to tell your own story! I like to think the Canada-wide version of Meet Your Farmer isn't too far off either.