Connect for Food Developing Relationships from the Ground Up

Connect for Food Developing Relationships from the Ground Up

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

Connect for Food, (CFF) is an initiative developed with the purpose to identify and create opportunities for people and businesses with interest in the local food economy.

One of the ways CFF was able to do that this spring was to host a workshop at the Flat Lake Hall. One of the attendees was Cole Ambrock.

Ambrock is an Instructor with the Agricultural Sciences department at Lakeland College. He also farms with his brother Lance and parents Brian and Sharon who have a grain operation in the Beauvallon area. He has a very unique and interesting perspective and recently shared some of his insights into CFF, the agricultural industry, and working on the family farm with the Vegreville News Advertiser.

Ambrock said he was “completely shocked and awed” about the CFF initiative, direction and mandate and what they are trying to accomplish. “I kind of went in with open eyes and open ears and kind of listened. With their initiative they are connecting people within that food wheel, that’s what they’re calling it.”

He explained that, “When it comes to this project and Connect for Food it is preserving agriculture and getting people to understand what agriculture is, and where it is going and how do we get there.

It’s not us versus them. It’s getting everybody together and understanding what it is. I can expand on this with my doctorate research. As of 2017 only three percent of Canadians had a direct connection to the family farm which if we go back two generations ago, my dad’s generation that number was substantially higher because people at that point came from the farm or had a direct connection.

Where if you look at 2017 statistics that’s the first time in our history that there’s a disconnect between food and where it comes from and understanding. So, if we don’t start educating people now we’re really going to lose it because that three percent will start dwindling lower and lower.

Cole Ambrock on the family farm near Beauvallon.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

So, initiatives with Connect for Food are huge… Part of my doctorate thesis we’re looking at is if agri-tourism can be used as an experiential learning tool decrease misconceptions and misunderstandings. There’s a lot of academic papers and research that I’m reading that shows we can’t fight fake news with social media or advertising. There’s been billions of dollars of advertising that’s been spent over the last two decades and we’re not winning the battle, so we have to find a different area to approach it. And bringing people to the family farm or agri-tourism is a way to do that.

so putting that knowledge in their hands and their power. There’s a lot of left and right spectrums making the message, so we have to educate people. That goes back to Connect for Food.”

Ambrock also had high praise for Alberta Open Farm Days. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Alberta Open Farm Days which will be held Aug. 13 and 14 throughout the province.

Alberta Open Farms Days is an incubator for agritourism and rural sustainability. We bring Albertans together through educational and experiential agricultural-based initiatives to learn about where your food comes from. As well, some of Alberta’s most talented chefs and rural communities will be hosting a memorable series of farm to table culinary events that will be held around the province using Alberta farm products.

According to the organization, “Over the last 10 years we’ve seen Open Farm Days grow from 46 farms for our first year in 2012 to 150 in 2019. Then there was a global pandemic that should’ve put a hamper on Open Farm Days, but still, the farms showed up. Seventy farms participated in 2020 and 90 farms in 2021.

In 2019, over 40,000 people travelled the province to visit farms in Alberta, and injected an estimated $80,000 into farms and rural regions that weekend alone.”

Ambrock added, “I think if we start to open up our own experience to the local community that it will continue to grow. Treat your local environment like you’re a tourist and explore and you’ll be shocked at what you discover and support it.”

He also recommends going to local Farmer’s Markets. Ambrock said most people would be surprised at what they could discover at these markets and the home grown products they offer.

Ambrock believes education and communication are critical and reaching out to millennials, is especially important. “We need to educate the population. What food is and where it comes from. Next we have to develop our own local food system of value added and have those synergies or collaborative marketing approach where businesses in the community are sharing the byproducts and finished goods to make it work. And the third thing was reducing waste in food.”

Being a fourth generation farmer and a futuristic thinker, Ambrock see’s so much potential in the agriculture industry, and through his work both on and off the farm he is doing his best to make it the best it can possible be now and for generations to come.