Guest blog by Andrew Campbell

Have you seen the YouTube video getting rave reviews for Chipotle Mexican Grill? AdWeek says, “Branded entertainment goes doesn’t get much more well rounded or better executed than this.” I’m not quite as impressed.

Chipotle is trying to take on Big Food with the idea that a small, independent scarecrow is more sustainable than a large company. This is problem number one for me. Chipotle implies that big is bad, and small is good (which is strange for a company that had sales of 2.7 billion dollars in 2012).

Problem number two are the production practices it implies. As you can see from the video, a chicken gets a needle that instantly doubles the size of the bird. To me, I get the idea that growth hormones are juicing up the bird. The problem is that hormones are not given to chickens in Canada or the United States. They’ve been illegal for years. So is Chipotle only using fear to mislead consumers?

The third problem, and the one I take personally, is the image of the cows – locked in boxes and piled high, in what looks to be a dark milking machine. It disgusts me to think a company that pushes the idea of integrity, is low enough to mislead consumers again with simple lies. Cows aren’t locked up in boxes and kept in the dark. A picture of our farm shows a completely different sight, yet somehow gets knocked down by a company that only appears to be a big bully.

Because Chipotle clearly is making its name slamming other groups with fiction and fear, I’m going to be filing a complaint with Advertising Standards Canada.

According to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, “advertisements must not contain inaccurate, deceptive or otherwise misleading claims, statements, illustrations or representations, either direct or implied, with regard to any identified or identifiable product(s) or service(s).” Clearly these two images are that.

I also feel that Chipotle is breaking a second standard of that code that states, “Advertisements must not exploit superstitions or play upon fears to mislead the consumer.”

Farmers are working hard to produce high-quality, safe and nutritious foods, and frankly, I’m tired of being bullied around by groups that only try to use fear, guilt, misconceptions or outright lies to get you to change your mind in what you eat.

I hope instead you get the real story, from a real farmer. After all, we are proud of the role we play at bringing food to your table.

Andrew Campbell farms in Middlesex County, raising dairy cows and crops on his family farm.

By Owen Roberts

This column first appeared in the Guelph Mercury. It is reprinted with permission from the author.

A renewed call is being issued for modern-era farming advocates to stand up and be heard, following a new attack by a popular U.S.-based Mexican restaurant chain.

The company, Chipotle—with five outlets in or near Toronto—teamed up with Academy Award-winning Moonbot Studios to create a sappy but sophisticated animated video that takes an opportunistic, mean-spirited shot at commercial-scale agriculture.

The video, which has drawn more than six million views in the past couple of weeks, is heavy on generating pathos for farm animals. Among other things, it shows animated livestock getting pumped full of drugs, one of the greatest myths about farming that agriculture just can’t shake.

The approach reflects the disdain company founder Steve Ells, a chef, has for modern farming in America. On his company’s website, he says what he’s learned about the way most of the food in the United States is produced and processed is “pretty grim. Pigs are raised in stark confinement, produce is grown on vast factory farms with little or no regard for the environment, and dairy cows are confined and injected with hormones that can make them ill in an effort to increase their milk production.”

Farmers have heard all this before and try countering it with “No we don’t!” rebuttals that resonate with some people, but not with those who think they have little control over what they eat and how it’s produced.

By Jean Clavelle

This year marks another triumph for the “We Care” billboard campaign initiated by the Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan (FACS).  The program, which began in 1996, feature beef, bison, horse, chicken, egg and swine producers with their animals and are posted around busy thoroughfares of Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw.

Guest blog by Brent Royce, Ontario turkey and sheep farmer

Recently, a local woman ran 108 km in two days to raise money for Ronald McDonald house of London. Great job!   I found myself wondering why someone would put themselves through that much pain and agony.  Suddenly the question turned around to me and I asked why have I pushed myself past that point of pain.

We raise turkeys and sheep along with about 500 acres of crops.  About a year ago, I started having chest and arm pains, which resulted from three bad discs in my neck and several pinched nerves. So why have I made my family suffer by watching me work myself into more and more pain? Why wasn’t I smart enough to stop and walk away from it?  The bottom line was that I have livestock that need cared for and fields that need planted and maintained.  I have committed myself to contributing to the food chain at the primary level as a farmer. Farming is my dream, my passion, and my drive.  Pain and discomfort came second.

Ronald McDonald house gave this runner a home and a place of comfort when she most needed it.  I get that. The fields, the barns, the animals reward me all the time and provide a place to put life in perspective.  I see life created and given. I see death and sickness which I can treat, but most of all at the end of the day I know I have done my best to provide families with good quality affordable food.

To make my family suffer watching me work through my pain is something I didn’t realize I was doing at the time and isn’t fair, but they know the animals must be cared for.
As of now I wait to see a surgeon; trying to fill my days while someone else does my work for me.  The truth is slowly sinking in to us all that, in my early 40’s, I could be limited to what I will be able to do for the rest of my life.

We have been lucky enough to sell the sheep and all their feeding equipment to someone that is passionate about the livestock and has the same commitment to agriculture as we do. The sheep have yet to leave our farm and that will be a real reality check.  We also have had to sell our combine due to the fact I won’t be able to operate it again without creating undue pain.

We have been fortunate enough to do what we love for 20 plus years and hope to be able to carry on by next spring.

A family that I respect very much has put me up to the challenge of blogging about farming as I know it. So this is my first attempt at it and perhaps we will have more to come on the challenges that have happened and will happen on this farm.

The one thing I can guarantee is that long term injuries in a self-employed business bring with them a lot of emotional rides. Thankfully we have great neighbours and friends that are willing to help out to get things done. After all, that is what rural Ontario is about.

Reprinted with permission from Hurdhealth.com

It’s All Antibiotic Free, Baby!

The following letter to the editor was submitted as a response to an article published in the Ottawa Citizen, which you can find below the letter itself.

Dear editor,

Thanks to Kate Heartfield for her recent piece, The ethics of food. In an age where food philosophies have become all the rage, it’s healthy to ask question and respect other people’s food choices.  Ontario farmers are willing and able to produce such a variety of foods, grown a variety of ways. As a farmer, I follow food safety, environmental and animal care standards to produce the best beef in a sustainable manner in the Ottawa Valley.  Of course there are many additional standards - including organic, free range, halal and even biodynamic - that some farmers will choose to participate in and need to be paid accordingly. Regardless of what a person’s food politics are, I’m glad when they take the time to consider how food our food is produced.  I also value how fortunate we are to live in a society that has so many food choices available.

Gerald Rollins Beef farmer, Cobden, Ontario

By Patricia Grotenhuis

Taking over shares in her family farm while majoring in molecular biology and minoring in statistics at the University of Guelph was not what Kelsey Ottens pictured herself doing when she finished high school.

Ottens, now in her fourth year at the University of Guelph, was looking for a summer job two years ago when her parents approached both her and her brother about buying the family’s broiler breeder farm from them. A broiler breeder farm breeds chickens for other farmers to raise for meat.  The siblings now own the majority of the farm. Her brother runs the farm while Ottens helps with management decisions and works at the farm on weekends and during holidays from school.

“It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.  It’s a part time job, but way more interesting than other jobs I could have had,” says Ottens. Although she is not sure what life holds for her at the end of university, Ottens says she will probably have a career off of the farm, but continue farming.

Kelsey Ottens

Because of her commitment to farming, Ottens is featured in the 2013 Faces of Farming Calendar published by Farm & Food Care Ontario.  Her page is sponsored by the Ontario Broiler Chicken Hatching Egg Producers’ Association.