At the beginning of June, we had the privilege of visiting the Beef Farmers of Ontario’s (BFO) Beef Research Centre in Elora, Ontario, as well as visiting two local family beef farms with the BFO Government Relations and Policy team. BFO also graciously supported us as our headline reception partner to host our spring reception, providing the door prizes and contributing to making a wonderful event happen where alumni, partners, and all friends of the programme could gather!
Our site visit with BFO was a certainly a highlight of our year: It was such a treat to be able to not only chat about food policy, the priorities of beef farmers in Ontario and the agricultural sector more broadly, and the research that BFO is collaborating on with the University of Guelph, but to see for ourselves how much passion there is and how much work is being done to support the livelihood of Ontario farmers and get local food to market. We especially appreciated being able to visit family farms in Wellington County and understand various ways their livestock is grown, keeping in mind sustainable practices. While at those farms, we also talked about the challenges and opportunities for growth that their work presents, and opportunities for promoting to Ontarians a more organic connection to where our food comes from.
Further, it was great to chat about aspects of the agricultural and beef industry with the BFO policy team that we weren’t aware of previously as consumers, such as sustainability initiatives and how interest rates affect agricultural markets, and how policy impacts this work.
Thank you to Thomas Brandstetter, Darby Wheeler, Sloane, Evan Chaffe, and the BFO team for your generosity in many forms, including your support of our spring reception, and for having us visit. We look forward to continuing this partnership in the years to come!