Wake up with RealAg

The government of Canada, and the Manitoba provincial government, are providing support to Agriculture in the Classroom — Manitoba (AITC-M), to adjust its educational and outreach resources.

The funding, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will help with an increased demand for digital, online, and adapted in-person resources.

Federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says the $146,6000 investment will allow AITC-M to continue through the changing times.

“Connecting Canadian youth with the farming and agri-food industry is more important than ever during these challenging times,” Bibeau explains. “This investment will allow Agriculture in the Classroom to help both Manitoba’s teachers and students adapt to new realities as they continue to learn about our innovative agricultural sector.”

The dollar amount is being provided through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP), which will help AITC-M adopt a new service delivery method. In 2019 alone, AITC-M reached nearly 38,000 students through events, programs, and professional development days.

Sue Clayton, executive director of AITC-M says that during this time of uncertainty, the program’s vision to educate students about how their food gets from the farm to their table has never wavered.

“It just needs to be done differently,” Clayton explains. “We believe all students in Manitoba should be agriculturally literate when they graduate. Thanks to the generous support from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership program, we move closer to this goal as more students will be able to expand and deepen their knowledge of Canadian agriculture.”

One of the few agriculture tradeshows still on the calendar for an in-person event has now officially been cancelled.

Agri-Trade Equipment Expo was to be held November 11 – 13 at Westerner Park, at Red Deer, Alta. Initially, organizers had committed to hold the event despite COVID-19, but in line with provincial health and safety guidelines.

Although Alberta’s Relaunch Strategy guidelines do allow for trade shows to take place, considering all factors, organizers felt they had no choice but to cancel the show, according to a press release.

“After hundreds of event cancellations over the past six months, we wanted to try everything we could to safely and successfully host Agri-Trade, once we were given the green light for tradeshows by Alberta Health Services. But as we monitor the environment and the ongoing challenges and feedback from exhibitors and stakeholders, we feel that the risks outweigh the reward in pushing forward this year,” says Mike Olesen, CEO for Westerner Park.

While the show itself may have been able to accommodate safety restrictions, many agriculture company corporate policies have restricted travel, impacting both exhibitor participation and attendance for the event.

“With so many concerns around the current situation with COVID-19, many companies have implemented restricted travel policies. With a significant number of companies having to cancel, we felt that the show would not be representative of the Agri-Trade brand.  This was not a decision that was made lightly, we left no stone unturned as we were making this decision,” says David Fiddler, Agri-Trade Expo show manager.