Market Development & Access
Consumer Outreach
Consumers and end-use customers play a very important role in agriculture. Finding new ways to reach this audience to provide them with information on how they can use the products produced by the crops we represent, along with factual, science-based knowledge about how farmers grow these crops is very important to Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA). Learn more about how MCA is connecting with consumers and end-use customers below.
Great Tastes of Manitoba
We are proud to sponsor the television series, Great Tastes of Manitoba (GTOM), as they reach out to consumers to share stories about how food is produced in Manitoba and provide tips for choosing and preparing locally grown ingredients.
For season 34 of GTOM, we partnered with Winnipeg Registered Dietitian Jessica Penner to develop and share some healthy and delicious recipes that showcase our crops. We also worked with GTOM to produce two farmer profile videos: one featuring Korey Peters and his family on their farm at Randolph, MB, and the other featuring Dean Buchanan and his family on their farm at Crystal City, MB (coming soon!).
You can stream our episodes of GTOM on demand at greattastesmb.ca or on the @GreatTastesTV YouTube channel.
Videos
What happens when the next generation returns to the family farm
Fields to Forks
Another initiative MCA is proud to be a part of is Fields to Forks with Bell Media. This partnership is an opportunity to utilize their TV, radio and digital platforms to show consumers and end-users where their food comes from, while highlighting the great work being done by Manitoba farmers and the many ways they positively impact the economy and the environment.
MCA recently worked with Bell Media to produce a video profiling wheat and barley committee delegate Scott Mowbray and his partner, Great Tastes of Manitoba producer Donalee Jones, who farm near Cartwright, MB. Scott and Donalee’s story will be highlighted on CTV Winnipeg throughout October and November 2023. The video is available below.
Videos
Agriculture in the Classroom – Manitoba
Agriculture in the Classroom – Manitoba’s (AITC-M) mission is to “inspire every student in Manitoba with a deeper understanding of how agriculture works, and why it’s so important in our province and our world.” MCA is proud to support AITC-M recognizing that today’s students are our future leaders, voters, consumers, and the like. Many kids have never been exposed to a farm, so it is important they have opportunities to learn about where their food comes from, how it is produced and how farmers are stewards of the land.
Videos
MCA is proud to support AITC-M and the following resources:
Manitoba Seed Kit – An interactive resource that contains seeds from 15 crops grown in Manitoba (fibre, forage, food, feed) encouraging students and teachers to learn about these crops and their importance in our province and around the world.
Foundations of Manitoba Agriculture Resource – A virtual resource that highlights all major crop and livestock commodities in Manitoba, available in three different formats to appeal to teachers and students from K-12.
Follow the Farmers – Virtual farm tours that open the eyes of Manitoba students to the exciting world of farming without having to leave their classroom. Most recently, we provided support to the Follow the Farmers virtual farm tour for wheat, featuring Jason Rempel of Rempel Co. Acres, which allowed students to learn about wheat planting, crop care, harvest and nutrition.
Commodity Weeks – These are opportunities to provide teachers and students with engaging experiences that link them directly to the people and organizations that produce the food they eat, while sharing MCA’s story, highlighting agriculture careers and dispelling myths and misconceptions about the crop types we represent.
We collaborated with AITC-M on the following commodity weeks in 2023: