ATB Financial Pays Tribute to Alberta Farmers with Special Video
By Jean-Paul McDonald
Farms.com
‘Long Love This Land’ is the title of a new video produced by ATB Financial, a financial institution and crown corporation owned by the province of Alberta since 1938, to honor the hard-working men and women who shape the face of the province’s thriving agriculture sector.
The video showcases the diversity of the agri-food industry in the province, along with stunning imagery and a great soundtrack. Not only does the video show us the faces and places that make it all happen, it also provides some key facts about Alberta’s ag industry (stats from 2016):
- Alberta has over 50 million acres of farmland (34% of the land in the entire province)
- 71% of Canada’s irrigated land
- 73,000 Albertans are employed in the agri-food business
- Around 31% of farm operators in Alberta are women (the second highest proportion in Canada)
- $10 billion in Alberta agri-food exports
- $6.6 billion in real domestic product
- $1.7 billion in beef and $623 million in live cattle
- 108,460 bison in the province (just over half of all bison in Canada)
- 45% of Canada’s honey production – worth $93 million annually
- 15,000 tonnes of vegetables grown annually
- 30% of all the canola planting in Canada (worth $21.4 billion in exports)
- Alberta is the only province in Canada to produce sugar from sugar beets
- 11,000 tonnes of refined sugar exported to the U.S.A.
- In 2016, Alberta exported over half of all the malt produced in Canada, and 1,919,528 metric tonnes of barley – enough to make 26 to 40 million bottles of beer!
- Alberta has 58 breweries – a number that’s growing fast
- 1.6 million tonnes of Durum wheat
- There are 141 family-run potato farms in Alberta, employing over 2,000 people
- Over 1 million acres of lentils are farmed in Alberta
With 70% of consumers saying their food purchase decisions are affected by how food is grown or raised, it’s surprising to learn that over 90% of those consumers say they know little about our farming and ranching practices. Well, this video should help with that!