The Chief Creative Officer with High Heels and Canola Fields has been named the recipient of the 2019 Food and Farming Champion Award. The Food and Farming Champion Award is presented annually to an individual or organization who has gone above and beyond in helping connect with consumers to share the story of agriculture.
Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan Executive Director Clinton Monchuk says the award is a recognition of exceptional efforts to help build trust in agriculture.
Clip-Clinton Monchuk-Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan:
This year's winner was Miss Lesley Kelly and Lesley Kelly farms with her family in the Watrous area of Saskatchewan. She has really gone above and beyond in terms of her blog, which is called High Heels and Canola Fields. She talks a lot about the myths around agriculture and, because of her connection, she's a young mother as well, she has a lot of followers that are urbanites and have questions that they pose to her.
She's done a really good job of trying to connect consumers, urbanites in this country with what's actually happening on the farm. Sometimes there's a lot of false information on social media or Google searches so I think it really helps to build the trust with consumers. We know from a lot of the data that farmers are a highly trusted source of information when it comes to food and farming so the more individuals like Lesley can do to get out there and do the good work that she does, the better informed consumers are to make confident choices.
On top of that, she's one of the founders of the Do More Ag Foundation. The goal with that is to break down some of the barriers and support producers to make sure that they're taking care of their mental well being. She's done an absolutely excellent job of that and definitely a very deserving recipient of the award this year.
Source : Farmscape