Sask. farmer and speaker wants more ethical farming, food practices

A farmer and former ethics professor says that industrial farming and food transport contribute 30 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions that lead to "global storming" and uncertain weather events, such as flooding and droughts, that negatively impact farmers.

Farmers, citizens need to change

The good news is that farmers can change their practices, but people need to change how they eat as well, said Nettie Wiebe on CBC's Mainstreet.

Those ideas will be part of Wiebe's presentation on food sovereignty and climate change at the Cooper Institute's annual social justice symposium on Saturday in North Milton, P.E.I.

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"It is up to farmers to change, but we only change our ways when you say to us: 'Look, we want food that we know where it comes from and we know that the animals have been well treated and know that the land is taken care of. We want that kind of food,'" said Wiebe. 

"And, increasingly, citizens are saying just that. Moms are saying: 'I'm not going to feed something to my kids that I can't even read what's in it. It doesn't seem like food. It's some sort of industrial product.'"

Wiebe added that the goal of change is to leave the world in a better place rather than "in rapid decline, which it is now."

"Our lives will be much richer and our food is much better if it comes [from] closer to home and if it's live, healthy, well-produced food rather than pre-packaged food from regions where it's been grown under exploitative and environmentally unsustainable conditions."

Saturday's symposium is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Milton Community Hall. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

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