Agriculture for Life is hoping roadside signs will spark interest in the Alberta’s agriculture industry.
The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers are taking part in Ag for Life’s What’s in the Field campaign, educating people on what a sugar beet field is and about the deep roots sugar beet farming has in southern Alberta.
“We’ve actually taken — over the years — a little bit of a lower profile and if we look back, there are so many farm families who were brought to southern Alberta because of the sugar beet industry. It’s a big piece of the puzzle here in the south,” says Arnie Bergen-Henengouwen, the president of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers.
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Signs along Highway 3 near Taber identify what’s in the fields behind the signs with a website to learn more about that specific crop.
“We really want to tell the whole picture to Albertans around food — what we are growing here in the province, how we utilize it and ways that it connects back to the food that’s on their table,” Williamson says.
“The sugar beets are grown here, refined into sugar here, so we are 100 per cent Canadian sugar and no where else in Canada has that,” says Melody Garner-Skiba, the executive director of Alberta Sugar Beet Growers. “We are proud of that and we want people to look for the Alberta 22 sugar marker on their Rogers Sugar packages.”
The campaign isn’t just highlighting plants grown in a field. Williamson says it’s also showcasing the livestock industry.
“Rather than just saying, ‘It’s a cow in the field,’ we’re talking about the different breeds that are out in the field.”
Ag for Life is hoping to expand the campaign and get more producers involved to highlight the diversity in the Alberta agriculture industry.
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