Farmers Encouraged to Engage Public on Antimicrobial Use

The Director of Food Integrity and Consumer Engagement with Phibro Animal Health says farmers need to engage directly with consumers to explain whey they do what they do

by Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online

“Antimicrobial Use and Public Trust: Reframing the Conversation on the Use of Antibiotics in Animal Agriculture” will be among the topics discussed as part of the 2019 Manitoba Swine Seminar, Wednesday and Thursday in Winnipeg.

Dr. Leah Dorman, the Director of Food Integrity and Consumer Engagement with Phibro Animal Health, says consumers are asking more questions about how their food is produced, where it comes from and who’s producing it.

“We want to be able to prevent disease, treat disease and in that way we’re preventing animal suffering”

“Consumers today are smart. They’re extraordinarily smart. They know a lot more today than they ever did before.
They have more information at their fingertips than they ever had before.

“Unfortunately not all of that information that is out there is good and positive information. I think again, that’s where we need to be part of that conversation.

“We need to be a voice in a first person.

“As farmers, it’s our responsibility, as veterinarians, it’s our responsibility to make sure that animals who are sick are being treated appropriately because that’s the ethical thing to do.

“We want to be able to prevent disease, treat disease and in that way we’re preventing animal suffering.

“I think its important.

“Consumers are very knowledgeable at a lot of subjects.

“They aren’t necessarily knowledgeable about farming and in part it’s because we haven’t done a very good job in talking to them and they don’t understand because we haven’t explained it to them.”

Dr. Dorman says consumers are really interested in how their food impacts their health, animal health and the environment and one of the things we need to do as farmers is to be sure that we are willing and open to discuss and answer their questions in a very open and honest manner.