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Conversations on Sustainability Video Series Launched

Jan. 16, 2013, Mississauga, ON - BASF Canada (BASF) has launched an online video series called Conversations On Sustainability on its AgSolutions YouTube channel. The videos feature highlights from the conversations five urbanites had with five Canadian farmers when they travelled from the city to the farm to see how food is grown, and how the industry can sustain it.

"We invited average urban consumers, who had some not so average questions and opinions about food, to speak openly with the farmers who grow it," says Scott Kay, Canada Business Director at BASF. "When it comes to food supply, we're all in this together. Whether you're the consumer, the grower or the innovator, it's really about us all working together. Through the video series, these urban consumers had the opportunity to speak openly and connect with growers like never before."

Each of the five consumers got a tour of a Canadian farm - in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario - to see the field, the machinery and the crops close up. They spoke one-on-one with growers and asked them questions like how much it costs an acre to run a farm, to how growers apply their herbicides, to how and why growers select particular seed varieties.

"I'm from downtown Toronto. I have no idea what life is like on a farm," says Ron Schlumpf, a banker.

Schlumpf spent a day with Dan Ronceray on his farm in Somerset, Manitoba, where the two were able to share their perspectives.

"We have nothing to hide," says Ronceray. "We produce a good crop and quality products, and if they [consumers] need to know every step of the way, I'm happy to open my farm and show them how we do it."

Other participants included Humphrey Banack, a grower in Camrose, Alberta who met with Detlev Kloss, an inventory control manager from Whitby, Ontario; Curt Gessell, who operates a farm in Delisle, Saskatchewan who met Marie Duggan, an administrator from Tottenham, Ontario; Brian Vandervalk, a producer in Fort McLeod, Alberta, who met Mike Reid, a recent university graduate from Toronto; and Steve Twynstra, a grower in Ailsa Craig, Ontario, who met Gerry Johnston, a registered nurse from London, Ontario.

For more information, please view the videos at the BASF Canada AgSolutions channel: www.youtube.com/BASFAgSolutions.

January 16, 2013  By BASF Canada Inc.