Farm tours provide a great opportunity for farmers to connect with their communities, and for community members to learn about how their food is grown. For students especially, farm visits and tours are excellent conduits for experiential education.
Although on-farm visits have been put on pause due to COVID-19, farm and food education has been able to carry on thanks to some creativity.
In 2020, Dufferin County’s popular Farm Tour decided to go virtual with a captivating video featuring 11 different farm operations across the county. This video could be a great resource for classrooms across the country.
The personable interviews and diversity of farms highlighted in this video—from cash crops, to sheep, to biodynamic agriculture and more—offer an exciting glimpse into farm life, our food system, and who grows our food.
“I think local food is very important,” the video begins. “In the last 6 months I think that’s been really shown to people, that they need to figure out where food is growing and where it’s coming from, that the grocery store shelves aren’t just stocked all the time.”
The video tour was first screened with a live viewing party on Facebook in October 2020, but has since been shared broadly, including throughout some schools in the Headwaters Region due to its great educational value! The video has even won a 2020 Award of Distinction from the Canada Shorts Film Festival.
We highly encourage you to watch the 23-minute video and share with any educators and students who might be interested:
