Promoting what's ours

I'm not sure if it's lack of pride, enthusiasm or money, but something is lacking in New Brunswick with agriculture promotion.

I'm spending a few weeks travelling in Maritime Canada and currently, I'm in Prince Edward Island.

Fruit and vegetable stands are around every turn and maps at every tourist bureau point to the flavour routes... highlighting agri-tourism or agriculture experiences, farm markets and restaurants. Local food is highlighted in every restaurant.

Many of the promotional steps are simple and cost effective. A map with farm markets, pick-your-own farms and other agriculture activities has advertisements -- it's a promo tool that likely paid for itself. With thousands of tourists through visitor information centres each summer in PEI, the spin-off of promoting themselves is invaluable.

Personally, with this handy map highlighting local foods, I'm using it to plan my meals, whether I'm doing the cooking or eating out.

So why isn't this happening in New Brunswick? I know farmers are proud of the product they produce, but are their energies too tapped out to do the promotion? What role does the federal an provincial government play?

Prince Edward Islanders with a special interest in the work of the local international-development NGO Farmers Helping Farmers are invited to an orientation and information session on Saturday morning.

The session is part of the organization’s semi-annual meeting. Farmers Helping Farmers started in P.E.I. over 30 years ago. It maintains an ambitious and highly successful program of community-based projects, primarily in support of small-scale women farmers in Kenya.

The meeting will be held in the basement meeting room at St. Pete's Church Hall, All Souls’ Lane (off Rochford St.), Charlottetown from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

For more information, contact Harry Baglole at 675-4134.