Farmscape for November 2, 2018

An Iowa State University Swine Nutritionist suggests the nutritionist is increasingly being called upon to help bridge the information gap between the producer of food and the consumer of that food.
Legislation-Consumerism-Exports, Complicating the Life of the Nutritionist will be discussed as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2018 November 14 and 15 in Saskatoon.
Dr. John Patience, a Professor in Applied Swine Nutrition with Iowa State University, observes new demands are coming directly from consumers, from the grocery stores where people buy their food and from food service and the nutritionist has a role to play in responding.

Clip-Dr. John Patience-Iowa State University:
I think the antibiotic-free is one of the largest in legislation.
It's also significant on the consumer directive side of things.
One factor that hasn't really affected nutritionists per say but has been a big factor has been consumers demonstrating that they like to feel a little closer to where their food comes from.
Some people will invest more in that than others.
The best example of that would be farmers markets where the consumer can go and often talk to the person who's raised the pig or raised the cattle or produced the vegetables and fruits and so they're very close to their supplier.
Even at the more traditional retail level there's attempts to try to give consumers more information on where their food comes from and in that respect then the nutritionist plays a role because they can provide information on how these pigs for example are being fed.

Dr. Patience says that can play in the information pathway that's being developed between the producer of food and the consumer of food.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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