The Senior Manager of Sustainability for McDonald's Restaurants of Canada says farmers need to get involved in social media.
Jeff Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says that's where a lot of people are going to get their information about food and how it's produced.
He points out consumers who have no connection to farming are vulnerable to a lot of mis-information about food production.
According to him, the social license for producers is now more linked to consumer perceptions than ever before - perceptions shaped by what consumers see and read on the internet.
Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says social media is the main source of information for the so-called millennials - and they will be the people making the decisions about what they feed their families and tell their children about food within the next 15 years.
While it's a shift that's coming whether farmers like it or not, he also believes now is the time to engage those people to change their perceptions.
Fitzpatrick-Stilwell was the keynote speaker at this week's Ontario Federation of Agriculture Annual General Meeting in Toronto.
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Jeff Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says millenials will be the dominant spenders in the food market within the next 15 years.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/OFA-Stilwell-1.mp3"][/audio]
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Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says consumers looking for information about their food use the web to research their concerns.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/OFA-Stilwell-2.mp3"][/audio]
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Fitzpatrick-Stilwell points out the lack of connection with farming makes many consumers vulnerable to mis-information about their food.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/OFA-Stilwell-3.mp3"][/audio]
