THE BRANDON SUN • WINTER FAIR • MARCH 2023
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Three girls pet a rabbit during the opening day of the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in 2022. (File/The Brandon Sun)
Ag education an integral part of the winter fair experience
BY MIRANDA LEYBOURNE
program, livestock sales and displays and over 300 commercial and agricul- tural exhibits. Farmers and their ani- mals will be at the Royal Farm Yard, a 44,000-square-foot petting zoo, cattle shows and more. Agriculture has always been the pinnacle theme of the fair, said Mark Humphries, general manager of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba. From when the fair first began and was aimed at producers to now, when it draws in people who call both rural and urban centres home, the event continues to revolve around the agri- cultural industry. “Agriculture is still vital to every- body’s lives, and it’s still one of our major considerations with every- thing we do with the fair,” Humphries
said. “We want to educate people as to where their food comes from and how much agriculture does for the environment.” In 2021, Canada’s agriculture and agri-food industry employed 2.1 mil- lion people, providing one in nine jobs in Canada and generating $134.9 billion (around 6.8 per cent) of Cana- da’s gross domestic product, the fed- eral government says. It’s vital that people of all ages un- derstand where their food comes from and how big a role agriculture plays in their everyday lives, Hum- phries said. To help with this, the fair is offering a variety of educational ex- periences.
The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is shining a spotlight on the importance of agriculture in Manitoba, Canada and the world at this year’s event, which runs from March 27 to April 1, during the province’s annual spring break. The people behind the fair, which is one of Western Canada’s largest agri- cultural events and the largest event that is held in Brandon, will leave attendees with a renewed apprecia- tion of hard-working producers and a deeper understanding of how integral the industry truly is to the economy and society. Part of the fair’s program this year is a hands-on agricultural education
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