Dr. Leigh Rosengren has quickly established herself as an expert in the food industry, as she not only promotes Saskatchewan’s beef industry and animal care initiatives, but also tries to dispel misinformation regarding food production.
Her efforts were rewarded on Dec. 15, when she was one of two recipients of the inaugural Food and Farming Champion Award from Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan.
Rosengren is a veterinarian, epidemiological consultant and beef producer who resides on the family farm near Midale with her husband Colin and their children Tim, Brette and Nate. She has established herself as a knowledgeable source for interviews and articles relating to antibiotic use in animals, and has developed and delivered education and awareness initiatives across the province.
She was nominated for the Food and Farming Champion Award for her research, education and advocacy in the areas of antimicrobial resistance and use in livestock production.
Rosengren said there is a special feeling in being the first individual to win the award. She added that she gained a keen interest in the organization after attending their first convention two years ago.
“I attended their inaugural conference, and actually took some inspiration to do more communication about agriculture from that conference,” said Rosengren. “So that was a pretty special feeling to have their conference to be the impetus to get me going, and then to be recognized for what I’ve done.”
Not only does she regularly use social media to promote her findings, but she also has a blog, Exploring Food, Farming and Fear.
She believes that her work in antibiotic resistance and stewardship is a big reason she won, since those are big topics in the food industry. Rosengren has also worked with just about every livestock sector in Saskatchewan.
“I would suspect that most people work in an individual industry, whereas I work right across the board with livestock,” she said.
Agriculture has always been a part of her life. She grew up on a grain farm, and she was a veterinarian in the Midale area in the early 2000s. She earned a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan, with a focus on antimicrobial use in swine.
She has spent the last 10 years communicating with industry, and helping them gain a better understanding of the challenges they currently face.
More recently, she has started to reach out with consumers and the general public by talking with the media and using the internet.
“I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and there’s a lot of fear, and those two are not a very good combination,” said Rosengren. “So I think the more that we can be providing sound, science-based information, that comes with a story, that comes from somebody who actually farms, who actually raises animals, that really seems to resonate with people, (the better we’ll be).”
The vast majority of people are receptive and have a lot of questions. But there are those who are very set in their views, which Rosengren says is great.
For example, the campaigns from some restaurants that tout their use of animals raised without hormones, steroids or antibiotics has contributed to the misinformation.
Those restaurants are responding to market pressures, Rosengren said, but it ultimately insinuates that the food that has been raised with antibiotics is bad.
“It’s a great example of the fear and misinformation that’s out there,” said Rosengren.
On the flip side, she cited McDonalds, which wants to work with, support and build a relationship with Canadian producers, so that more Canadian food can be on the table.
Rosengren finds she is dedicating more time towards discussing these issues, and it keeps getting busier. It’s tough juggling her education efforts with farming and family, but there is a tremendous demand for public information.
Also presented with a Food and Farming Champion Award was the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission for their efforts to develop the Licence to Farm Documentary, which has been viewed more than 80,000 times since its launch in January, and has brought attention to the issues farmers deal with to earn and keep public trust.
She believes the commission deserves a lot of credit for their work on Licence to Farm.
Rosengren noted that Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan initially intended to hand out just one award, but instead they went with two, one for an individual and one for an organization.
