The social media lifestyle and motherhood influencer got an up-close and personal tour of the Pound-Maker feedlot and ethanol plant in Lanigan, Sask., as part of the Canadian Cattle Association’s (CCA) social media campaign, “From Filters to Feedlots.” The mother of two, soon to be three, purchases half a cow a year for her own family’s consumption and there was plenty for her to learn about where that beef comes from, she says.

“Learning about what happens locally to your food is something that I think is super important.”

Speaking with Brad Welter, president of Pound-Maker, Gonda learned how cattle and ethanol production comes full circle at the plant as wet distillers grains and thin stillage byproducts are used to feed the cattle.

Gonda told her Instagram followers there are two protein-rich co-products, or “leftovers,” of ethanol production.

“One is a liquid, the other is a wet grain. Instead of these being sent to a landfill, they can be included as part of a balanced diet for beef cattle. One location — producing ethanol, producing beef AND reducing waste.”

It takes a conscious effort to be sustainable and efficient, says Welter in a phone interview, and people in Saskatchewan can feel confident that Pound-Maker is making that effort.

“We’re trying to be as efficient as we can in producing beef and the perception of the public. We don’t take that for granted.”

The industry as a whole is often under attack, with feedlots getting a bad rap. But Welter says they just want to tell their own story the best way they can. Research funding through the Canadian Beef Check-Off Agency helps feedlots such as Pound-Maker find products that reduce emissions at all levels of cattle production.

“Making cattle more efficient all the time has them getting to market sooner. So, we’re using less water, less feed — all those things — to produce the same amount of beef. We’re improving, but there’s always room to improve more.”

Not everyone can agree on the open market that is the internet. People are more than entitled to their own opinions, says Gonda, but they still need to do their research on where their food comes from.

There are a lot of feedlot facts that the general public isn’t aware of, says Lynsay Beavers, stakeholder engagement specialist with CCA, such as how 80 per cent of cattle feed cannot be consumed by humans anyway. Cattle become a waste management tool.

Social media influencers are a bridge between the general public and producers, says Beavers. In the lead up to the release of its documentary, Reduce, Reuse, Ruminate, the CCA invited influencers to tour cattle operations.

“The influencers were a way that we could reach an audience outside of our own sphere in agriculture and teach them along the way, but then they also shared what they’ve learned during their visit, in their own words, with their followers,” says Beavers.

Five influencers were chosen for their social media connections as well as their direct or indirect interest in Canadian agriculture and food production.

Kayla Bordignon toured Brian Thomas’s ranch in Okanagan Falls and learned about the connection between B.C. wine and cattle production.

“Cheers to beef cattle completing the circle of sustainability in our B.C. wine industry,” she wrote on Instagram.

Bordignon’s tour was the only cattle operation that wasn’t a feedlot, says Beavers. It was chosen for the unique circular food system — feeding grape waste, then composting manure back into the vineyard.

The campaign also included Manitoba dietitian Nita Sharda, grill master sisters from Ontario Maddie and Kiki Longo and Alberta mom influencer Jasmin Shannon.

With such a widespread audience, Beavers says they were trying to reach consumers from coast to coast.

“Increases in knowledge lead to more positive impressions,” says Beavers. Reaching consumers and teaching them about Canadian cattle production has been a way for CCA to build public trust.

Becky Zimmer is a freelance journalist based in Humboldt, Sask. Her farming and small-town background has given her a wealth of knowledge and passion for Prairie journalism, provincial and national government policies, civic politics, community events and the challenges of rural health care and infrastructure.

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Too Close to Home, the second short documentary produced by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s Public and Stakeholder Engagement team and their partners, aims to share the benefit of targeted grazing as a wildfire mitigation tool with the public.

“After the success of Guardians of the Grasslands, we had come together as a team at Public and Stakeholder Engagement and decided that we wanted to put together a suite of short documentaries on these benefits of raising beef cattle in Canada and linking them to world events or trends where urban Canadians were really interested in,” says Amie Peck, manager of Public and Stakeholder Engagement.

When the team learned about pilot projects in B.C.’s Okanagan region to decrease the fuel load near urban communities through targeted grazing, it was a perfect fit for the next short film. Set against the backdrop of increasingly intense wildfires throughout Canada, Too Close to Home shines a spotlight on how cattle can help reduce fire wildfire risk in these landscapes.

“This thought of cattle being community heroes in mitigating wildfire risk for these local communities is just such an interesting story and something that you wouldn’t think of as an immediate benefit to having cattle on the land,” says Peck.

Sarah Wray and Ben Wilson of Story Brokers Media House, who shot and produced the critically acclaimed Guardians of the Grasslands, are the filmmakers behind this new documentary.

“They’re just absolutely the best to work with,” says Peck. “They’re just very comfortable working with cattle and shooting in those conditions, and then they just have such a passion for the beef industry and for these projects.”

The film was shot in the spring of 2021, shortly before the first wildfire of a particularly devastating season in B.C. broke out. B.C. Cattlemen’s Association was featured in the film as the pilot projects’ organizers, along with ranchers, researchers, provincial range officers and representatives from B.C. Wildfire Services.

The intended outcome of this film is similar to the theme and intention behind Guardians of the Grasslands, Peck explains, in making urban Canadians aware of the unexpected benefits of cattle.

“We’re hoping that people are open to the idea of cattle as part of the solution, and so in this instance, with Too Close to Home, it’s about being part of the solution in managing wildfire risk, but if we can reduce the amount of big, devastating fire events, that’s also a benefit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Through their filmmaking experience, Peck and her team have seen firsthand the power of video to convey information to the public. While the short documentary format targets people’s increasingly short attention span, it also lends itself well to the trend of people consuming hours of video content.

“All of the research that we’ve done has pointed to video as being so important for our target demographic, which is millennials and Gen Z,” she says.

“So we’re hoping somebody that maybe necessarily wouldn’t seek out a documentary about cattle, instead maybe has an interest in reducing wildfire risk or in managing climate impacts and comes across Too Close to Home and sees how cattle can be part of the solution.”

The film will be launched through two virtual events, based on audience type, the first of which is a producer-focused launch on April 20. This will provide more details on the grazing pilot projects and the research involved in those.

The second event, on April 21, will be geared towards the public. “That one will really talk about how we’re trying to manage some recreational impacts of having cattle in these areas close to these communities,” says Peck.

This includes “the timing of the year, the short duration that they’re there to limit any inconveniences for people hiking or walking their dogs in the area, and then really just high level linking the reason that the cattle are there and economic and safety benefits that that provides to those communities.”

In celebration of Earth Day, Too Close to Home will be released to the general public on April 22 via YouTube. In the meantime, watch the trailer online or visit the film’s website.

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