ST. BENEDICT 鈥� Tiffany Martinka has received the Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan 2020 Champion Award for her blog where she discusses life as a chicken farmer living in the Humboldt area.
The annual award from Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan serves to recognize a recipient in the province who has engaged consumers about agriculture and worked to build public trust in Saskatchewan farming and food.
Martinka and her family own and operate a grain and broiler chicken farm near St. Benedict, inherited through her father-in-law.
鈥淚鈥檓 quite active with engaging with consumers and the urban population through my Instagram called 鈥楶rairie Pretty,鈥欌�� Martinka said. 鈥淚 actively share what I鈥檓 doing, when the chicks arrive and what it means to have a broiler barn.鈥�
Martinka said it made her proud to feel her work was honoured.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an honour to be recognized for the work that goes into sharing and creating content. It鈥檚 not always easy to open up and share your life and open up and share your farm 鈥� it鈥檚 not always easy to do those things.鈥�
She said her goal is to gain public trust, raise awareness and educate consumers about where their food comes from.
鈥淥ur population is becoming further and further removed from the farm,鈥� she said.
鈥淓verybody used to have grandparents or cousins that they would visit on the farm, and people don鈥檛 have that anymore. We鈥檙e getting further and further removed from the farm.鈥�
Martinka owns two barns, with each holding about 50,000 chicks that arrive within 24 hours of being hatched.
There, she raises the chickens for 37 days to the weight of 2.25 kg, at which point they are shipped out to a processing plant in Wynyard and used for meat.
鈥淚 want to show farmers in a positive light and show the good news stories about agriculture,鈥� Martinka said.
鈥淲e need to speak up with what we do and show we have high standards for animal care, on farm food safety [and] sustainability.鈥�
Martinka is a participant in the Chicken Farmers of Canada鈥檚 Young Farmers Program and has worked on collaborations with the Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan, Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan and Canadian Food Focus.
