An Alberta farm safety campaign is getting a second life by going national.
AgSafe lapel ribbons premiered in Alberta in 2012 to raise awareness about farm safety in the province, said Kenda Lubeck who is a farm safety co-ordinator for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
“We wanted a visual that would encourage discussions for every- body who has a stake in farm safety, whether it was somebody consuming food or the farmer putting it in the ground, you could identify yourself with the role that you could play in farm safety,” she said. “And we had a pretty good run with it.”
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Although the response to the campaign was favourable, Lubeck says that ultimately, the team decided it could only be pushed for so long until interest in them naturally waned. It was a coincidence that they had just started to talk about potentially reviving the initiative again in 2016 when the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association called proposing a national AgSafe ribbon campaign in celebration of Canadian Agri- cultural Safety Week.
Bundles of ribbons can be requested at www.casa-acsa. ca for farm safety associations, agricultural groups, producer organizations, and agribusiness employees.
Wearing the AgSafe ribbon, like the proverbial string tied on your finger, serves as a reminder that everyone plays a role in ensuring safety is practised on a farm.
“And, sometimes, we just have to celebrate the things that we do right,” Lubeck said.
