AgScape turned 35 and, like many with three decades under their belt, is only just hitting its stride.
“AgScape doesn’t just give a presentation; we invite students’ big questions and check bias at the door,” said Shaunna MacQuarrie, AgScape programs and resources assistant manager, of the program’s science-based, balanced conversation format during the 35th annual general meeting on May 7 in Guelph.
Senator Rob Black, who appeared via video, commended AgScape on marking four key milestones, including “35 years of empowering students and teachers, 15 years of the Teacher Ambassador Program, 10 years of the thinkAg Career Competition program and 10 years of the AgScape brand.”
Canadians are disconnected from the realities of where their food comes from, Black said, and while government officials, organizations, farmers and advocates work hard to bridge the gap, the best place to start is educating youth.
“Agriculture and food education is inspiring young people throughout this province and helping them learn about the social, economic and environmental impacts of our food system,” he said of AgScape’s programming. “Each of you is helping build up the future leaders of this sector and safeguarding the future of Canada’s agriculture and agrifood industry.”
Amanda Robertson, AgScape executive director, said through the Teacher Ambassador Program, Agri Careers Education, including thinkAG and the Careers Projects, virtual field trips and digital resources, AgScape has reached students in almost every region of the province — moving learning for these students well beyond awareness.
“At AgScape, when we talk about agriculture and food literacy, we’re not talking about recognition or exposure,” Robertson explained. “Awareness is knowing that agriculture exists. Literacy is understanding how food systems actually work.”
Helping to develop an informed public
When people learn to think critically about the economic, environmental and social trade-offs and to evaluate information based on evidence rather than assumptions, they become informed participants within the system as future workers, decision-makers or citizen-consumers, she said.
To that end, the Teacher Ambassador Program, or TAP, is AgScape’s longest-running and largest program. It serves as the engine for literacy development, offering 30- to 75-minute workshops that align with Ontario’s curriculum and reflect the rapidly evolving technology and science in the agriculture and food sector.
“At any given time, we have 10 to 15 active educators delivering TAP across the province,” said MacQuarrie. “They are incredible, passionate professionals who bridge the gap between rural and urban centres, sparking ‘aha’ moments in both English and French, virtually and in person.”
TAP is experiencing record-breaking momentum, reflected by 14 educators delivering 135 workshops in 15 teaching days in December 2025 alone, she shared.
“Even with a snow day in the mix, that is an average of nine workshops reaching over 200 students every single teaching day,” MacQuarrie said. “The demand for the Teacher Ambassador Program is officially outpacing our capacity.”
To take TAP to the next level requires a shift in thinking and unrestricted funding to provide the agility to attract, hire and retain professional educators, particularly in regions currently beyond the program’s reach.
“We don’t want to just be a guest in a classroom once or twice a year; we want to become a permanent pillar of Ontario’s education system,” she said. “To deepen the experience and move beyond single presentations and into hands-on, multi-sensory learning that sticks with students for a lifetime and hits them at multiple places along their educational journey.”
Program creates an awareness of opportunity
Rene Van Acker, president of the University of Guelph and former dean of the Ontario Agricultural College, said AgScape’s shift to broaden its focus from agricultural advocacy to raising awareness about the sector’s needs and career opportunities for young people has strengthened the partnership with the school.
Among the “greatest challenges” for farms and businesses in the sector, he said, is to supply a pipeline with “highly qualified people to help them establish or grow in the agriculture and food sector. We understand together that AgScape is the front end of that pipeline.”
Lillie Ann Morris became a corporate sponsor in 2003 because she believed education is essential to address the widespread lack of understanding of our food production system.
Creating awareness of longterm soil care and farmland protection happens in the classroom and, Morris theorized, at the rate prime agricultural land is being lost to non-agricultural uses, by 2085, there will be 25 per cent more people to feed with 30 per cent less arable land when we reach peak population.
“Healthy soil is not just an agricultural issue, it’s a societal one, and fundamental to food security,”
she said. “Food availability drives affordability, and that determines our standard of living. It underpins our economy and helps ensure political stability.”
Sarah Andrewes, AgScape vice-chair, said that 35 years ago, after working on her family’s stone fruit farm in Niagara, she realized in her first year at university that many Canadians knew little about the agriculture or food sectors.
“I am really glad that 35 years ago, there were people who were paying attention … finding ways to embed agriculture and food into learning,” she explained. “(AgScape) is fortunate to have benefited from the wisdom of many people in the education and agriculture sectors and beyond … (who) have helped to steward this organization to where it is today.”
AgScape members and supporters who invest their time and money into AgScape are critical to the success and expansion of the organization’s programs, she said.
“Your investment is an investment in the future of food and the education of the next generation,” she said. “It allows us to innovate and to expand and to have the flexibility to reach even more students.”
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