UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL   Brooks Marsden, 2, of Corunna got up close and personal – under the close eye of his mother, Katera – with one of the cows at the Forbes family farm on Confederation Line in Sarnia during Breakfast on the Farm. 

Two-year-old Brooks Marsden stood at a wary distance looking at the dairy cow in Kevin Forbes barn.

He was just one of nearly 500 people who got an up-close and personal look of life on the farm during Breakfast on the Farm last Saturday.

The event was designed to give urban residents a chance to see what life is really like on the farm. And Forbes says for many it was a real eye opener.

Agriculture is a $376 million business in Sarnia-Lambton according to a 2010 report prepared for Sarnia council. The city alone has 88 farms which have $14 million in farm receipts.

“People were very impressed…wowed a little bit, not just by how big agriculture is but how it has changed and the science of it ” says Forbes. “Everything we do is based on science.”

Forbes is particularly glad to be able to open his barn doors and show people what farming is all about after video emerged last week of a BC dairy farm worker brutally abusing animals.

Forbes says he doesn’t know a dairy farmer anywhere who wasn’t horrified by the video. “We’re glad to open our doors to the public because dairy has a good news story to tell,” he says. “Everything we do is focus on the care of the animal and to ensure the entire system produces a quality product.”

It wasn’t just dairy producers proud to show off their product; almost every commodity group was part of the experience which included a free breakfast and displays from everyone from egg producers to farm machinery dealerships.