Ontario farmers have scored what might be one of their biggest public relations victories ever, yet it’s mostly gone unrecognized, even by them. I write about it in today’s Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

During Agriculture Week — the first week in October — the Guelph-based Farmers Feed Cities agriculture awareness campaign surveyed more than 800 Ontarians about their feelings towards farmers and farming. Here’s the coup: 99 per cent agreed farming is important to Ontario’s wellbeing.

Ontario farmers should be holding a ticker-tape parade (like the one below, from when the Yankees won the World Series) based on that news, the kind reserved for a heroes’ welcome. They deserve to celebrate, because in agricultural circles, it is the end of a war, in a sense – a public relations war that hasn’t always seen them hold such a lofty standing.