TORONTO - Ontario's fruits, veggies and meat are about to get a higher profile on local grocery store shelves as the province launches a major marketing campaign to promote homegrown products, Premier Dalton McGuinty told farmers Thursday.

Food that is grown in Ontario is often not available at the store down the street -- and can be practically invisible when it is, McGuinty said.

"That is unacceptable,'' McGuinty told the Premier's Summit on Agri-Food, an annual forum for farmers, food industry officials and government representatives to talk about the challenges facing the province's agri-food sector.

"When farmers work hard and can't get their goods to market, when consumers can't find on their grocery shelves, it's not just farmers who suffer -- it hurts all of us,'' he said.

"It's time for some fresh thinking.''

Without divulging details, McGuinty said the province will be launching a "Buy Ontario'' campaign which will be "hard to miss.'' McGuinty said he's also been meeting with food retailers to press them to stock their shelves with homegrown produce.

"It's not enough to produce quality -- we have to promote it as well,'' he said. "As a government, we can hardly ask people to buy Ontario if we're not buying it ourselves.''

It's a problem that's well-known to Ontario farmers. Geri Kamenz, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said shoppers can't often tell the difference between Ontario products and imports.

"It's a huge issue,'' he said. "We've always said that the consumer doesn't have the ability to differentiate Ontario products.''

The province's "Foodland Ontario'' program did a good job of promoting fruit and veggies but more must be done, said Kamenz. Shoppers, he said, would buy a whole range of products beyond produce if they knew those products were homegrown.

And Ontario farmers, who often live with razor-thin profit margins, need all the help they can get, said Kamenz, who warned the high cost of farming in Ontario makes it difficult to survive a market downturn.

"It's tough to be a farmer.''

The problems facing Ontario farmers won't be solved by a marketing campaign that's four years too late, complained Conservative Leader John Tory, noting the Liberals promised to make agriculture a lead ministry in their government.

Instead, the Liberals have cut agriculture funding and have waited until an election year to improve the branding of Ontario products, Tory said.

"Where has Mr. McGuinty been for the last four years?'' he asked. "He has been in government and done nothing up until now. It's never too late but he's wasted four years.''

Better marketing is going to help, but farmers also need a government-funded program that helps protect them during the tough times, Tory said.

The province announced $5.9 million Thursday for a research project to turn Ontario's wheat, corn and soybeans into materials for the auto industry.

But New Democrat Peter Kormos said it makes no sense to spend cash on long-term obscure research projects and marketing campaigns when farmers desperately need help to address a more pressing crisis.

"There was no money here today for farmers,'' he said. "Farmers are suffering now. The crisis in farm income is today -- not 10 and 15 years from now. They can't afford to wait.''