By Brent Royce, Board member, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Farm safety is a very serious matter. As farmers, we’ve all been touched by on-farm injuries or deaths. For one week every year in March we draw special attention to some of the hazards that farming exposes us to. March 15-21 is Canadian Agricultural Safety Week – a time to talk about the seriousness of safety, become educated and raise awareness of managing risks on the farm.

Canadian Agricultural Safety Week is organized by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. And this year’s theme is “Be the Difference.”

The bold theme empowers every farmer, farm worker and families to make the difference – helping reduce farm accidents and injuries. Most farm injuries are preventable. And we must all ensure farm managers, workers and family members know how to spot and control potential hazards on the farm. 

Safety starts with a conversation. The Canadian Agriculture Safety Week website, agsafetyweek.ca, is a great resource for farm managers and employees. The website includes resources for farmers like Toolbox and Farm Talks, simple tips and handouts for discussions on everyday tasks around the farm to remind workers about the importance of safe work habits and procedures. Topics like how to talk to kids about farm safety, tips for operating self-propelled equipment on roadways, lifting safely or towing large loads are included on the site. Whether a farmer uses the talking tools or takes the time to chat about any farm safety reminder, it can make a difference.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture represents 37,000 farm members across Ontario. We want to draw special attention to this national week of farm safety from March 15-21. Start a safety conversation. Have a farm safety plan. Know that you can make a difference. It’s important to focus on farm safety during Canadian Agricultural Safety week, and practice safety all year long.

For more information, contact:

Brent Royce
Board Member
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-291-8279

Neil Currie
General Manager
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883 

 

By Paul Wettlaufer, Board member, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

As farmers, we know weather impacts every aspect of our farm businesses. Weather changes dictate our daily schedules, cropping seasons and even our bottom lines. That’s one of the reasons the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is taking climate change seriously. Climate change is being discussed at many of our policy meetings, at county federations and in meetings with government. And to make sure we are accurately representing our members, we recently surveyed them about climate – their concerns and ideas on how climate change is or will impact their farm businesses.

More than 2,500 OFA members completed the short online survey in January 2015. With more than 70% of them expressing concern about climate change as it affects agriculture. The largest worries for those members concerned about climate change impacts on their farms are the frequency and severity of weather events, extreme weather events, shifting weather patterns that impact growing seasons and crop yields, quality and cropping practices.

Almost half of survey respondents were unsure if the agriculture industry is doing enough to reduce the causes of climate change, while 45% have already implemented changes to their farming practices to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Survey results confirmed Ontario farmers are already making changes to their operations to reduce the effects of climate change on their farms. Improving farm drainage, changing cropping practices and establishing wind rows were some of the most popular efforts reported for reducing impacts of changing weather conditions.

The OFA will be using the survey results to formulate our messages to government and policy makers, making recommendations for climate change policy and program development. The OFA believes it’s important the impacts of climate change on farms be addressed and considered in policy and program decisions. It’s also important agriculture is recognized for the existing efforts made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We know our members are concerned about the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on their farms. We also know many of them are already taking action to mitigate the impacts and reduce the effects of climate change. The OFA appreciates the time our members take to complete our surveys, weighing in on issues that impact their farm businesses. Regular input from members helps strengthen OFA’s advocacy efforts. 

For more information, contact:

Paul Wettlaufer
Board Member
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-369-7528