By Andrea McCoy-Naperstkow, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture Even though the weather hasn’t caught up to the calendar just yet, we’ve just turned the corner into spring. It means a new planting and growing season will shortly be upon us – but it also signals a wind down of winter or what farmers often jokingly call “meeting season”. Farm work keeps us busy for most of the year, so it’s during the winter months that we have time to attend agricultural trade shows, commodity organization meetings, educational conferences and other farm-related events. As farmers, this is our opportunity to meet with suppliers, learn about the latest research, check out new equipment and technologies and connect with fellow farmers and others who work in our sector. There is no shortage of events to attend – and while they can be specific to a commodity or agricultural sector or a geographic region, there are also quite a few farm-focused events that are of interest to the broader farm community in general. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) represents close to 90 per cent of Ontario’s farmers, so it’s only natural for our organization to have a presence at most of these events over the winter. This year, this included Grey-Bruce Farmers’ Week, the National Poultry Show, the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Conference, the Northern Ontario Ag Conference, the London Farm Show, Grain Farmers of Ontario’s March Classic and the Ottawa Valley Farm Show to name just a few. I farm in the Eastern Ontario county of Lanark, where I’ve been involved in my local federation of agriculture in various roles for the past 25 years. Last fall, I became a director on the provincial OFA board, so this winter marked my first season attending farm shows on behalf of the organization – including the big show in our area, the Ottawa Valley Farm Show, which took place earlier in March. For me as a director, it’s a great opportunity to connect with the people I represent at the OFA board to find out what’s on their minds and share what OFA is doing to raise awareness of the issues they’re facing. Even for others in the agriculture sector who aren’t OFA members, it’s a chance for them to tell me their story and let us make a person-to-person connection – something we all sorely missed during the COVID years. That’s also the goal of the OFA as a whole in attending these events: engaging with our membership to let them know what we’re working on and getting their feedback on our activities on their behalf. Over this winter’s events, the OFA team fielded questions on a wide range of issues, including how they could join our organization, what member benefits we offer, and how they could access our latest resources, like our annual report or newly released information about the MTO farm guide. There is also ongoing interest in the Farmer Wellness Initiative, a service that provides access to free, unlimited mental health counselling for farmers, their families and farm employees and their dependents by people trained in the unique stresses and challenges of the agriculture industry. OFA continues to play an active role in promoting this valuable resource, which has long been desperately needed in our industry, and we receive ongoing feedback from farmers about how they appreciate its availability. Of course, OFA is an advocacy organization, and our primary mission is to make sure that farmers’ voices are represented on the issues that are affecting their farms and businesses. This winter, we heard from a lot of farmers concerned about the impact of high input costs, unpredictable markets and prices, trespassing in rural areas, and increasing taxes, including the federal carbon levy, for example. We appreciate the feedback and support of our members as we continue to work on behalf of Ontario farmers and rural communities. Agriculture, after all, is one of the most important industries in Canada, and like we’re seeing in Europe and other regions, we need to make sure we protect our ability to produce the food, fuel, fibre and flowers the world needs by keeping farms profitable, competitive and thriving. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 [email protected]
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By Drew Spoelstra, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture Agriculture as a sector often has unique needs when it comes to accessing services, such as banking, financing, and even telecommunications and energy, to name just a few. Insurance is another area where farmers and farm businesses have special requirements that aren’t necessarily covered by more generally available solutions. This is not new; in Ontario, this challenge for farmers dates back to at least just after World War II – and it is likely to continue in the future as our changing climate makes farms in particular more vulnerable to weather related disasters, for example. I’m a director with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) board, where one of my appointments is also as a farmer representative to Co-operators, an insurance company that also happens to be an OFA benefit program partner. The two organizations share a long history, dating back to the 1940s. That’s when farmers were having trouble accessing affordable insurance for farm activities like livestock transit. So, they decided to form their own insurance company in 1946, the Co-operators Fidelity and Guarantee Association, with the OFA joining as a partner a year later. Following a reorganization in 1950, Co-operators Insurance Association was born with the OFA, the Ontario Credit Union League and the United Co-operatives of Ontario as principal shareholders, and in 1978, amalgamations led to the formation of Co-operators we know today. That original drive for farm insurance expanded over time to fill other insurance and financial services gaps for farm families. An excellent example is the OFA and Co-operators working together to design a family health, medical, dental and life insurance program for farmers. It’s a program that is still in place today and meeting a valuable need for farm families who can’t access employer benefits the way many other Ontarians do. One of the OFA’s biggest assets is our ability to advocate for the needs of our members across Ontario and ensure that the farmer voice is represented where decisions are being made. In the case of insurance, I believe it’s important for us as farmers to bring forward perspectives on how agriculture operates, what modern farm businesses look like today and what we anticipate they’ll look like a decade or two from now. Agriculture is very different now than it was even 20 years ago, and as we adopt new technologies, automate processes and become increasingly digital, the types of risks that we’ll need to protect ourselves against will change too. That’s why it’s important for the insurance industry to keep in sync with farming and agricultural businesses. At Co-operators, OFA is able to keep those lines of communications open through a seat on their board, currently held by Jack Wilkinson, and by Keith Currie and I, who serve as farmer delegates to the company. That’s how we can bring forward feedback from our members about the types of products they’d like to see, and where there are current and potentially future gaps in coverage. There is a keen interest and focus, for example, on climate change adaptation and how to mitigate effects on the farm, for example. Ultimately, their goal and ours is to identify and lower insurance risks for farm businesses – and we appreciate the ongoing collaboration with Co-operators, which has been in place in various forms for over 75 years. It’s not just around insurance that OFA takes a leading role in identifying and helping to address needs in the farm community, though. The Farmer Wellness Initiative is another, perhaps more recent example. Almost a decade ago, various research studies confirmed what farmers already knew anecdotally – farming is a high stress sector, but farmers and their families had little to no access to mental health and wellness programs in rural areas. OFA and many other farm organizations worked together to champion the development of this type of programming for Ontario’s agriculture sector, and support from Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs Lisa Thompson and her ministry, as well as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada helped make the desperately needed Farmer Wellness Initiative a reality a couple of years ago. Today, this means Ontario farmers, their families and employees can access free mental health counselling any time and any day of the year from individuals knowledgeable about the challenges of the agricultural sector by calling 1-866-267-6255. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 [email protected] By Tracey Arts, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture With the weather warming up, farmers start to become eager to hit the fields and get spring planting underway. That’s still a few weeks away, though, so now is a great time to give some thought to staying safe and healthy as we go about our daily jobs and lives on the farm. After all, for us the farm isn’t just a workplace, it’s also where we live and raise our families. It’s particularly relevant right now because March 10 to 16 is Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, an annual event that focuses on increasing awareness of farm safety, sharing resources and promoting the importance of developing best practices and farm safety plans. My husband and I are dairy farmers in Oxford County. A farm can be a hazardous workplace so it’s important to know where the dangers are. For us that means not just being careful ourselves, but also making sure our employees have the training they need, whether it’s safely disposing of needles in a sharps container, or knowing where the blind spots are when driving a tractor or a skid steer. We also have two young boys, so we’ve taken great care to teach them about safety as they grow but in a way that lets them be involved in the activities on the farm and doesn’t stifle their natural curiosity about our animals and equipment. The older they get, the more they want to help so it is critical for us to teach them how to do things properly and safely – and to ensure they have respect for the hazards that livestock, tools and machines can represent. At a high level, farm safety is about knowing what to on the farm to avoid accidents and injuries – and not just during busy times like planting or harvest but anytime you’re working with equipment or livestock. That means keeping equipment fixed and up to date, taking a break when you’re tired or fatigued, and not cutting corners when you’re in a rush. When working, shut down equipment before making adjustments or dislodging a blockage, keep safety guards in place and don’t let kids play around work sites or near equipment. Have a first aid kit and emergency contact numbers handy and take a charged phone with you when you head out for the day. On our roads, there are too many accidents involving vehicles and farm equipment every year, and both farmers and motorists have a role to play in keeping our roads safe. Farm equipment is larger than it used to be, and many rural roads have narrow shoulders, making it difficult if not impossible for farmers to pull off to the side and let motorists pass safely. Road safety is a shared responsibility, but anyone driving slow moving vehicles should be alert for drivers anxious to pass you at unexpected times. Watch carefully when turning onto public roadways and making left turns across traffic, and use your slow-moving vehicle sign, lights, taillights and signals to make your equipment as visible as possible to other motorists. It’s not just physical safety that matters, though. As our farms become more connected, it’s critical that we also think about the safety of our data and our online systems. There is no such thing as 100% security, but using current software and systems, training employees to recognize threats, backing up data and using strong passwords that aren’t shared will help minimize risk. Finally, research has helped draw attention to the high levels of stress that farmers face and the importance of emotional and mental health. The Farmer Wellness Initiative is a key resource that can provide when it’s needed most. If you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, you can access support at 1-866-267-6255, with additional resources available at farmerwellnessinitiative.ca. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 [email protected] By Vanessa Renaud, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture Historically, agriculture in Canada has been a male-dominated industry, but women have always played very pivotal roles in farm businesses – just mostly behind the scenes or in a supportive rather than leading capacity. This is now changing. Along with the general demographic shift in agriculture as older farmers are facing retirement and a new generation is taking over the management and ownership of farm businesses, there are also more women stepping into leadership roles in farms of all types and sizes. I know first-hand that this is happening as I work with my father on our family farm near Green Valley in Eastern Ontario. As a Certified Crop Advisor, I also work as a crop input consultant with farmers in our area. But it’s not just based on my own experiences. The latest Canadian census numbers show that women represent a greater proportion of our farmers than in the past. About 30 per cent of Canada’s farmers are women, and in 2021 we saw the first increase in the number of female farmers in Canada in 30 years. According to Statistics Canada, this is due almost entirely to the fact that more women are now farming on their own. The numbers also illustrate that women are running larger farm businesses than in the past. For young women in particular, it’s not always easy to step into roles in this sector, whether it’s part of a farm business or in a wide range of other jobs and careers, from agronomists and animal nutritionists to equipment operators and more. Now there’s a new agricultural mentorship program designed specifically for women that can help provide some additional support. AgriMentor offers individual, one-on-one mentorship coaching nationwide in English or French for women working in agriculture. The program was first launched last year as a pilot project by the Agricultrices du Québec, Quebec’s organization of farm women, through a program called Dimension E, which offers services to female entrepreneurs in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Funding for Dimension E is provided by the federal government through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. The success of the Quebec pilot, combined with the identified need across the agriculture sector for more training opportunities for women led to the expansion of the program Canada-wide and the launch of the AgriMentor program for 2024. It is led in Ontario by the Union des cultivateurs franco-ontariens (UCFO), with the support of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), where I serve as a member of the board of directors. UCFO will match mentors and mentees who each must commit to at least one monthly meeting whether virtual or in-person for a period of six months. The program is open to Canadian women who are both looking for a mentor and those who wish to serve as one. It is free for mentees; an honorarium of $500 is offered to women who serve as mentors. Mentorship is about sharing experience and knowledge and having someone you can use as a sounding board when you are in need of advice or different perspectives. Being able to have some outside feedback is so beneficial both mentally and emotionally, especially when it is delivered in a constructive and thoughtful way. Knowing you’re not alone and being able to draw on the experiences of someone who has been in your shoes offers encouragement and empowerment. Having a mentor is also very motivating as it can help you increase your confidence in yourself, your business and your career. Mentorship is something I couldn’t access earlier in my career, and although I had colleagues in similar situations that I could lean on, we weren’t able to give each other the type of guidance and insight a more experienced mentor can offer. That’s why I’m so passionate about this program and I would encourage any woman in agriculture to consider participating in this opportunity, whether as a mentee or someone who can fill that critical mentor role. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 [email protected] |
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