By Paul Vickers, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

We have all seen the recent headlines highlighting the rising cost of groceries and cost of living. Whether you live rurally or urban; everyone is feeling the impact of inflation and the increased cost to feed our families. It’s more important now more than ever before to support your community growers and producers by sourcing local.

You may be generations removed from the family farm, but you and I have more in common than you think. I identify as an Ontario dairy farmer, but I also fill the role of father, spouse, son, friend, colleague, volunteer and consumer.

Just like you, I purchase groceries for my family, have passed-down traditions, favourite recipes and care about the quality, freshness and origin of the food on my plate. My values are deeply rooted in community, family, environment, and sustainability. As a farmer these values are reflected in the daily effort that goes into nurturing my livestock and crops. As a consumer my values are reflected in my conscious decision to source local as often as I can.

Ontario’s farming families dedicate their livelihoods to grow over 200 food, fibre and fuel items that ultimately feed the province, country, and world. The commodities they produce feed their own families and communities too, which is why you can rest assured that Ontario food is nutritious, delicious, high quality and environmentally sustainable.

Whether you live on a farm, in a rural village, in a sub-urban community or in downtown Toronto, we are all connected through our shared values and principles. At the end of the day, we universally care about our families, neighbours, environment, food security and the food on our fork. We have a lot in common.

To highlight our shared values and commonalities the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), in partnership with Farm & Food Care Ontario, launched the Source Local initiative. The year-long pilot project aims to connect farmers, families and all links of Ontario’s food value chain through shared values and principles. Additionally, its goal is to raise the profile of local food and Ontario’s agri-food sector.

The project was announced November 2021 and OFA’s 51 county and regional federations were invited to apply to secure an activation in their area. To date, 18 county federations have been approved for the project, with three federations already completing their Source Local venture. Popular project themes include friend a farmer, ag hits the trail, farmers and food trucks, drive-in movie nights and virtual doors open farm tours.

On April 23, 2022, the Grey County Federation of Agriculture exhibited at the Owen Sound Earth Day for their Source Local activity. I attended as the Zone Director and helped to hand out seed packets and Real Dirt on Farming magazines to attendees. We also had a photo board cut out with farm animals for pictures. The kids really loved our booth and were so excited to go home and grow their own flowers. It was also a great opportunity to have a brief but impactful conversation with parents and connect one-on-one. It's important that we help connect the dots between where food is grown, how its grown and who grows it. It was a fun, lighthearted day that opened attendees’ eyes to the importance of farmland preservation and sourcing local.

Throughout the year, Source Local activations will be taking place across the province. There are four provincial events planned for Thunder Bay, London, Ottawa and Halton region. The events will include local food samples, agricultural education exhibits and the opportunity to connect with community farmers. They each take place during Ontario Agriculture Week with the goal of bringing people together, connecting over our shared love for local food, celebrating Ontario’s agriculture industry and encouraging everyone to fill their plates with Ontario grown food at Thanksgiving.

You can source local everyday by visiting your community farmers’ market, buying direct through farm gate sales and by looking for Ontario grown and produced identification at the grocery store.

I encourage everyone reading to attend as a spectator to learn more about Ontario agriculture or volunteer as a farmer to connect with Ontarians and promote the sector at a Source Local activation near you. To learn more about the program, visit sourcelocalontario.ca.

For more information, contact:
Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883 ext. 218
tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca

By Drew Spoelstra, Vice President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Empty grocery store shelves in the Netherlands have made headlines recently, as farmers blocked food distribution centres in protest of strict government nutrient regulations. They’re very worried that pending legislation will not only put many of them out of business but will also affect food production – potentially making those empty store shelves a more frequent occurrence in the future.

In nearby Denmark, farmers are awaiting their government’s release of a carbon emissions tax scheme for agriculture, phase two of a tax introduced on other sectors of its economy earlier this spring. They, too, are concerned about their ability to meet new standards in a short amount of time and how it will affect the viability and competitiveness of their farm businesses and their ability to produce food.

Food security is a more heightened topic in Europe these days than it has been for a long time, due in large part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing conflict between two countries who are not only large global food producers, but also the source of many of the fertilizers farmers around the world depend on to grow their crops.

Here at home, the federal government is also turning its sights on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer use, and last year announced a national fertilizer emission reduction target of 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. They’ve now launched consultations with farmers, the fertilizer industry and provincial and territorial governments to figure out how they’re going to make that happen.

As farmers, we very much care about climate change and emissions. We work with nature when we raise livestock, grow crops and work the land, so we’re impacted very directly by changes in the environment and the weather as much or more than anybody else.

And we’ve already been taking action for years to reduce farming’s impact on air, soil and water. The Environmental Farm Plan, for example, was launched in the 1990s by farm organizations to help drive positive environmental change and since that time, farmers and governments have collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars in positive on-farm improvements.
On my farm in the Golden Horseshoe region, like on many other Ontario farms, we have for years followed the 4R Nutrient Stewardship program, which means we apply the right nutrient at the right time and at the right rate to the right place – giving our crops what they need, when they need it, while promoting and enhancing overall farm sustainability.

Not only is that the right thing to do for the environment, it’s also a sound business decision for our farm; fertilizer, after all, is expensive – never more so than this year due to the Ukraine crisis and Canadian government tariffs on fertilizer imports from Russia – so we don’t want to use any more of it than we have to.

To their credit, in their consultation document, the federal government does recognize that fertilizer is an essential part of modern farming and that farmers are taking environmental action – and they’re looking for our suggestions on how we can make the uptake of many of these beneficial practices even more widespread.

We are very concerned, however, that the government has set their reduction target based on an absolute reduction in emissions from fertilizer use rather than one based on how nutrients are actually used. Government metrics for measuring emissions from fertilizer use are poor and based largely on fertilizer sales. This means any success in meeting the target they’ve set would result simply from a decrease in fertilizer sales – and not in actual, meaningful change in how nutrients are used.

That’s why basing decisions on sound science and the practical realities of farming and food production is so critical.

At OFA, we are responding to the fertilizer emissions reduction consultation document and having discussions with government to ensure the farmer voice is well represented. We recognize there are improvements to be made, but farmers will need support from government to get there. This means funding, research and technical support for innovation and new technologies, and transitioning to new practices and approaches in how we farm and produce food.

Most importantly, we have to ensure that any new regulations will drive positive, impactful change without affecting the competitiveness of farm businesses or our ability as a province and as a country to feed ourselves and often the world.
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Once we lose that capacity, it will be hard to get it back – and as we’ve all experienced firsthand over the last several years, the world can change rapidly, and we may not always be able to depend on others to provide us with what we need.

For more information, contact:
Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883 ext. 218
tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca

By Drew Spoelstra and Mark Reusser, Vice Presidents, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
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Ontario boasts a picturesque landscape with a wide range of elements from rolling hills and waterfronts to diverse croplands, endless horizons, and everything in between. Especially in the summer season, it is easier for us to get out and enjoy everything the outdoors has to offer. There are plenty of beautiful scenes to look at and activities to enjoy.

Whether snapping a photo of a vibrant sunflower or canola field or riding your ATV on a trail, it’s important to be mindful of your surroundings and who’s property you are entering. Although farmland appears to be an open and vacant lot, it is private property and entering without permission is considered trespassing. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) wants to remind Ontarians that farmers work hard to maintain this landscape and use it to grow and raise healthy crops and livestock to feed the world. It is important to respect this process and avoid disrupting the growth of crops or livestock at a farmers’ expense. Trespassing on private property is an ongoing concern for Ontario farmers and is unfortunately heightened during the summer season.

Several incidents of trespass have taken place across the province recently, including instances involving social media selfies in canola fields in the Dufferin region. On one side, travellers and tourists are capturing the beauty and essence of a canola field in the countryside to share on their Instagram account. But on the flip side, a farmer is under heightened stress with visitors entering private property, causing potential damage to crops, and creating a liability on the farmer should any accident occur while snapping a picture on farm property. In the recent Dufferin situation, an estimated cost of $2,000 was assessed in damages that the farmer will likely have to cover out of their own pocket. It’s a hefty price to pay. In the Niagara region, trespassers went as far as releasing cattle from a barn which not only poses a risk to the public with stray cattle wandering the roads, but also results in biosecurity and animal welfare issues. Additional reports of trespassing appear on social media every day, resulting in the OPP Central Region posting on Twitter, “It is NOT a right to enter a field to get a perfect photo.”

The impact trespassing has on farmers and their business is far greater than the offenders likely intend. However, that doesn’t make it acceptable. Mentally and financially, trespass can take a large toll. In addition to the existing stressors of uncontrollable elements in farming such as weather, disease outbreaks and equipment breakdowns, there is the unsettling fear that animals or crops might not be safe even with an adequate amount of signage indicating farmland and private property. To put things into perspective, this situation compares to a group of strangers entering a private backyard and taking a closer look at your garden or flowerbed. It’s unsettling and anxious to have strangers in a private area they shouldn’t be. In some cases, the field or barn that is being trespassed is adjacent to the home of farmers and their families. If an invitation hasn’t been extended to enter private property, there should be no assumption that it’s permissible.

The result of trespassing can also cause financial strain based on the damage to crops, animal health, or fences protecting these crops and livestock. By law, a field is considered private property even in the absence of signage which people tend to disregard when they want to grab a photo. Entering a field or a livestock sanction also increases biosecurity risks, threatening the health of crops and livestock. Encountering a diseased species prior to entering a field of a healthy crop or a barn with healthy livestock, can expose the entire population, threatening their viability, especially at times when disease pressure is high.

Trespass can also turn into a dangerous situation very quickly if you aren’t aware of your surroundings – especially on a farm. After pesticides are sprayed, there is a re-entry period that you must wait to enter the field again for safety. Strangers entering the field won’t be aware of this re-entry period without communicating with the farmer first. A bull could be among cattle released from a barn which also poses a serious trampling risk.

Fines and penalties for trespass violations can be handed out by law enforcement under the Trespass to Property Act or the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act.

As farmers, we are more than happy to share the beauty of our farms and the agriculture sector with everyone, but please be respectful and enjoy the picturesque scenery from a distance. It’s important to remember that what might appear to be a pretty picture can be highly disruptive and lead to consequences for both the farmer and the photographer. Farmers work hard to produce food, fibre and fuel for all Ontarians to enjoy, and it is important to remember to respect that objective.

For more information, contact:
Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883 ext. 218
tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca