The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) returned to Queen’s Park recently for its first in-person outreach day since the start of the pandemic. Outreach events are when the OFA board directors and executives spend the day meeting with provincial politicians from all parties and their staff to familiarize them with Ontario agriculture and the issues that matter to farmers and rural communities.

There was some welcome news for farmers in the Ontario budget released last week. The provincial government announced new funding for veterinary training, and an agricultural soil health and conservation strategy, as well as ongoing investments into expanding high-speed internet access across Ontario.

All three of these areas are ones where the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) had identified a need for investment and had been encouraging the provincial government to support to ensure the ongoing resilience of our food system.

This week, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is heading to Queen’s Park to meet with members of our provincial government. This is our first outreach day since last June’s provincial election, so it will be both an opportunity to visit with re-elected MPPs as well as get to know some of those who are serving their first terms at Queen’s Park.

In Canada’s agriculture sector, last year’s announcement by the federal government about fertilizer emissions reductions has stirred plenty of conversation and confusion.

Spring is just around the corner and that means farmers will soon be hitting the fields to get this year’s crops into the ground. It’s a busy time of year, which makes it more important than ever to keep safety top of mind.

Women have long played a very pivotal although often unseen role in Canadian agriculture. Traditionally, that role has been one of support, from doing the farm books and helping with chores, to raising the family, managing the household and whatever else was needed behind the scenes to keep things running.

A statistic that is often used in relation to our agriculture sector is the fact that Canada’s farmers are getting older, with the average age nation-wide being 56. That means a lot of farm businesses will be changing hands in the next 10 to 15 years as older farmers retire.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is a provincial organization that represents Ontario’s farmers on the issues that matter to them. Most of those issues are provincial in nature, and we work with governments at the municipal and provincial levels to raise awareness and find solution to matters that impact farmers.

It’s that time of year again when many of us turn our attention to numbers and columns. For the Ontario government, it means turning its focus to the next provincial budget. As part of that process, they hold consultations to find out what Ontarians feel is important and to get input into where and how different groups and sectors of the economy think budget funding should be allocated.

Ontarians have long been supporters of local food, buying directly from farmers at on-farm markets, visiting the ever-growing number of farmers’ markets in the province, or encouraging local retailers to stock local products.