(OTTAWA) – Canadian farmer leaders emerged yesterday from the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA). The leaders are farmers from 23 provincial and commodity farmer organizations across the country, representing farmers from every province and commodity sector in Canada. The met to discuss the issues facing the Canadian agriculture industry today, including international trade talks, the progress of national agriculture policy development, environmental sustainability in agriculture and food safety issues.

The theme of this year’s meeting was “The ties that bind: forging new alliances.” CFA delegates had an opportunity to meet with and hear from representatives of other producer organizations that are not currently members of the CFA, including the Canadian Sheep and Canadian Goat Federations, the Canadian Cervid Alliance, the Canadian Ornamental Horticulture Alliance and Alberta Beekeepers.

“CFA has always worked hard to represent equally the interests of all Canadian agricultural producers in every sector,” said Bob Friesen, CFA President. “It was very valuable to hear about the challenges faced by these organizations. Their issues often don’t get as much attention and prominence in the national agriculture debate, yet they are producers too and every bit as deserving of support. CFA members look forward to working with these organizations on their issues and challenges in the future.”

In discussions and resolutions on international trade CFA delegates reaffirmed their commitment to Canada’s balanced approach to global trade negotiations. Canadian Chief Agricultural Trade Negotiator Steve Verheul and Agirculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lead Negotiator Denis Landreville gave excellent updates on the status of WTO and bilateral trade negotiations respectively. Following on the meetings CFA members agreed to continue pushing for an “AgriFlex” program component to be added to the suite of new programs under growing forward. Delegates held discussions on key environmental issues including continuing to push for support for a national ALUS program, projects for promoting renewable energy technology in agriculture, and issues surrounding the Own Use Import (OUI) and Growers’ Own Use (GROU) programs. On food safety CFA delegates reaffirmed their position that national and commodity on-farm food safety programs are industry-developed and should continue to be industry-led and administered.

On Wednesday CFA welcomed keynote speaker Wendy Mesley, journalist and host of the CBC program “Marketplace”. Mesley spoke about her recent program on Product of Canada food labeling and issues around consumer information and the media. Her talk reinforced CFA’s push for a new “Grown in Canada’ food label.

Canadian farm leaders were pleased the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, showed he understands the importance of meeting with Canada’s largest representative farmer organizations by appearing to address delegates on Thursday. However the farm leaders expressed strong concern with the political tone and content of some of the Minister’s remarks, as they had come prepared to hear from the Minister and hold a working discussion on important industry issues such as trade and the ‘Growing Forward’ framework.  Delegates were disappointed the Minister was unable to stay and answer questions.

Andrew Marsland, Assistant Deputy Minister of AAFC, gave an update on the process of developing the ‘Growing Forward’ policy framework and engaged in a dialogue with delegates. CFA members committed to continuing to work in close partnership with the government in building ‘Growing Forward.’

Some audio highlights from the CFA Annual Meeting, including the Minister’s speech, will be posted on the CFA web site over the coming week.

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Founded in 1935 to provide Canada's farmers with a single voice in Ottawa, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture is the country's largest farmers' organization. Its members include provincial general farm organizations as well as national and inter-provincial commodity organizations from every province. Through its members, CFA represents over 200,000 Canadian farmers and farm families.