The Rural Voice, 2003-05, Page 66BRUCE
Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca
website: www.ofa.on.ca/bruce
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
• The Rural Voice is provided to Bruce
County Farmers by the BCFA.
Ontario Federation of Agriculture delivers
1. OFA is 40,000+ farm families in
Ontario. That means:
• a large majority of farm families
see value in building a strong,
united farm voice;
• farm families in all types of
commodities, and all sizes of
operations are part of OFA;
• farmers have meaningful members
when representing agriculture to
government;
• the ability to fund local boards,
provide county offices, and maintain
a provincial board to deal with
issues that affect farmers across the
province.
2. OFA members democratically elect
both local directors and provincial
board members. That means:
• the County Federation board is
elected by grass roots members for
local issues;
• there is grass roots involvement
and perspective at the provincial
board;
• the leaders are responsible to the
members;
• OFA is "Farmers working for
Farmers".
3. OFA is an umbrella group
that
includes a large and diverse cross-
section of commodity, educational and
other farm organizations. That means:
• a board of over 100 directors who
represent all areas of the province
and many commodities, coalitions
and other groups — in effect a
farmers' parliament;
• farm families are represented two
ways — by their Federation director
and also by a Commodity
representative;
• issues are reviewed and debated
from all perspectives before policy
is decided;
• all general farm issues have the
opportunity for discussion and
action at local level as well as the
provincial board.
OFA has field staff in local districts.
4.
That means:
• farm families have someone to
help them with: information,
problem solving, and understanding
issues;
• local Federation boards have
support services for meetings, policy
decisions, special events and
projects, public relations, as well as
leadership development;
Roots of Bruce successful again
The Roots of Bruce, which is an
agricultural education project
designed to give children in grades 5
and 6 a better understanding of
farming in Bruce County, was held
this year on April 10 and 11.
About 800 students from 17
schools which participated in the
ROB. Each school visited for half a
day.
The displays included such things
as live animals, videos,
demonstrations, product samples,
equipment, games and hands-on
learning.
The displays were housed in three
buildings at the Walkerton
fairgrounds. Each school was divided
up into six groups which allowed the
class to see all the displays even
though each student only toured one
building.
62 THE RURAL. VOICE
A big thank you goes out to all the
commodities and volunteers who
worked so hard to make the program
such a success. Also thank you to the
Women's Institute for the wonderful
ham and roast beef dinners they
prepared for us and to St. John
Ambulance for their availability on
those days. Last but not least, a
special thanks to Ron Fleet who
shared of his time and talent to play
the bag pipes for the children at the
end of each session.0
— Submitted by Christine Weber
Secretary for the Roots of Bruce
BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION
OF AGRICULTURE
THERE WILL BE NO BOARD OF
DIRECTORS' MEETING IN MAY
Next meeting will be Monday,
June 23, 2003
5. OFA has research staff. That means:
• issues that arise at provincial board
meetings are reviewed for historical
perspective, impact on farm
practices, economic effect, and other
factors;
• the Board of Directors has
background information to help
them make decisions;
• committees have support staff to
help with their work;
• support is provided to other farm
efforts such as coalitions.
6. OFA is non-partisan. That means:
• the organization represents the
interest of farmers, their families,
their businesses and their
communities, to whatever govern-
ment is in power;
• policies are presented to elected
representatives from all parties
• OFA respects the offices of
government while speaking on
behalf of farmers.
7. OFA has a history of positive
achievement. That means:
• farmers have worked together for
over 65 years to create positive
solutions;
• government and the public have
come to recognize the `Voice of
Farmers in Ontario';
• OFA works. OFA delivers.0
The County Line
Bruce Federation of
Agriculture
CONGRATULATIONS!
To Roger Thorne on winning the
prestigious
TOMMY COOPER AWARD
for outstanding service to agriculture
and the community
Presented by CFOS/CFPS and
The Sun Times
Also to Walter Hellyer
for receiving the
AWARD OF MERIT
for contribution to agriculture
in Bruce County
Presented by BCFA