The Rural Voice, 2003-08, Page 69People in Agriculture
Johns names local advisors
to NM committee
Western Ontario will be well
represented on the Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture and Food's Nutrient
Management Advisory Committee.
The committee, announced in
early July, will be headed by Wayne
Caldwell, of Nile, a senior planner
with the Huron County Planning and
Development office who is also an
associate professor at the University
of Guelph's School and Environ-
mental Design and Rural Develop-
ment. Caldwell, who grew up on a
farm near Blyth, was instrumental in
designing Huron County's nutrient David Biesenthal
management model bylaw, regarded Named to committee
as the provincial leader.
Also on the committee are: Dr.
David Biesenthal, Walkerton -area
farmer and veterinarian; Gary
Cousins, director of planning for
Wellington County and a representa-
tive of the Association of Municipali-
ties of Ontario; Greg Hannam, a
cash crop farmer in the Guelph area
and chair of AgCare; Clinton -area
chicken producer John Maaskant, a
former president of Chicken Farmers
of Ontario and chair of the Ontario
Farm Animal Advisory Council; Bill
Semeniuk, a chicken and cash crop
farmer who is mayor of the Township
of Zorra and representative of the
Rural Ontario Municipal Association
and Carl Spencer, a Grey County
beef farmer who is also deputy -mayor
of the municipality of Georgian Bluffs.
Other members of the 20 -person
committee are: Dale Cowan, vice -
chair, president of Agri -Food Labs;
Jim Anderson, policy and program
advisor with Ducks Unlimited;
Alaine Delorme, a dairy producer
from Prescott -Russell and president
of the Union des cultivateurs
francoonatiens; Mac Emiry, a dairy
producer from Northern Ontario;
yr Geri Kamenz, vice-
president of OFA and
a livestock and cash -
crop producer from
the Spencerville area;
Chris Kennedy, vice -
chair of the Ontario
Sheep Marketing
Agency; Peter Krause,
chair of Conservation
Ontario and a former
member of the Advisory Committee
on Watershed -based Source Protec-
tion Planning; Theresa McClenaghan,
counsel for the Canadian Environ-
mental Law Association who was a
member of the Advisory Committee
on Watershed -based Source
Protection Planning; David Rudolph,
an associate professor of earth
sciences at University of Waterloo;
Kim Systma, a director of both
Ontario Cattlemen's Association and
Beef Improvement Ontario and
Dennis Zekveld, a pork producer
from Kawartha Lakes who is a
director of Ontario Pork and chair of
its environment committee.
"They will all come together, they
will look at priority one issues, they
will ask the technical committee to
gather information on specific things
that they need and that will happen
over the summer," said Helen Johns,
Minister of Agriculture and Food.
"We expect them to start having
regular meetings in September."0
Pork leaders honoured at Congress
Dr. George Charbonneau and
John Lichti were awarded the
Ontario Pork Congress Award of
Merit at the 2003 annual congress.
Charbonneau, a past president of
the Pork Congress, the Ontario
Association of Swine Practitioners
and the Ontario Pork Industry
Council, remains active in all three
organizations. He operates a swine
consulting veterinary practice in
Stratford and has been involved in
many safety and efficacy trials for
approvals of feed medications and
other pharmaceutical products.
John Lichti is a past chair of
Ontario Pork, was a member of the
original Ontario Swine Improvement
board and served on the board of
Ontario Swine Breeders Association.
In 1995, with Clare Schlegel and
Richard Yantzi, he helped form one
of the first three -site weaner prod-
uction loops in Ontario. Now called 5
Star Alliance, it involved more than a
dozen farmers and has 2,500 sows.0
30 students join
AALP's class 10
Class 10 of the Advanced
Agricultural Leadership Program
will contain a heavy representation
from mid -western Ontario among
the 30 members who will study
leadership, government, political
process, economics, trade policies,
global affairs and other industry -
related issues over the next 19
months.
The successful candidates,
selected on the basis of thorough,
written applications and panel
interviews, all demonstrated
leadership potential through their
involvement in their organizations
and community activities. Farmers
make up half the class with
agribusiness and food industry
employees, bankers, commodity
group staff and municipal and
provincial government personnel
making up the rest.
Mid -western Ontario participants
include: James Cooke, Walkerton
crop and beef feedlot farmer; Judy
Dirksen, Harriston veal and crop
farmer; Ken Filson, St. Willibrord
Credit Union, Ilderton; Jay Fretz,
dairy farmer and First Line Seeds
representative, Guelph; Helma
Geerts, Guelph from the Regional
Municipality of Halton; Cathy
Kennedy, Erin, OMAF; Henry
Koskamp, Stratford -area dairy
farmer; Ed Lee, Thorndale cash -
crop farmer and contractor; Carol
Leeming, Seaforth-area chicken and
cashcrop farmer; Kim Lennox,
Ayton -area sheep and beef farmer;
Geoff McMullen, Sharpe Farm
Supplies, Guelph; Monica Quinn,
Snobelen Dehy Ltd. in Ripley and a
sheep farmer; Lilian Schaer and
Katie Sinclair with Ontario Pork in
Guelph; Eric Schwindt, with
Genex, Elmira who is also a hog
and cash -crop farmer; Andy Van
Niekerk, Stayner-area hog, beef and
cash crop farmer and Barb Zettler,
Teeswater who farms hogs, beef and
field crops.
Christine Dukelow, president of
The Centre for Rural Leadership
praised the diversity of backgrounds
and skills. "A big portion of
AALP's success lies in the
dynamics among participants." 0
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