2013 has been a fairly busy year for LFA, with a number of issues on our agenda.
This year LFA, in conjunction with other general farm organizations and commodity groups in Lambton County launched a new electronic newsletter, Lambton Ag Link, to keep Lambton agricultural industry up to date with local issues and upcoming events. To date this has been successful, but we need continued support and input from local groups to keep it informative and useful to Lambton farmers and other interested partners. Thanks to all that are involved and we all hope for continued success.
The Lambton County woodlot bylaw is in the process of being updated. The LFA has been part of the process throughout the year. The Federation’s position is to keep it simple, usable, not burdensome on our members and to focus on clear cutting of woodlots and not have it become a tree bylaw. The final draft has not gone to County Council at this time, and we look forward to changes that may be part of the bylaw.
Promotion of Lambton ag production is an important role for LFA. We do not just promote local foods, which is an important part of our industry, but we need to promote Lambton’s total ag production. We need to go beyond our farm gate production and look at further processing of our products. We need to be part of economic development, looking at bringing industries to Lambton County that will add value to our products, and that make economic sense to be located in our county.
I want to say thank you to all of our Board members for their support and work they have done on behalf of LFA members. I would also like to say thank you to committees, the chair and members for all they have done in carrying out the policies of LFA.
I also need to say thank you to our Secretary, Christina Hyatt, for keeping me on the straight and narrow, and reminding me what needed to be done.
I also want to thank all LFA members for allowing me to represent them over these past two years.
~Ron MacDougall~