April 20, 2006
Membership of OFA/LFA
Membership of OFA/LFAThe OFA is a farmer-lead dynamic provincial lobby which works to represent the interests of its farm members to government.
As the largest, voluntary general farm organization in the country, OFA has more than 38,000 members, as well as 32 organizational members and affiliates representing most agricultural commodity groups.
Today the OFA continues to work hard to ensure that all levels of government hear Ontario farmers’ concerns.
This year’s statistics are not complete as yet, but in 2005, there were approximately 1900 OFA members in Lambton County.
Importance of Farming Businesses in Lambton
Rural areas in Ontario have experienced a decline in the number of farms and farmers. Agriculture is the 2nd largest business in Lambton County behind the Manufacturing Industries.
In 1999 a study showed there were 8,926 jobs in Lambton County and over $773 million dollars in sales tied to agriculture in Lambton County. For every job in agriculture, there are an additional 1.28 jobs outside agriculture, and for each dollar in sale in agriculture, there are $1.57 in sales in ag-related businesses.
The majority of farmland in Lambton County is devoted to crops, 490,595 acres total with the major field crops including soybeans, corn for grain and winter wheat.
The Farm Income Fight continues!
On April 5, 10,000 farmers from Ontario, Quebec and across Canada joined together on Parliament Hill to tell the federal government what farmers need to cure the income crisis. We are grateful to the grassroots organizers and our colleagues from UPA (Quebec) in making sure the message was heard.
However, the federal government has not yet committed to the multi-year income programs Ontario and Canadian farmers need.
Ontario farmers need to ensure the federal government implements and provides adequate funding for Risk Management, SDPI and horticulture programs as developed by our commodity organizations. We also need the identified changes to CAIS in the near term.
- Support the Risk Management and Production Insurance programs put forth by farmers;
- Immediate bridge funding to the next APF is needed to keep farmers in production;
- Terms of the funding must be flexible to allow provinces to help their producers – one size does not fit all;
- Existing marketing systems such as supply management have to have ongoing government support