The Lambton Federation of Agriculture (LFA) was formed in 1941, by a group of concerned local farmers who wanted their collective voices to be heard, and who felt the need for a united voice in the farm community.
The organization helps to develop and consolidate farmer opinion for the promotion of any activity within Lambton County and to help improve the welfare of the individual farmer and the farming industry. We also help to bring the viewpoints and concerns of the membership to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) for policy development and action, and in turn, to interpret Ontario Federation of Agriculture policy so developed to all members in Lambton.
The LFA is the county organization, with the OFA being the provincial branch. The LFA receives a portion of the membership monies paid to the OFA to support local endeavors. If you are a member of the OFA and live in Lambton County, you are a member of the LFA automatically. We take this responsibility of representing Lambton to the provincial branch seriously and to heart.
Directors help to facilitate the spread of information of concern to the farming industry and to all farmers in Lambton County.The LFA maintains a board of up to 23 people, with special invitations for the Women’s Institute and a Youth Farmer appointment. Currently the board boasts 16 members; with six of the members under 40 (this is considered a Young Farmer). This gives the board a unique and valued presence of experience and youth. While many boards struggle with members and volunteers, the LFA has been able to attract and maintain County members for multiple terms.
We meet monthly as a board, and have a total of 9 permanent subcommittees, and if necessary other committees are created to deal with specific issues or events. Some of the recent current issues that we have had input on: County woodlot bylaw, municipal tax increases, Clean Harbors expansion, Food Day Canada, and more.
The LFA’s current president, Brooke Leystra, is a Young Farmer, with a family from a Farrow to Finnish farm in Watford. Brooke follows Ron MacDougall, who held the position of president for 2 terms. This dynamic group of representatives comes with a great amount of experience, education and knowledge in many areas of agriculture.
Consider this fact: in 1931 there were 10.3 million Canadians, and 3. 29 million farms, in 2013 there were 33.5 million Canadians, and 205,730 farms. This shows that agriculture has changed significantly since the LFA’s inception, and the LFA has had to evolve as well.
The LFA has progressed over the years, but nothing as significant as the last fifteen years. With the impact of internet and social media, the LFA has found new ways to reach members, colleagues and partners. The LFA created a website for the county to quickly reach them and their agricultural partners, partners Blackburn radio to speak on the monthly Farm report, and even started tweeting!
Communication with our members and the Lambton County Agricultural community has never been more important, and this can be explained using the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) example. LFA helped get the news out of PED in Ontario via twitter, and followed up when the pig food was recalled due to suspicions of virus transfer.
While communication with our members and the county agriculture scene is important, we feel a key part of our job as the board is education and outreach to our urban neighbours. We have participated in Breakfast on the Farm, Ag in the Classroom, Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce Showcase and Rural Showcase, and we have offered farm tours. We have organized and facilitated Locally Lambton Farm Gate Tours, partnered with Tourism Sarnia Lambton to introduce our county to A.C.T tours. We also have offered tours to the city of Sarnia Council and Lambton County Council. These tours have been very well received, and we have had wonderful feedback. We can’t do these tours without the wonderful partners we have in the county, who spend a large amount of time preparing their farms, homes and equipment for the visitors. They are always wonderful hosts, and we appreciate all the work they do.
Each year, we host a MP, MPP and Commodity group meeting in the county. Each of the four representatives is invited, along with a representative from each commodity group. They are allotted five minutes to talk, and they are able to give the MP’s, MPP’s a written report. There is a lot of candid discussion, one on one conversation that many of these groups would not be able to get otherwise. This annual event has built a strong, respectful relationship between the LFA, our local members of Parliament and the Lambton Commodity groups.
Along with our MP’s and MPP’s, we have had the honour and opportunity to meet with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture Admin and most recently, Minister Ritz, who were both very gracious and heard our concerns.
One of the most recent accomplishments of the LFA is the Lambton AGLink newsletter. We saw a need for the Agricultural Community to be able to identify issues early, share information and resources, and connect across the county to all commodity groups and members. This is a monthly newsletter and all commodity and agricultural groups are invited to submit events, articles and meeting notices. The groups are not limited to LFA affiliation – Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO) and the National Farmers Union (NFU) are also welcome, as we recognize that everybody has a voice and that voice needs to be heard. The AGLink has quickly gained popularity and is wonderfully informative and functional. While we provide 100% of the financing and labour for this project, many of the local agricultural commodity groups provide monthly editorials, articles and meeting reports.
Perhaps one of the most well-known ventures of the LFA is our Locally Lambton Map (locallylambton.com). This map is in its fourth edition, this edition alone has had 25,000 maps printed. There are 50 local farm gate markets, vendors, fair and activities listed on the map. The LFA supports this amazing resource, with donations from the community. We are currently looking at expanding this project to a mobile site, with expanded features. The world is evolving – so must agriculture!
The LFA has worked hard to honour the Agricultural community, and one was it has done this is by being instrumental in creating the Lambton Agricultural Hall of Fame. While the LFA helped develop and support the Hall of Fame, it is now a stand-alone organization, with just the donation of a secretary to help it along. The Hall of Fame will shortly have a home at the Lambton County Museum in Grand Bend, and the LFA is very proud of our contribution to this bit of history, honouring our 5 of our county residents, as of 2013.
- 2010 Lorne Telfer Gordon (1st nominee)
- 2011 John Goodison
- 2012 Russell Hazzard and J. Edgar Evans
- 2013 Former Ministers of Agriculture Lorne Henderson and Ralph Ferguson
The LFA recognizes that youth is the future of agriculture, and has put a large focus on youth in our community. We provide an annual donation to Lambton County 4H, Lambton Kent Ag in the Classroom, the five county fairs, and supports young farmers who wish to attend the Canadian Young Farmers Forum, Ontario Young Farmers Forum and more. In total, over the past 5 years, we have provided local agricultural groups and young farmer opportunities over $35,000 in donations. The fact that we, as a small community organization, can support our agricultural partners financially as well as in kind is something we are very proud of.
Along with this initiative, is our Scholarship Program. The LFA offers 7 scholarships annually to Lambton County Post-Secondary Students, totaling $5000. The seven young people are awarded their scholarships at our annual meeting. Over the last five years, $17,500 has been awarded to Lambton County Post-Secondary students to help further their studies.
We encourage our members to support our community, and many maintain positions on other boards, and this helps facilitate communication between the communities, and builds strong partnerships. Some of the boards that our members support and hold positions on are:
- Lambton Kent Ag in the Classroom
- Lambton County Pork Producers
- CLAAC
- Sarnia Lambton Food Coalition
- Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce
- Lambton Farm Safety
- Various Fair Boards
- Lambton Egg Farmers
- Clean Harbor Review Team
- Lambton County Woodlot Association
- Lambton Grain Farmers
- Lambton Soil & Crop Association
As you can see, while our community has progress, experienced change and growth, good times and bad, we as a non-profit organization have had to do the same. We have weathered bad crops, market challenges, political issues and yet we still continue to grow, advance and ‘plow forward’. We take pride in our organization, our career choices, and our contribution to our immediate community, as well as society as a whole. We believe that we have made a significant difference not only financially to our community, but by projecting a positive rural image and by contributing our personal time and efforts as much as possible.
Thank-You for your consideration.