2014 has been another great year for the Lambton Federation of Agriculture!
It has been a year of fostering relationships. As a board, we are working to be a predominant source for information about Agriculture in Lambton County. We hope that by developing these relationships with various groups and individuals in the County we can help raise awareness of our industry and its importance in Lambton. We are working to serve our members as a voice for and about agriculture, advocating on behalf of an industry that is so vital to not only our County but to our Nation and the World we live in.
We continue to represent Lambton Agriculture by attending and participating at local events and meeting with various groups including the Christian Farmers Federation, the National Farmers Union, various local commodity groups, the Lambton Children’s Safety Village, the Food Coalition, Lambton Community Food Access, the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce, Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership, Source water protection, the County of Lambton Ag Advisory Committee, Sarnia Lambton Workforce Development Board, County Councilors, local Municipalities, the Southwest Economic Alliance, Lambton-Kent Agriculture in the Classroom …just to name a few.
We started the year off with a mail out to our local members to update them on what the LFA has been working on and to gather contact information for our members so we can better serve them and get information out about what is going on in our local agricultural community. The response to this letter was overwhelming and we thank everyone who replied!
In June, we partnered with Sarnia Lambton Business Development Corporation and the Lambton County Egg Farmers to run an event called Breakfast on the Farm. This was a free breakfast for 500 guests, held at the Farm of Kevin and Melissa Forbes and Family and was an amazing opportunity to educate people about agriculture in Lambton County. We could not have done it without a long list of sponsors that were incredible. The event was so successful we hope to hold it again in June 2015.
We were also fortunate enough to be chosen to host the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s roving summer meeting this year in Lambton County. We took the OFA board on a tour of the County and introduced them to our beautiful local scenery and the many unique features of our County.
The Lambton Ag Link e-newsletter continues to be a great success with more interest in contributing to the monthly newsletter and an ever growing list of subscribers. The Lambton Federation of Agriculture encourages all local Commodity groups to participate and is happy to help other relevant not-for-profit groups communicate to the rural community.
The LFA was also very active in facilitating all candidates meetings for the provincial election and was very sure to communicate local agricultural and rural community concerns and issues to all the candidates. Also, for the first time ever, we held local municipal election meetings. Feedback from these meetings was positive and we hope to develop them further for the next municipal election.
Finally, Aim happy to report the LFA is currently working on the 5th edition of the Locally Lambton Map. This has been a long time project of the LFA’s and continues to be valued by the participants and consumers. We have made some minor changes this year we hope will help us to stay true to our mandate to support local primary producers. We will also be updating the Locally Lambton website and have added a section for locally Lambton “supporters”. Those are individuals or businesses that use or promote locally grown produced products but are not producers themselves.
As you can see, it has been another busy and productive year for the Lambton Federation of Agriculture. I would like to thank all of the Board members for their hard work and support. They are a great group of individuals who care about and are committed to Lambton County and the future of agriculture here.
I also need to say thank you to our Secretary, Christina Hyatt, for keeping us all on track and organized, the LFA Board is very proud to have her represent and work with us.
Finally, I would like to thank all LFA members for allowing me to represent them this year.
~Brooke Leystra~
President, Lambton Federation of Agriculture