Halifax, Nova Scotia
July 27-29, 2010
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is holding its Semi-Annual Meeting in Halifax from July 27 - 29, 2010. APAS participants are President Greg Marshall, Directors Arlynn Kurtz and Todd Lewis, and General Manager Nial Kuyek.
Tuesday, July 27 and the morning of Wednesday, July 28 were devoted to meetings of the CFA Committees. The following provides a brief summary of the deliberations of each Committee:
Business Risk Managment Committee: The Committee discussed changes needed in current safety net programs and needs in the next generation of business risk management programs to be developed for 2013. CFA will finalize a policy position on changes needed to current programs to advance with the provincial Ministers, the federal Minister, and within processes related to the next federal election.
Environment and Science: The agenda of the Committee included discussion with Agricuture and Agri-Food Canada on plans and priorities, Bill C-474 on Genetically Enginnered Seed, an update on the Grower Requested Own Use (GROU) Import Program, and climate change. Of interest, there are now 26 pesticide products available to producers through GROU.
Grains and Oilseeds: The meeting included a presentation by the Canadian Grain Commission on current issues including mycotoxins. With the recent release of the updated Edsforth study, the need for a full railway costing review was discussed.
Trade Committee: The Committee received reports from federal government trade officials on the status of WTO and bilateral trade agreements. The WTO is in a stall mode with no progress anticipated until after the U.S. elections this fall. Canada is therefore pursuing bilateral trade agreements with the European Uion and others.
Food Safety Committee: The Committee discussed 2010 priorities, food safety standards and processes with emphasis of requirements of the United States and traceability.
National Food Strategy; Wednesday morning concluded with a discussion of the CFA project to develop a National Food Strategy. The discussion included review of the guiding principles, draft mission and objectives, and the process for consultation, involvement, and finalization. The goal is to finalize the strategy by October of 2011. APAS will be developing plans for involvement of members in this discussion.
Final report from CFA Meeting (Submitted July 29):
Following the Committee meetings, the CFA Semi-Annual Meeting began on the afternoon of Wednesday July 28 and concluded on the afternoon of Thursday July 29. Faith Matchett, Vice President of Farm Credit Canada, provided an update on the Canadian Agricultural Financial landscape. Commodity issues updates were provided by Mark Silzer of the Canadian Bison Association, Kyle Korneychuk of the Canadian Wheat Board, and Andre Roy of the National Cattle Feeders Association. Jay Bradshaw, President of Syngenta discussed the partnership between producers and Syngenta in feeding the world and fuelling the Canadian economy. Representatives of Maple Leaf Foods, the Canadian National Millers Association, Sysco Foods Atlantic and Whole Foods Markets provided perspectives on their actions and views on forging links along the value chain.
The meeting concluded with Committee reports and discussion of resolutions. APAS resolutions calling for CFA to lobby the Federal government to restore core funding levels for public agriculture research to indexed 1994 levels and to increase the contribution rate on eligible net sales to three percent were adopted as CFA policy.
For more information on the activities of the CFA Click HERE