It’s about more than turkeys, say outdoor raising supporters who fear other marketing boards will require that birds be kept indoors as well
by SUSAN MANN
The Organic Council of Ontario is launching a public campaign to convince Ontario’s agriculture minister that a turkey marketing board rule requiring quota holders to house birds under a solid roof should be overturned.
Council spokesman Ted Zettel says the “only way that we can really get this changed now is for (Ontario Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky) to intervene.”
Agriculture ministers have the legal authority to overturn decisions by any marketing board but rarely do, he explains. “I think that the only way that would happen is this demonstration of overwhelming public support.”
The turkey board regulation, brought down in early 2008, demands that birds be kept in a structure with a solid roof with screened in sides and openings no bigger than one square inch. (Farmers producing less than 50 birds a year are exempt.) The turkey board and the organic council are at an impasse.
Zettel says the turkey board’s rule makes it impossible to comply with the Canadian Organic Standard, which states poultry must be allowed access to the outdoors for a farmer to qualify for organic certification.
Turkey Farmers of Ontario is willing to help turkey farmers caught between the two sets of rules by lobbying to adjust organic regulations that say turkeys should be allowed outside weather permitting to include ‘provincial policy permitting,’ says chair Ingrid DeVisser.
Zettel counters that allowing animals to spend part of their lives outside is a fundamental principle of the worldwide organic farming movement and changing the organic rules will never happen.
The Council believes the public supports its position – “the right for farmers to let their birds outside,” Zettel notes, adding they plan to build support for several months before approaching the minister in September or October.
Supporters of changing the rule say the debate is more than just about turkeys. They’re worried other poultry and livestock boards may implement rules requiring animals to be housed indoors at all times.
Zettel says the Council’s suggested compromise is the food and water be housed under a solid roof but the birds still be allowed outside access in a fenced-off area. “The only thing we object to is that the turkeys themselves have to be under a covered roof at all times.”
But the Council’s proposal is “not a solution in our mind,” says DeVisser. The policy is trying to eliminate the turkeys’ contact with wild birds and protect turkey flock and consumers health. “Just covering the feed and water does not eliminate contact with wild birds or migratory waterfowl, which are the vectors in Avian Influenza.”
The National Farmers Union (Ontario branch) is jumping into the fray on the Council’s side. Ontario coordinator Grant Robertson says they’re launching a postcard campaign to inform consumers and get them talking to Dombrowsky. Similar to the Council, their hope is public pressure will lead her to overturn the turkey board’s regulation.
“We’re quite concerned about the loss of a market for Ontario farmers at a time when the more markets we have the better,” says Robertson, who farms organic chickens and beef. Consumers wanting organic turkey won’t switch to conventional turkey; “they’ll go to imported products.”
Robertson says consumers are quite concerned about a marketing agency dictating how their food is produced. “We’re also worried about the precedent this might set for other poultry, such as meat birds or egg production.”
Zettel says the movement to indoor poultry housing could spread to other types of livestock. “We see this as the tip of the iceberg.”
The turkey board isn’t trying to be down on organic farming, DeVisser says. “It has its place and we recognize that.”
But the board is trying to be proactive and mitigate any disease risks there are. “We feel this policy does that.” BF
