by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Trenton horticultural producer Bette Jean Crews announced today that she is seeking re-election as the president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
“I had somebody ask the other day (about running). I thought I’d better officially announce it,” says the two year presidential veteran. Later in a two-hour long informal press conference she said the OFA had an “unwritten rule” that election campaigns don’t start until after the first of October.
Crews was accompanied at the press conference, held in a Guelph hotel, by Robert Kalbfleisch, a former career civil servant with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Kalbfleisch, now an agricultural consultant, says he is not being paid to help Crews keep her job.
Kalbfleisch says he has a high regard for Crews, citing her instrumental role in setting up OnTrace Agri-food Traceability (Ontario), a not-for-profit corporation which operates the Ontario Agri-Food Premises Registry.
A one-page media release Crews handed out says she has been active with the OFA since 1998. The release says Crews “acknowledges that there is a great deal of unhappiness and anger out there among her members. But she remains adamant in her rejection of quick fixes or cheap theatrics.”
The bottom of the release says: “Authorized by the Campaign to Re-elect Bette Jean Crews.”
Crews says one of her strengths at the OFA is “being able to explain things so that people understand it.” She says she has a good rapport with both the minister of agriculture, Carol Mitchell, and minister of natural resources Linda Jeffrey.
Crews says a highlight of her achievements has been the establishment of the Ontario Agricultural Sustainability Coalition (OASC). She says for the first time Ontario agriculture is speaking “with one voice.”
“Historically,” says Crews, “we have lobbied government for our own issues . . . .. sometimes to the detriment of another organization.”
The OASC concept works now, she says, because: “at the end it’s because everyone there wants success for the agricultural industry in Ontario.”
Other achievements are the establishment of a National Food Strategy, (“everybody talked about it for a long time before I pushed it”) which aims to “raise the bar” on food prices, and the province’s adoption of the Ontario Open For Business strategy which aims to reduce regulations that impede the competitiveness of Ontario agriculture and other businesses.
“I really am getting somewhere,” she says, adding that “it takes more than two years to make that stick.”
“I monitor 140 issues,” Crews says, stressing that she devotes all of her OFA time to the problems in agriculture in this province. BF
Comments
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crew said “I really am getting somewhere,” she says, adding that “it takes more than two years to make that stick.”
Must be the broomstick she needs when attending a meeting with On Communication creative director Scott Hill. Scott's bio says he likes to dance with the devil in the moonlight.
We will have to wait another year to see her results. To this date her results is no bed rock to build a ..farming foundation. Millions have been spent by Ontario farmers on OFA and other farm organizations, where and what are rhe results of Crew and company? In USA it doesnt take long for special interest groups to start evaluating leaders history with a. record of results. This evaluation helps weed out fact and fiction when a system is not getting results for its membership,general farming public or agr-business. In Canada we have no watch dog group to watch and defend the farmers economic needs and results, but thats the Canadian way,AAAAAA. As a result young people are shy to start the farming game while the average of farmers has now increased to 63. How high can this average age go before signs of farming decay results in long lasting harm to rural Ontario and Canada?
One should soon start asking our Ontario farmers " are our farm leaders smarter than an average 5 year old in school",If not change is needed NOW. But how do you get good leaders with knowledge, drive and values to keep the farming class of people on a competative plane with other business? Is the Ontario Advanced Leadership Coarses working and for who's best wants(needs?), what about farmers needs compatable with the Canadian public or are we on a train wreck coarse?
Reminds me of the poor woman dressed in black with a pointy hat that had the misfortune of straddling the hydro pole while in full flight.
OFA and Crews are way off course maybe due to some incantation of ON Communication. Maybe it would read better as "witch stick"
I admit that OnCommunication looks bad to some for this but I don't have a big problem with the devil dancing stuff because it could mean anything with someone who is a creative type. However I do seriously question the hiring of an agency that wants to project this image on its website and the part about him working on a job description shows a bad attitude. Why not take an extra day or two to prepare a job description instead of proclaiming to the world on the company website that you don't have one?
Only a former career civil servant with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs would be happy to support Crews for a third term. Only a government person could find that Crews bragging rights of shameless self promotion had benefit for this industry. The truly sad part is, OFA staff and Crews still believe after 2 yrs of restructuring and a fee increase they are doing a good job and members are happy.
We are not only bankrupt for inelegant signs of life at OFA but there is no mechanism to nominate responsible people with vision and accountability to lead in less than about 10 years.
Maybe we could outsource OFA to say, ON Communication. We could have a say once Halloween party! They could bring a crystal ball and predict the death of agriculture with some accuracy. Oh and ON Trace knows where to find cheap food for the bash. OASK was invited but as usual could not agree to reply. How timely with and a full harvest moon.
If you're going to complain, then the responsible course of action is to run yourself - otherwise, kwitchercarping
Having ONE good person on a dysfunctional team will change nothing.
It will just be a waste of time for the ONE good person.
not just dysfunctional but from the sounds of Crew bragging, add delusional.
Why not run? That's a cliche! There is no way for anyone with fresh ideas or values to crack this club. And whether or not there is a law against hiring a bunch of friends and relatives to run the place or hiring a communication company without tenders, the very thought is repulsive to anyone with ethics.
and we still shrink and lose farmers everyday....Crews is in a tough position--support ethanol,bio fuel,green energy and then it puts non-supply managed livestock guys out of business with cost increases...kinda like a gov't ,takes a special talent too operate programs for so many years and still lose our family farms...as far as I can see the supply managed dairy and feather business are the guys that have come out on top....in my 35 years in pork business we have shrunk our producer base by about 90% ,,if I was a young person I would choose a different career path--k g kimball
while supply management appears to have come out on top, it's an illusion only because comsumers haven't yet realized how badly they are being shafted by supply management. When they do, even pork is going to look good by comparison to what is going to happen to dairy and poultry producers.
Is it any wonder when you look at the situation. Farmers would have a better chance if we fired all the staff of all the farm organizations , shut down the organizations and let total confusion rule. that would cause economic disaster.
You are right farmers have had 35 years of controlled shrink. Every dog has their day to feather their nest and farmers are a part of it and allow it .
Cause economic disaster is the farm orgs shut down?
I hate to tell you this, but the farm community is witnessing economic disaster right now and has been since 1997. The average age of farmers is now 63.
The OFA has done nothing. They are a puppet of the government and the govenment has no use for farmers.
The only reason I can see anyone taking a position on the OFA is for there own economic situation. A OFA paycheck every month is better than farming for many. That tells you volumes about the quality of the board.
It will take a total economic self distruct before most farmers realize the misfortune of ofa/gfo.A monthly paycheck and no big real economic results by ofa in the last 10 years other than their claim to fame of farm tax rebate is their ofa true mission statement
$5.62 December cme future is good but who is investigating why we have a negative $1.00 basis with the canadian dollarat 98 cents.
You buy a new car and the producer Ford motor company for tells you what the price is but grain trade tells us the producer what they will pay us, sound familiar. Must be some high Ontario transportantion cost when comparing Ontario verses USA michigan basis
http://www.ebpros.com/people/index.cfm/sectionID/1/fuseaction/index.cfm/...
Based on this link "e-biz" to Robert Kalbfleisch, a former career civil servant with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs it says 'BOB established the not-for-profit corporation ´On-Trace Agri-Food Traceability (Ontario)´ from concept to launch.'
Crews is claimed to have been an instrument in setting up OnTrace Agri-food Traceability (Ontario), a not-for-profit corporation which operates the Ontario Agri-Food Premises Registry. This effort has not only a cost but no return to producers benefiting only the agri-food sector with free traceability for their value added ISO or KOOL label with no evidence of new markets. No one has seen any benefit in terms of dollar return for the efforts of traceability paid to the producer
Kalbfleisch says he is not being paid to help Crews keep her job. Maybe she sold us out so well for free traceability he, OMAFRA and the minister have a debit to repay.
This insider trading stuff is getting a little much with no success for things that could make a difference like the fed 60% portion of Ontario's support.
It is not greedy for producers to be concerned about their bottom line and not about how much can we produce for free.
Traceability has nothing to do with increasing return for the producer.
Traceability has everything to do with spreading the liability when things go wrong.
I wish the OFA would stop bragging about shoving farmers into corners they can't back out of.
Is this the same Ebiz that the wheat board staff gave the data base to which appeared to be a breach of the privacy act?
You mean the time the wheat board gave away all the private information of wheat farmers without consent?
Didn't the information end up in some international data collection agency?
What does a vote for Crews say about the need for change?
Until the directors of the OFA can understand any message written above a cartoon level, there will be no changes, including the executive structure.
What does a vote for Crews really mean?
Take a page from the going-ons with On Communication and you have to wonder if executive runs the farm organization or elite staff.
Why bother with an election if the president has less influence than staff?
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