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Hamilton Spectator
22-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Touting the benefits of a leadership program in the ag sector
A broader understanding of agriculture and expanding your network are just a few skills emphasized in the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP), which has been shaping the future of the industry for 40 years. Tracey Arts, a recent participant, says the experience led to her becoming more involved in the sector, including becoming a director of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA). 'I wanted more experience and to get more comfortable talking to a group of people, whether a smaller group or a larger group, which gave me the confidence to do more public speaking,' she explained of how she ended up joining the leadership program. Originally from a Niagara peninsula dairy farm, she and her husband operate a dairy farm near Thamesford. She's represented Oxford and Elgin counties as an OFA director since 2020. When looking for a leadership program, she wanted something related to agriculture, in keeping with her farming background. The AALP allowed her to learn from members of the agriculture sector across the province. 'We're always great about talking about what we know in our little area, but being a representative on the provincial level – we represent all of Ontario – I wanted some of that aspect,' she said. The OFA puts on the program with three other founding partners, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, the University of Guelph and the Foundation for Rural Living (now Rural Ontario Institute). AALP is currently training its 21st class, and the program has been running since 1984. Gabe Ferguson from the Rural Ontario Institute told The Observer how the program picks each class based on bringing together people from all sectors of agriculture and agribusiness. 'Each person who comes in is expected to donate something, with skills and knowledge that they can share with others, and to receive skills and knowledge that they need,' said Ferguson. That sharing of perspectives is the basis on which the program is set. 'We layer on top of that self-awareness, building a strong team, negotiation, trade policy, governance. We take them to seven seminars around the province of Ontario.... They have a leadership workshop and do site tours to innovative farms, businesses and rural economic development sites. And then we go on a North American study tour... and they also go internationally,' he explained. Ferguson notes that those taking the course gain networking opportunities. AALP gives participants access to 40 years of alumni who are always willing to help. 'You can always call up any alumni, and always have this connection. You can always call, not just your class, but especially your classmates, and be like, 'Hey, I have a question about this. Can you answer it for me?' 'I think it's crazy how unique that is, that you just have that immediate bond with other people who have taken AALP too.' For her part, Arts says she knows people are busy and may think they don't have time for a program like AALP, but argues the experience is well worth the effort. 'If you're thinking about it, just do it. You will not regret it. I've not heard an AALP graduate say 'I should never have taken this course.' I've always heard that 'I should have done it sooner.'' For more information about the program, see If you are interested in learning more about the program, go to .
Hamilton Spectator
15-05-2025
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
Asparagus starts the ball rolling on the local growing season
Spring means that local food is coming online across Ontario at farmers' markets and roadside stalls, making it an important time to buy local, says the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. With the fresh season upon us, the OFA and its Home Grown project are promoting the more than 200 different foods and farm commodities in the province. 'Spring means the beginning of a new growing season in Ontario, which will bring with it a whole new wave of opportunities for consumers to support local food and farming businesses by buying products grown right here at home,' said OFA director Larry Davis in a release. The season's first crop is asparagus, which is shooting out of the ground at this very moment. Asparagus season is very short, but it is very intense, he notes. 'It's planted as a tuber and deep in the soil, and then it takes a little while to come to a product. Getting a crop in the first year isn't immediate. It's probably the second year before you get a crop, and then it can be harvested almost daily,' Davis explained. 'Once the weather gets warm and there is lots of sunshine, it grows quickly.' Asparagus shoots can grow 10 inches in a 24-hour period and are harvested daily. If it grows well, it can be harvested twice daily, said Davis, who farms in Norfolk County, where most of Canada's asparagus grows. Ninety per cent of the asparagus grown is a variety developed at the University of Guelph called the Guelph Millennium. It's adapted to cooler climates and produces higher yields than other varieties, the OFA notes. It is high in Vitamin A, which is considered important for vision, immunity and growth/healing, and is also a significant source of antioxidants among other nutritional benefits, according to Ontario Asparagus. Davis told The Observer that buying local produce such as asparagus not only supports area producers but also enhances local economies. 'It boosts the local food production so smaller, independent businesses can have the flexibility to cater to local markets. They can get produce from niche markets. And the local consumer needs are well addressed from local, smaller batch production.' With the current political climate of uncertainty, buying local and supporting Ontario farmers has been at the forefront of the minds of Ontarians. 'At OFA, we are seeing a dramatic surge in consumer demand for local products, based on the questions we get regularly about how to shop local, how to identify Ontario and Canadian-made products.' If you are inserted in how you can buy local or recipe ideas, go to . 'Every aspect of the economy grows when you support local,' said Davis.
CBC
19-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Ontario farmland prices cool down after years of double-digit jumps
Social Sharing Though the recent year-over-year increases in farm prices are levelling off in southwestern Ontario, good land remains too pricey for many people with dreams of owning their own land. "Anything like 100 acres, you're just not going to find it for under $5 million," said Crispin Colvin, a farmer and area director of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture for Lambton and Middlesex counties. "There isn't really any cheap location to get into farming." A report released this week by Farm Credit Canada, a Crown corporation that provides financing to the agriculture industry, said the average price of a farm in the southwestern Ontario region rose by 3.2 per cent in 2024, reaching an average per-acre price of $33,700. That rate of increase is down considerably from recent years, which have seen double-digit increases in average farm prices: 2021: 22.2 per cent. 2022: 19.4 per cent. 2023: 10.7 per cent. Colvin said he's seen prices well above what's laid out in the Farm Credit Canada report. He said the high prices remain a significant barrier to young people interested in getting started in agriculture. "Prices have maybe tapered off or levelled a little bit but it's still really hard, especially for young people who want to get in," he said. "It's at the stage where you can either buy the equipment or buy the land, but you can't buy both." Ryan Parker, an agricultural real estate appraiser with Valco Consultants, said slightly lower interest rates and commodity prices are the two biggest factors that have led to the slight cooling in farm prices last year. "It's not really a decrease in land values, it's a decrease in the increase of land values," he said. Parker said it's too early to tell how the Canada-U.S. trade war will affect farm prices. However he said anything that reduces the price farmers can get for their meat and crops will show up in farm values. "Right now, what we're seeing is a lot of uncertainty," he said. "Some farmers are buying another farm, but others are putting the brakes on and saying, 'You know what, let's just hang back and not overspend on anything until we have more clarity on what's going to go on here.'" Colvin said another factor keeping prices high is the pressure created by urban expansion. As farms get sold, some are turned into subdivisions. "Because we're on the Highway 401 corridor, it's still a sought-after area from a development point of view," said Colvin. "And we're losing the land so as you lose it, that pushes up the price."
CBC
07-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Ontario industry still anxious over potential 'devastating' impact of Trump tariffs, despite reprieve
For Ontario farmers relieved by the pause of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, there still remains significant anxiety over planning for the rest of this year's season and into the next. "Really the challenge is around the uncertainty," said Drew Spoelstra, a Binbrook, Ont., farmer and president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. The province's agriculture industry exports meat and other animal products, livestock and most of its greenhouse produce to the U.S. "When we don't know what our markets are going to be in July or September, it is difficult to plan ahead and keep our operations as well thought out as possible." And if the tariffs eventually do go through? "If these products ultimately stop moving because of the affordability of those things in the United States, that's going to have a devastating impact to our farmers here in Ontario," Spoelstra said. Tariff threat still hanging over Canada Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump dropped his plan to levy tariffs on Canada for at least 30 days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a series of commitments to improve border security. But the threat of economic havoc still hangs over Canada and, in particular, Ontario, which ranks third in the world for U.S. imports and will be significantly impacted if the 25 per cent tariffs do come into effect. Last month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said tariffs from the U.S. could cost up to 500,000 Ontario jobs. Of the six top Canadian industries exporting to the U.S., Ontario is the leader in two — auto manufacturing and agriculture. But it also exports billions of dollars of products in oil and gas refining, aluminum production and processing and aerospace industries. In 2023, more than 80 per cent of Ontario imports went to the U.S. WATCH | Manufacturing association president talks tariff impacts: How tariffs will impact Ontario's manufacturing industry 4 days ago Duration 3:27 Dennis Darby, president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, discusses what steps are needed by provincial and federal governments to support Ontario manufacturers amid a U.S.-Canada trade war. "Nobody should be breathing a sigh of relief," Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, which represents Canadian auto workers, said recently to The Canadian Press. "The problem is the threat of the tariffs is still there and this is going to carry on, and it's damaging to our economy. It's damaging to investment in our country, and it's damaging to Canadian workers," she said. 60% of agriculture imports to U.S. For agriculture, 60 per cent of the industry's products go to the U.S, which, according to 2023 Statistics Canada data, is worth roughly, $4.7 billion dollars. "We're seeing a lot of our pork and beef products as well as live cattle and hogs exported to states. And then all of that stuff is brought back here and in the processed form," Spoelstra said. " We just don't have the processing capacity here to deal with a lot of those products." Greenhouse growers, specifically, export about $1.8 billion in produce, with Ontario representing about $1.6 billion of that total, or 85 per cent of all produce, according to Richard Lee, executive director for the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers. Around 503 million kilograms of products are produced a year, which equates to about 300 trailer truckloads leaving farms daily, with 200 of them headed to the United States, he said. "So if tariffs were implemented overnight, that would cause a catastrophe to the border crossing," Lee said. Lee says the tariffs will likely add an additional cost to the end consumer of about $475 million. "That's something the supply chain cannot absorb," he said. "We are in a situation where the margins are already pretty tight." As well, for the crops that are currently in production, like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, farmers can't just turn off the switch, he added. 'Blow to Ontario producers' "This product is ready to go and when it's ready to go, we have to harvest it," he said. "If not, there'll be substantial losses incurred." "So it would be a significant impact and [a] blow to Ontario producers." Lee said the industry could brave the storm for a month, perhaps, but that he doesn't see the sustainability if tariffs last past that time period. But the forecast may be even more dire for the auto industry, which some analysts predict could crater within a week, should 25 per cent tariffs be applied. In a normal year, according to Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, about 80 per cent of of vehicles made in Canada — almost all from Ontario —are exported to the U.S. It's about $53 billion worth of exports. But tariffs will mean an enormous increase to the cost of manufacturing a vehicle, Linda Hasenfratz, executive chair of Linamar Corp, a Guelph, Ont.-based auto parts manufacturer, recently told CNBC. "And our customers are going to be forced to decide can they absorb it? Which I think the answer is no." 'Grind to a halt' "I suspect there will be pushback," said Hasenfratz. " Demand will cease and hence my prediction that we're going to see automotive production grind to a halt just as soon as inventories run out, which won't take long." Just how long it would take would depends on the vehicle platform and how much inventory in house of various supplied components, Hasenfratz explained. "Where they're shortest in supply ... that's going to be the time frame. it could be a week, it could be two weeks. It depends on the level of inventory. But the industry tends to run on low levels of inventories. So I imagine it'll be quite soon," she said. Volpe, in a recent interview with CBC's The Current, said car makers would be telling their suppliers, who operate in a five to 10 per cent profit margin, that they have to eat the costs. "How many days are you going to schedule production where you're losing hundreds of thousands or ... millions a day," he said. "It makes more sense to shut down, regroup like all of the industry did in the first week of the pandemic." Volpe was asked whether assembly lines in Ontario cities could be shut down within a week of a 25 per cent tariff being imposed. He said, "the answer is yes," along with assembly plants in some other cities in the U.S because they're all intertwined. The steel in industry of Ontario, which produces 70 to 80 per cent of all steel made in Canada, would also take a major hit, said Francois Demaris, vice president, trade and industry affairs at the Canadian Steel Producers Association. For the production of steel, materials crisscross the U.S.-Canada border. Components like iron ore, coal and coke needed for steel production are often imported from the U.S. and used to make steel at places like ArcelorMittal Dofasco or Stelco, both in Hamilton. That steel is then shipped to the U.S. "We cannot diversify and go elsewhere," Demaris said. Ontario would be disproportionately impacted by tariffs, as six of Canada's 13 steel plants operate in the province, according to Natural Resources Canada
