Ontario Grain Farmer December 2021/January 2022

24 IN MARCH 2021, at Grain Farmers of Ontario’s Semi-Annual Meeting of Delegates, a resolution was passed to look at adding cereal rye to the crop represented by our organization. The Board of Directors agreed to explore this possibility, and throughout 2021 a process was undertaken to understand the impact to farmer-members of adding this crop. The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (FPMC) administers the legislation and regulations of the Farm Products Marketing Act (FPMA) and supervises the activities of Ontario's marketing boards. FPMC offers advice, facilitation, and direction to Grain Farmers of Ontario to ensure that the organization is operating within the power given to it. In 2015, FPMC helped guide Grain Farmers of Ontario when farmer-members asked for representation for barley and oat. The exploration of cereal rye as a viable crop for Grain Farmers of Ontario to represent will be done carefully. “Bringing oats and barley into our crop representation mix started with a request from our farmer-members. We then had to identify those already growing barley and oats within our membership and the scope in terms of harvested acres,” says Crosby Devitt, CEO, Grain Farmers of Ontario. Cereal rye REPRESENTATION UNDER CONSIDERATION Victoria Berry “It takes quite a bit of time to do this properly, but with the farmer-member support this motion received, it is clearly worth exploring.” The farmer-member outreach to Grain Farmers of Ontario asking to add cereal rye is one of the leading factors taken into consideration by FPMC as it helps the organization with the decision to add cereal rye to its crop representation. “It’s important to note that the ask to add representation of cereal rye came from the farmer-members. This is something that they want explored, and the Grain Farmers of Ontario Board of Directors was quick to listen and act. We were engaged right Industry news