you can sometimes come up with later in life. Don’t delay and wait for a better opportunity, because chances are, it is as good as it is going to get now. Reaching out and gaining experience where you can is important. Get involved in as much as you can, as soon as you can. The longer you wait, changes the way you look at things. What are your future plans? I would like to stay involved as a delegate for the next few years to offer support as the new director gets their feet wet, but I don’t want to hold a delegate spot to prevent someone else from stepping up. We have a very engaged district committee and a lot of farmer-members who want to be involved. There are a lot of things at home asking for more and more time now that I have a family. It will be nice to not have to worry about how to get enough internet bandwidth to participate in meetings at the same time my wife teaches her class, and the kids do their school from home. I don’t envision myself not being busy over the next few years, but I don’t have concrete plans. There are certainly things around the farm that are waiting to get done. HENRY VAN ANKUM, DISTRICT 10 (GREY, BRUCE, WELLINGTON) What motivated you to remain a director for 12 years? I really enjoyed doing it, and enjoyed the camaraderie with the people I worked with. There were enough days where you thought you moved the needle to the positive side for our farmer-members that we represent, and it was quite fulfilling. Being a board member was rewarding. I learned so much about our industry along the way. It was a really good experience. It made you learn how to manage your time sometimes, to balance requirements of being a director with your demands at home with the farm and family. You had to learn some time management skills but overall, it was a very rewarding experience. I really enjoyed working with a lot of good people over the years, and the opportunity to build friendships and relationships with other growers across the country and internationally was a great part of the experience. What are some of the highlights from your time on the Board? People say I led the neonicotinoid issue; the way I look at it, I was just leading the organization when it came our way. It was one of the issues we dealt with while I was chair, but overall restrictive regulations and the trend towards that was certainly coming at us and was a challenge. Government priorities were shifting towards an environmental agenda, and it was a challenge for us because there are a lot of repercussions to some of the things they want to do that can have an impact on farmers. I think we can hold our heads high on how we fought some of those battles against regulation. I think getting the Risk Management Program and managing to keep it during a series of governments trying to trim budgets I certainly look on it as a success. Just getting through the initial period of bringing the three organizations into one, I really look back on that. Going through all that change and transition and building a new identity as Grain Farmers of Ontario and seeing the organization flourish and gain momentum, to me is a real success. A lot of opportunities open up to you as a member of the Board. I had the opportunity to meet with premiers and government ministers, various party leaders. I had the opportunity to represent Canada and soybean production at the International Oilseed Producers’ Dialogue conference a couple of times, I was involved in wheat promotion activities. Doors get opened to do some things you normally wouldn’t otherwise, including travelling to represent our growers here in Ontario. What do you see as the biggest issue for grain farmers going forward? The shift in government and consumer attitudes to some of our practices and governments promoting that environmentalist agenda, those have been some of our biggest challenges and I think they will continue to be going forward. We are going to have to adapt our practices to that lens as well as try and achieve some understanding on how we can’t achieve some of those things and still be efficient producers. I look at advocacy, with government, with society, and consumers, and communicating about what we do, and why we need to do some of the things we do as one of the most important roles for our organization. What advice do you have for the new directors joining the Board? I would encourage them to fight hard for the issues we are trying to make change on. But you also have to remember you have to live to fight another day, that’s important too. Keep your eye on the long-distance view — what is our strategic plan, what are our longrange goals. Sometimes you have to look past the battle on a certain day and keep eye on the prize. What are your future plans? I plan to stay as a delegate for the shortterm and see how it plays out. I want to certainly make room for new people to get involved too. There have been lots of changes on our farm since I started getting involved on the Board and I’m looking forward to having more time for farming. I also have a couple of grandkids to enjoy now as well. And we will maybe take a few vacations once restrictions open up a bit more. Rachel Telford is the manager of member relations for Grain Farmers of Ontario. l ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER 25 MARCH 2022
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