ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER GRAIN TALK 16 Grain Your Grain Farmers of Ontario Team Here is our next installment of profiles of your Grain Farmers of Ontario staff to help introduce you to the team. Liam Jameson Policy Analyst Liam Jameson joined Grain Farmers of Ontario as its Policy Analyst in December 2025. In this role, Liam works closely with the Government Relations team. He is responsible for analyzing the impacts of new and proposed legislation on Ontario’s grain farmers and recommending courses of action. He also organizes federal and provincial stakeholder meetings, as well as Grain Farmers of Ontario’s annual delegate policy day each December. Liam is from Tennessee and began his academic career in the STEM side of agriculture, studying resource economics and botany at the University of California, Berkeley, where he had the opportunity to contribute to a variety of agricultural policy research projects. After graduating, he became more deeply involved in the politics and policy of agriculture and land-use, first as a campaign coordinator for the Calvert Street Group in Nashville, and then as a Master of Public Policy Student at the Goldman School of Public Policy. After graduating from the Goldman School, he moved to Canada with his wife and was accepted to the Jackman School of Law at the University of Toronto. Fortunately, however, Liam says Grain Farmers of Ontario gave him “the opportunity of a lifetime” to combine his twin passions for agriculture and public affairs as Policy Analyst. He is grateful to be working with the Government Relations team here and excited to serve Grain Farmers of Ontario’s farmer-members. 2026 Grains Innovation Fund Winners Five companies were announced as the successful applicants for the Grain Farmers of Ontario’s 2026 Grains Innovation Fund. The companies will use the funding to expand the use and value of Ontario-grown barley, corn, oats, soybeans, and wheat. Together, their projects will help strengthen and diversify domestic markets, increase demand, and enhance the overall value of Ontario grains, while supporting the development of novel, value-added grain-based products. “The Grains Innovation Fund continues to demonstrate the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit within Ontario’s grain sector,” said Paul Hoekstra, vice president, strategic development, Grain Farmers of Ontario in a release. “By investing in forward-thinking projects, we are helping to create new market opportunities, drive demand, and ensure long-term profitability for Ontario grain farmers.” For more than fifteen years, the Grains Innovation Fund has supported a wide range of successful projects that add value to Ontario grains. Previous investments have supported the development of innovative products such as barley brewing yeast, corn stover home insulation, oat ice cream, soy road paint, wheat bran pet litter, and more. The five Ontario-based companies receiving funding are diverse, operating in the food processing, ingredient manufacturing and bioproduct industries: New Protein International is optimizing technology and advancing commercial-scale readiness to scale-up the first hexane-free processing technology for soy protein isolate using Ontario soybeans. Embassy Ingredients is investing in state-of-the-art mixing technology to accelerate and improve its product development capabilities, enabling its team to produce high-quality mixes for commercial bakeries and unlock new applications for Ontario-grown grains, including soft wheat. Seafoam Materials, in partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University, is testing Ontario grain crop residues as feasible inputs for its carbonnegative insulation. Cedar Valley is expanding its facility with advanced processing equipment and launching new pita chips made from Ontario wheat, increasing production efficiency, supporting product innovation, and strengthening local grain utilization to meet rising demand. 1847 Stone Milling, in partnership with the University of Guelph, is developing, testing and scaling a high-protein atta flour from Ontariogrown wheat. A total of $1,710,969 will be invested across the five projects, with Grain Farmers of Ontario contributing $250,000. The remaining funds will be leveraged through matched government programming and company investments. New location for annual meeting Please note that the Grain Farmers of Ontario’s 2026 annual meeting will be held at a new location, the Best Western Arden Park hotel in Stratford. The meeting will be held on September 15. More details about the meeting and hotel room block information will be released in the coming weeks.
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