New Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) president Keith Currie is anxious to bring the Ontario agriculture industry together and rebuild trust in the OFA.
The general farm organization’s leadership has come under fire from farmers and other provincial commodity groups in recent years for playing too nice with the Ontario government. “There’s some fracturing that’s been happening and I want to start building those bridges and build that trust back,” Currie said moments after defeating incumbent OFA president Don McCabe in a delegate vote held at the OFA annual meeting in Toronto earlier this week.
In this interview, Currie, who had served as OFA vice-president, says he’ll bring a team approach to the organization and wants everyone “pulling in the same direction.” He says the organization will continue to push for natural gas expansion in Ontario and other established OFA policy priorities.
Currie also shares his thoughts on the message OFA will be bringing to the Ontario government, including when he sits down with Glen Murray, Ontario’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to talk about agriculture’s role in the provincial economy and how farmers manage their environment.
