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  • FFCO Board of Directors elects executive
  • Local Food Week goes online
  • Chairs elected for Farm Environment & Farm Animal Care Advisory Councils
  • Real Dirt Road Trip - Strawberry farm tour now available
  • Meet a Member - Ontario Mutual Insurance Association
Farm & Food Care Ontario Board of Directors elects executive

The 2020/2021 FFCO Board of Directors elected its executive at its June board meeting. Bonnie den Haan, nominated to the Board of Directors by Dairy Farmers of Ontario, was elected as chair. She replaces Christine Schoonderwoerd, nominated by Wallenstein Feed & Supply Ltd, who stepped down after serving two years at the helm and who will move into the role of past chair.

FFCO's first vice chair is Crispin Colvin, nominated by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Janelle Caldwell, nominated by Egg Farmers of Ontario, was re-elected as second vice chair and Joe Hickson of the Ontario Seed Growers’ Association was elected as treasurer.
Bonnie den Haan
Local Food Week goes online

Local Food Week, June 1-7, 2020, is a celebration of the bounty of fresh, healthy food grown, produced, and processed right here in Ontario.

This year, Farm & Food Care Ontario (FFCO) partnered with AgScape and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s (OFA) Six by Sixteen initiative and other agri-food partners to celebrate Local Food Week here in Ontario.

The schedule was packed with six Facebook Live farm tours and cooking demonstrations, educational activities, and a week-long contest. Farm tours featured dairy, grain, egg, asparagus, greenhouse vegetable and turkey farmers. Two live cooking demonstrations featuring all-Ontario menus were hosted by well-known Toronto food influencer Andrea Buckett.

The videos received over 56,000 views throughout Local Food Week. Four winners were selected from the I Love Local contest where contestants were asked what "local" means to them and how they support local food.

New Farm to Facebook videos will continue to be offered throughout the summer on a bi-weekly basis.

Watch the video to learn more about growing asparagus from Rebecca at Dalton White Farms.
Chairs elected for Farm Environment & Farm Animal Care Advisory Councils

At the June 24 council meetings, held virtually, Farm & Food Care Ontario and its members welcomed Steve Vanderzanden of Turkey Farmers of Ontario and Gordon Stock of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association as the new chairs of the Farm Animal Care and Farm Environment Councils respectively. 

Thanks was also extended to Brendan Byrne of Grain Farmers of Ontario and Dave Cavanagh of Beef Farmers of Ontario for serving in this role for the last two years. 

Farm & Food Care Ontario's Farm Animal Care and Farm Environment Advisory Councils provide an open forum for input, ideas, dialogue and proactive thinking on farm animal welfare and on-farm environmental issues. Farm & Food Care Ontario's platinum, gold and silver members are invited to participate in the councils.

Contact Bruce Kelly, Program Manager, for more information on the councils and their work: bruce@farmfoodcare.org
Steven Vanderzanden
Gordon Stock
New Real Dirt Road Trip
The latest  Real Dirt Road Trip  featuring berry farmer Erin McLean is  now available.  Watch the short video and interview to learn more about the McLean and Buckhorn family farm, and how strawberries are grown and cared for.

The  Real Dirt Road Trip  features farmers answering common questions and takes a closer look at the day-to-day activities on some of Ontario's farms.

To learn more about the farm, visit mcleanberryfarm.com/
Meet a Silver Member:
Ontario Mutual Insurance Association

"We kind of joined Farm & Food Care (FFCO) by “accident”, but it was an accident of the best kind! As a trade association of mutual farm insurers we were looking for a speaker on current issues facing our policyholders on the farm. That led us to FFCO and we discovered the important work that was going on in promoting many things that Canadians can take for granted: food security, the agriculture sector’s huge contribution to the economy, environmental farm issues, social license…..the list goes on. 

A FFCO event or meeting brings together the whole spectrum of farm and agricultural groups. Both challenges and solutions are shared, and it’s the transparency in sharing that information that’s so unique in the farm sector. FFCO plays a vital role in a broad-based approach to public education on where our food comes from and we believe it’s important to support and be a part of that story."

John Taylor, Ontario Mutual Insurance Association