CFA 2024 Annual General Meeting Recap

This week’s annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) brought together farm and food leaders from across Canada under the theme Seizing Opportunities: Canada Growing Role on the World Stage.

“Canadian agriculture is consistently being impacted by events that are outside of our borders and global in nature. When problems and opportunities transcend borders, our actions must be developed with a global context in mind. Canadian agriculture has an incredibly important leadership role in global food security and the fight against climate change, and our AGM looks at how we can leverage that role for the benefit of Canada and the world,” said CFA President Keith Currie.

At the meeting, the CFA membership passed 53 resolutions that will outline much of its advocacy efforts in the coming year. This year’s resolutions cover a range of issues, including: conservation, climate change, labour, rural infrastructure, crop protection, international trade, risk management and much more.

The CFA had a range of high-profile speakers at the AGM, including:

• Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
• Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary of Farm Production and Conservation, USDA
• John Barlow, Agriculture Critic for the Conservative Party of Canada
• Alistair MacGregor, Agriculture Critic for the NDP
• Yves Perron, Agriculture Critic for the Bloc Québécois
• John Weigelt, National Technology Officer, Microsoft
• Steve Verheul, Principal, GT and Company

At the onset of the AGM, there were four interactive workshops for delegates which explored key agricultural topics that included: Trade & Non-Tariff Barriers, Farm Financial Health, Data & Agriculture and Cybersecurity & AG. Each workshop was led and informed by key subject matter experts, focused on finding tangible and innovative solutions to the challenges of today.

The CFA AGM featured two panels. The first, entitled Supply Chain Dynamics in Canadian Agriculture, sponsored by Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada, examined the complicated links of the global supply chain and how they are positively and negatively impacting Canadian agriculture. The keynote speaker was Deputy Minister of Transport, Mr. Arun Thangaraj.

The second panel of the AGM entitled Live with RealAg Radio hosted & moderated by Shaun Haney: Geopolitical Impacts on Canadian Agriculture, was sponsored by MNP. This panel examined how various geopolitical events in different regions are impacting the Canadian agriculture sector now, along with predictions of how they would evolve in the future.

During the AGM, CFA was proud to publicly endorse Agriculture in the Classroom Canada (AITC-C) as the leader in agriculture education in Canada. AITC-C is the national advocate for agricultural education, educating students and teachers about agriculture and the opportunities in the sector.