Support local this fall to help Ontario farms grow

By Angela Cammaert, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Every year, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, our province marks Ontario Agriculture Week. It’s a time to recognize and celebrate the important ongoing contribution Ontario farmers make to our society and our economy in producing food, feed, fuel and flowers.

The agri-food sector contributed $50.7 billion to the provincial economy, provided jobs to 11 per cent of Ontario’s work force and generated exports worth $26.2 billion this past year. Those are impressive numbers, but agriculture is much more than numbers.

It’s also about people – and as a fifth-generation family farmer raising beef cattle and growing crops near the southwestern Ontario community of West Lorne, about halfway between London and Chatham, I’m proud to be part of this vibrant and essential industry.

Our family loves to buy from other farmers; whether it’s a protein, vegetable or tender fruit, we like to have a relationship with the people behind our food and know where that food comes from.

We’ve done direct to consumer sales of beef from our farm, and one of my favourite parts of that business is getting to meet and interact with our customers and answering their questions about what we do on the farm.

In an age where so many people are disconnected from where their food comes from, I strongly believe these relationships matter – and many of my fellow farmers do too.

I’m also a director on the board of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and in response to growing interest from our membership in local food sales, agritourism and direct-to-consumer marketing, our organization has just completed our third survey about selling to Ontarians.