You are encouraged to attend the January and February meetings to discuss these priorities.

Farm Income and Safety Nets

The depressed level of farm income for thousands of corn producers, coupled with the huge imbalance which exists between support levels in Canada and the United States, dictates that enhanced safety net support will be the top OCPA priority in 2001, as it was in 2000. Specific goals include the maintenance and enhancement of Market Revenue Insurance so that support levels are equivalent to those in the United States and Quebec. OCPA will be pursuing this objective both provincially and federally - the latter in cooperation with other members of the newly formed Grain Growers of Canada. As directed by OCPA delegates, directors and staff will be looking in detail at grain and oilseed income support programs in Quebec - both the existing ‘ASRA’ program, and the new approaches being introduced in Quebec, beginning in 2001 - to seek means of better buffering incomes in the face of increasing input costs. OCPA safety net objectives will be pursued in close cooperation with other Ontario grain and oilseed organizations.

Research and Market Development

Notwithstanding the current crisis, OCPA directors believe that the best long-term economic strategy involves investment in targeted research, to seek means of producing new and better products, and to lower costs of production. OCPA has steadily increased its support of research in recent years, using regular OCPA checkoff funds, new funds provided by most seed companies through voluntary contributions on seed corn sales, and funds secured from other public and private sources. The total amount of new funds secured and provided in this manner now exceeds $4 million per year, and this must continue to grow.

OCPA research activities will continue to develop in close cooperation with other corn industry players, public researchers, and other members of the Ontario Field Crop Research Coalition and the Ontario Agricultural Research Coalition.

Details on research priorities appear frequently in the Ontario Corn Producer, and will not be repeated here.

New market development is equally important as OCPA continues its strategy of emphasizing domestic processing and value-added development, with the main goals being increased domestic corn usage and increased exports of corn products versus grain corn. Ethanol processing can be expected to expand with new plant construction at Cornwall and further plant expansion at Chatham. The JBL citric acid plant is being built at Port Colborne, and expansion plans are already in the mill. In addition, OCPA, in cooperation with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Casco and others, continues to seek opportunities for the manufacture of new industrial products, such as other organic acids, polyols and plastic replacements. Another priority is the expanded production of milling grade corn for use in domestic and exported ‘snack’ and ‘Mexican’ food products. And OCPA continues to welcome export sales of Ontario corn into the eastern U.S. and other locations where Ontario corn has a marketing advantage.

New Technology

OCPA is strongly committed to the development of new technology designed to improve product quality, environmental integrity and the efficiency of production. This includes the support of research, the pursuit of faster access to new technology, the harmonization of Canadian regulatory requirements and processes with those in the United States and other developed countries, and public communication.

Access to new, improved pesticide technology has long been an OCPA priority, coupled with the need to explain why pest-control technology is important in food production. Given the revival in anti-pesticide advocacy which occurred in Canada in 2000, communications will continue to figure strongly in OCPA plans for 2001.

Another area is biotechnology. While the exaggerated claims of anti-biotech activists received progessively less media coverage as 2000 proceeded, the need for balanced and informed media coverage and public awareness remains strong.

StarLink complications, which have impeded U.S. corn exports to many countries including Canada, were more effective in bringing biotech trade and regulatory issues to the forefront in late 2001, than all of the Greenpeace costumes and high jinks combined. In addition, the Biosafety Protocol concerning international trade in ‘Living Modified Organisms’, and the impending marketplace introduction of hundreds of new agri-food biotech products, means that biotech regulatory issues will probably dominate OCPA biotech activities in 2001. But communication will remain vitally important.

OCPA also continues to feature biotech research on fusarium/mycotoxin resistance and cold hardiness among its research objectives.

OCPA will continue to work closely with AGCare, Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, the Canada Grains Council and other groups in meeting these objectives.

Environment

Some of the OCPA environmental objectives are referenced above. Another involves greenhouse gas emissions. OCPA, in cooperation with other organizations such as the Innovative Farmers of Ontario, the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, Soil Conservation Canada, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and others, continues to emphasize - and fund research on - opportunities for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. These include increasing soil organic matter levels, reducing soil tillage, and using nitrogen fertilizer ingredients (synthetic fertilizers, manure and crop residues) in more efficient ways.

That this effort also requires a strong communication component was evident in the superficial, one-sided and negative media coverage which greeted efforts by Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan and other countries to include agricultural soil sinks in national strategies designed to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.

OCPA remains a strong member of AGCare and the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition, two Ontario coalitions which have assumed major responsibility for farm environmental initiatives in rural Ontario.

Trade

Expect to see OCPA becoming much more actively involved in international trade issues, once again, as momentum slowly builds for the ‘Millennium’ round of international trade negotiations. OCPA was deeply involved in the Uruguay trade round, but with the lull which followed the completion of that round in early 1994, this effort diminished for a few years.
The only long-term solution to huge U.S. and EU grain subsidization practices, and the growing non-tariff barriers being erected by many global importers, lies in trade negotiations - as slow, cumbersome, painful and, at times, boring, as these negotiations can be. OCPA must be a significant player - ideally in cooperation with other members of the Grain Growers of Canada and other agricultural coalitions.

Communications

Communications will continue to be a major OCPA priority with the Ontario Corn Producer magazine, OCPA web sites, e-mail services, farm media, and releases through other national and provincial media outlets, being the primary vehicles. The Ontario Corn Producer magazine continues to be well read by farmers, politicians, government staff and other industry players, according to survey results and other sources. The Internet continues to grow in importance as an excellent means of getting information to farmers and the media quickly.

OCPA co-funds Greg Stewart’s corn extension position in OMAFRA. Greg and OCPA introduced a new web site for Greg’s information in late 2000, called GoCorn (www.gocorn.net).
A challenge for Greg and OCPA in 2001 involves the question of how to maximize his effectiveness in transferring information and advice on leading-edge technology to farmers, when the government has eliminated most of its ‘front-end’ extension delivery services for agriculture.

One of those delivery vehicles, of course, is the Ontario Corn Producer magazine to which Greg is a regular contributor.

Liaisons

As noted above, OCPA attempts to accomplish most of its objectives through coalitions with other groups. In addition to the groups identified above, OCPA is a strong member of the Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, the Agricultural Adaptation Council, the Agricultural Commodity Corporation, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and the Farmers of Ontario Coalition.

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