Meeting Report
AGCare Annual Meeting Report
by Diana Macdonald, Executive Director, AGCare

Greg Hannam, Chair, AGCare

AGCare’s 11th Annual Meeting was held in Guelph on Tuesday, February 11th, 2003, and featured a variety of speakers who explored the theme: ‘It’s All About Food Safety.’ Overall the resounding message is that the voice of agriculture needs to be heard.

During her opening address – ‘2002: The Year of Change and Challenges’ – AGCare Chair Mary Lou Garr announced her decision to step back from her involvement in AGCare and other agricultural organizations in order to pursue personal interests.

Program speakers included John VanderBurgt, Certified Crop Advisor and owner of Blue Water Crop Care, who discussed the potential effects of the Nutrient Management Act on the agricultural industry, particularly the horticultural sector.

VanderBurgt highlighted numerous concerns with proposed regulations that could adversely affect normal farming practices, including N index restrictions, culls, vegetable washwater containment and spreading, buffer strips, on-farm storage, Group A soil and the Short Form qualifications.

He emphasized the fact that many farmers have been conducting environmentally safe, economically sound nutrient management for years without any regulations. Farm families live on the land they steward, drink water from nearby sources, grow crops for consumption by all and dispose of agricultural wastes in an environmentally safe way. VanderBurgt expressed concerns that farmers are expected to foot the whole bill for any changes that must be made in order to be compliant with the regulations under the Nutrient Management Act, but are unlikely to see any payback for meeting new standards.

‘Challenges and Opportunities for the IR-4 Program in a New Century’ was the theme for Dr. Robert Holm, Executive Director of the U.S. IR-4 Program. Following an overview of the 40-year history of the national program designed to obtain registrations of pest control agents for minor uses, Dr. Holm outlined priorities for 2003. Many of the new projects will be jointly undertaken by Canada and the U.S. to ensure greater cross-border harmonization and increased pest control options for low acreage crops. Dr. Holm pointed out that consumers, food processors and growers all benefit from the search for and research into reduced-risk crop protection products and integrated pest management solutions for growers of minor crops.

Dr. Jay Lehr from the Chicago, Illinois-based Heartland Institute focused on the impact of the fact that consumers lack understanding of the agricultural industry and how food is produced. During the first of his two addresses, Dr. Lehr stated that ‘the biggest challenge facing agricultural producers today is helping people understand what agriculture is all about’.

He emphasized that public education should be the primary concern of a farm organization like AGCare, because ‘we can no longer assume that the public thinks well of agriculture’. He claimed that agriculture is vulnerable to attack from outside forces because it is a global industry that has no voice.

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