Bette-Jean Crews is a gentler Sarah Palin. She wouldn’t say "A hockey mom is a pit bull with lipstick." But the second woman president in the history of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) shares some of the same feistiness when talking about carbon credits. "Give me $20 for a tree and I won’t cut it down," she says. Farmers in other countries are getting carbon credits for no-till practices. Why not our farmers? she asks.

Seven years on the provincial executive has made her patient, made her curb her impulsiveness. "You learn that nothing is ever totally complete," she says. "It takes years to learn how the system works, especially when you’re working with government."

But her values haven’t changed. "Be always up-front," she says, adding that she has learned to read a bureaucrat’s face and knows when he isn’t upfront.

Farmers and government are mutually dependent, she says. "Primary producers know what works and what doesn’t. The government can learn how to make the system work from farmers."

And the government does listen. Over the last two years, the OFA has reconnected with government the way it did back in the rambunctious years when people like Gordon Hill stumped rural meeting halls calling for farmers to lean hard on governments for changes.

But things are different today, with action following quiet diplomacy. Geri Kamenz "did more things than people think," Crews said. Among other things, he re-opened a direct line to government. One consequence is that the OFA had more input on the Clean Water Act than on the Nutrient Management Act, she says.

That relationship could become even closer. Crews lives in Trenton and the minister, Leona Dombroski, has to drive by to get to her home in nearby Tweed. It’s not far to drop in for tea.

As important for Crews, Kamenz shared the leadership with his executive. She’s not coming into the job cold.

What’s significant on the president’s dinner plate? Plenty. She wants to make sure the provincial three-year pilot project on risk management continues but wants Ottawa to join. The tax structure will always be an issue, she said. Right now the OFA is trying to stop the government from spreading the long tentacle of the tax system over storage sheds and to have more goods exempted from sales tax.

She’s not shy about getting involved with thorny local issues. When voracious elk chewed the profit from north Hastings’ grain fields she forced the Ministry of Natural Resources to build fences. She’s pushing to extend the list of predators for which a farmer can get compensation. In case you haven’t heard, crows in Ontario have pecked the eyes out of calves.

She is part of a farm operation that includes growing major grains, apples, pick-your-own strawberries, vegetables and a large market off Wooler Road by Highway #401.