By Terry Meagher

When Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Geri Kamenz stepped down, the question in many minds was: he’s left for something better, but what?

All the whisperings and rumours are saying Kamenz will be appointed chairman of the Ontario farm regulatory agency, the Farm Products Marketing Commission, for a two-year term.

If so, it will be quite a feather in the ballcap for the Spencerville farmer who, for more than 20 years, breathed and thought "federation" as a member, fieldman and supervisor of fieldmen; and then every position in the provincial executive.

What he learned in the school of hard knocks, he passed on. What he learned about leadership he shared with his OFA executive. He trained them to replace him, the sign of a forward looking leader.

In his final term, he persuaded the cumbersome OFA to shed some weight. Under his watch, the structure was slimmed down to 18 directors. No small feat when you consider that farmers are the most independent people in the world.

Years of debate and speaking to farm groups, made him a formidable opponent during any controversy. A one-time air force pilot, he learned, adapted and became the articulate voice of the farm community in urban media, more than holding his own with talk show hosts and interviewers.

His presidency was not about manning the barricades, though he supported tractor demonstrations and was out on demonstrations. He believed in diplomacy and he worked toward long-term gains and stability, which qualifies for his next adventure, getting Ontario and Quebec farmers together to work out some of the differences and to build ties. "We’re very much alike," he says.

He quietly re-opened the communication lines to government, making the OFA again the central voice of the farmer. But perhaps he was too quiet. Many were unaware the OFA had become involved in hundreds of issues over the years, many of them local, from tingle voltage to taxation.