Grain farmers ignore big kingdom merger

For the past four years there was a lot of talk about amalgamating Ontario’s corn, soybean and wheat boards. Each of these organizations had their own little kingdom and it made sense to amalgamate and be known as Grain Farmers of Ontario.

Cash crop farmers usually grow corn, soybeans and wheat. They had check-off money going to support all three organizations. If there was one big organization representing all three crops it would surely save farmers money. The groups would be housed in one building and fewer staff would be needed to run the show. Grass roots farmers liked the idea of one organization.

But not so fast. Most farmers were thrilled with the idea of an amalgamated board but were perturbed when they learned that the amalgamated board would keep all the staff of the three boards, even though some jobs would be redundant.

Meetings were held throughout Ontario and were sparsely attended. About 20 people showed up at a Chesterville meeting.

Finally, after four years of talking about merging the three into one group, a vote was held last September. 28,386 Ontario grain producers received a mail-in ballot from the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission. They had to mail in the ballot by September 30, 2008.

The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. It is accountable for the conduct and impact of Ontario’s regulated marketing system. The Commission is accountable to the agriculture minister, who is then accountable to Cabinet and the Legislature.

This is where things get interesting. Results of the vote weren’t known until December.

Ontario Farmer reports that of the 28,386 farmers who received a ballot, only 5,040 producers responded. That’s 17.7 per cent. Of those, 400 spoiled their ballots, or 7.9 per cent.

It doesn’t sound good that 400 farmers spoiled their ballots.

Ontario Farmer says 4,639 producers voted correctly, and of them, 72.2 per cent voted yes. That means 11.8 per cent of eligible farmers said yes. The other 88.2 per cent said no, ruined their ballots, forgot to fill them out, or didn’t care.

In the United States they can count more than 100 million votes in two hours. It took the Commission 60 days before we heard the results of the ballot. I’m sure they were not counting ballots every day. What was going on?

To be fair, farmers were given the chance to vote. Many didn’t bother to. That was their choice.

A December 12 press release from Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) states: "The three organizations representing Ontario corn, soybean, and wheat producers will immediately begin the transition to Grain Farmers of Ontario.

The announcement completes a four-year process driven by resolutions from members of Ontario Corn Producers’ Association, Ontario Soybean Growers and Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board.

Resolutions were in support of forming one organization to represent the needs of Ontario corn, soybean, and wheat producers.

A vote involving all 29,000 members of the three organizations was held in September 2008.

The first order of business for the GFO transition plan involves mobilizing a human resources consulting firm to ensure as smooth a transition as possible.

There are a lot of puzzle pieces to fit together now including staff roles and responsibilities and introducing a new board of directors, says Leo Guilbeault, chair of the Ontario Soybean Growers.

Our members have given clear direction to the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission on how they want to be represented, and were committed to ensuring we provide value to them through Grain Farmers of Ontario, says Dale Mountjoy, president of Ontario Corn Producers Association."

My, what a positive spin on things. The transition plan involves mobilizing a human resources consulting firm. A consulting firm! Really?

And the corn producers definitely did not give a clear direction on how they want to be represented. They had from September 9 to September 30 to mail in their ballots. Farmers weren’t harvesting corn in September. Eighty-eight per cent didn’t bother to vote.

I’m sure it will cost more running the big kingdom (Grain Farmers of Ontario) than running the three little kingdoms.

No wonder farmers tuned out!