By: Patrick Meagher

LINDSAY — The drive for one voice among Ontario farmers is moving slowly from the viewpoint of the grassroots, says Lindsay crop farmer Joe Hickson, who sits on the steering committee.

Led by the Ontario Federaton of Agriculture since February, the ‘one voice’ committee of about 26 members, has asked commodity groups to outline their top demands before September.

Two of the four appointed grassroots members dropped out but they had too far to drive for too few results, Hickson said. Alain Leduc (Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry) and Terry Byrne (Essex County) dropped out. Hickson and Scott Swain, of Blackstock, are the two other grassroot members.

"To be fair, I don’t blame them at all," Hickson said. "The progress we’ve been making would p— off the good humour man."

Hickson said he still gets people saying, "aren’t you a little naive to still hope for one voice?"

But he figures if leaders of commodity groups are driving five hours to come to a meeting "they didn’t drive for nothing. No one has that time to spend."

Hickson said that by next year he hopes the steering committee will decide whether or not the OFA should be the umbrella group.

"I don’t know who it should be but I know that we need one. There’s no one that represents every farmer in Ontario but one group can speak for all farmers in Ontario."

Grassroots committee member and beef feed-lot operator Scott Swain agreed that the one voice movement is losing its initial momentum but that all the groups feel strongly about working together. "If we look back on what’s happened in one year huge progress has been made" to get all the commodity groups in one room.

Although some groups speak as if one voice has already happened, Swain is cautious. "There’s a stronger voice," he said. "The strength behind one voice is 10 times stronger than it was last year. Hopefully, in a five-year plan all the groups will be working as a team. I feel it’s going to happen. We need it to happen."

But there’s not enough desire amongst the boards, says Alain Leduc. "It’s a farce really. It’s a façade. They sat down because the grassroots put them together. Once the grassroots backed off they moved back into their corners."