45th Annual Convention (2014)

8:00 PM – Til the Cows Come Home

When the federal government decided to transform the correctional system to one that puts punishment first, prison farms were an early casualty. Strong opposition formed, and hundreds stood ready to block trucks brought in to remove the prize dairy herd from Frontenac Prison Farm in Kingston, ON. The film tells the story behind this extraordinary display of civil disobedience, and asks provocative questions about the Canadian government’s hardening approach to criminal justice, food security….and democracy itself. Kingston Local NFU member Dianne Dowling will be present to introduce the film and take questions afterwards. Watch the trailer

NFU Brand Development Working Group
The NFU is looking to attract new members and exert greater influence on decision-makers. Our brand – our “look and feel” – affects whether these people perceive us as a legitimate 21st century voice in the farming and food policy arena. This workshop will lay some groundwork to inform debate and decision-making about considering a “new look and feel” for the NFU brand.

Cory Ollikka is a 4th generation farmer from Waskatenau, Alberta. He operates an organic grain and beef cattle farm as well as holding an off-farm job in Municipal Government. Cory has held numerous positions at the District, Regional and National levels of the NFU since 1986 and was the NFU’s 7th National President from 1998-2001. He has helped chair several NFU conventions.

Ken Rosaasen retired as a professor at the University of Saskatchewan on June 30, 2014. He actively farms with his wife Elsie and sons in the Preeceville area where his grandfather settled in 1905. Conventional crops are produced on 2000 acres as well as fababeans and timothy seed. His teaching, research and extension work focused on grain and livestock marketing and agricultural policy. Extension activities include the initiation and ongoing co-ordination of the Market Prospects program on Farmgate and a software program (Freight Rate Manager) that assists farmers to understand their grain handling and transportation costs. He received the University of Saskatchewan Award for Distinction in Outreach and Public Service at the Spring Convocation in 2014. He is currently the APAS (Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan) Representative for the RM of Corman Park and a member of the Economic, Trade and Strategic Growth Committee. He appeared as a witness supporting the Canadian Wheat Board continuing as a single desk seller for producers before both the House and Senate Committees in Ottawa and most recently was elected to serve on the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission for a four year term.

Teresa Healy earned her doctorate in Political Science from Carleton University. She specializes in North American integration, labour, and public sector issues. For over a decade, she worked in the labour movement as senior researcher at the Canadian Labour Congress and with the Canadian Union of Public Employees. She is Associate Professor and Chair of the Sustainable Development Program at the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont where she teaches in a Master’s degree program focussing on advocacy, leadership and social change. Currently, Teresa is involved in ongoing research on women’s experiences of economic restructuring in Northern Canada.Teresa Healy’s book, Gendered Struggles against Globalisation in Mexico was published by Ashgate in 2008. Her edited collection, The Harper Record, was published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, also in 2008. She is now co-editing a second volume that is analyzing the Conservative government’s record from 2008-2014.Teresa is also a recording singer-songwriter, Adjunct Research Professor at the Institute for Political Economy at Carleton University and Research Associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Annette Aurélie Desmarais is Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty at the University of Manitoba. Her doctoral research in geography examined peasants’ and farmers’ responses to the globalization of agriculture by analyzing the formation, consolidation and functioning of the international peasant movement, La Vía Campesina.

Darrin Qualman served as the Executive Secretary and the Director of Research for the National Farmers Union from 1996 to 2010. His work for the NFU includes the “Farm Crisis” series of briefs. He is currently completing History and Biology undergraduate degrees at the University of Saskatchewan. He will then return his focus to writing a book that seeks to explain energy and material flows in modern and traditional civilizations and in natural systems.

Andre Magnan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina. His research focuses on the history and politics of grain marketing on the Canadian prairies, the financialization of the agri-food sector, and changing patterns of farmland and farm ownership in Canada and Australia. He has published on these topics in academic venues including Agriculture and Human Values, Rural Sociology, and several collected volumes, as well as in Briarpatch Magazine and The Globe and Mail.

Bernie Wiehle lives along the north shore of Lake Erie, near the small town of Rodney, ON. He is a commercial Beekeeper with just over 100 hives. He has had to reduce the number of hives he manages due to the problems beekeepers are facing. He is also works part time as a licensed seed crop inspector and at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus Farm Market News program. Bernie grew up on a mixed livestock, cash crop farm, now operated by his brother. He studied Agriculture Business at U of Guelph. After working for a grain elevator and farm supply business in sales and management he went overseas to work with CUSO/VSO in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. He was recently re-elected Mayor of West Elgin and councillor for Elgin County. In his spare time he bird watches and cycles.

Allan Slater lives on a farm in Oxford County that was originally stolen from First Nations people by the colonial government and sold to his great grandfather in 1856. After finishing secondary school, he started farming with his parents. In 1955 and1956 he went on harvest excursions to the Moose Jaw area. It was in those years that he first heard the stories of the importance of The Canadian Wheat Board and the Pool elevators. From 1957 until 1961 he studied ag engineering at Ontario Agricultural College where he met his life partner Beverley. They started farming together in 1962 andcontinued farming until 2000 except for four years from 1970 to 1974 when they worked with farmers in Zambia. After retirement he volunteered in Mexico, Iraq, Palestine, Colombia, and here in Canada observing and documenting human rights abuses. In the winter of 2014 they returned to Zambia to reconnect with farmers that they had left 40 years ago.

Richard Gray is a Professor in the Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics at University of Saskatchewan. Richard’s family experience in Saskatchewan agriculture spans several generations. After completing his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, Richard was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Saskatchewan. He has published in the areas of agricultural trade, agricultural marketing, and environmental economics. Over time, his research and his graduate students’ research has increasingly focused on various aspects of agricultural research and innovation systems. From 2003 until 2013, Richard led the Canadian Agricultural Innovation Research Network and regularly provides advice to farm organizations and government regarding innovation policy and research funding models. In his spare time Richard helps his son Eric operate the family grain farm at Indian Head, Saskatchewan. In 2010 he was recognized as Fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.

Larry Hill farms with his wife, Sandra, near Swift Current, Sask. They started working and farming part-time and have been farming full-time since 1980. They have been NFU members since 1970. He has an Engineering Degree and a Management Certificate from the University of Saskatchewan. His Board of Director experience includes: Pioneer and Southwest Credit Unions; Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan, Cypress Hills Regional College, and the Canadian Wheat Board. If you add up the years and include Sask. Wheat Pool committees, it totals about 65 years. Larry and Sandra have two daughters and three grandchildren.

Cathy McGregor-Smith along with husband Gary Smith operate McSmiths Organic Farm. They have been certified organic since 1984. The diversity of farm enterprises has allowed them to be full time farmers. They have 2 daughters who played a vital part in the farm’s early success.

Helen Groome was born in England in 1958. In 1982 she went to Madrid, Spain to write her doctoral thesis on the evolution of forest policy in Spain 1800-1980. One chapter considered the influence of regional devolution of political powers from Madrid to the newly created regional governments, specifically the effect on forest policy in the Spanish part of the Basque Country. Contacts with the Basque Farmers’ Union, EHNE, eventually led to employment as adviser and activist on forestry and environmental issues related to farming (Natural Parks, wild animals such as wolves, GMO’s, seeds, transport infrastructure…) a job that lasted from 1988 to 2009. Whilst working in EHNE she lived on a dairy farm run by two brothers in the rural parish, Karrantza in the westernmost part of the Basque Country. The farm started a process of de-intensification in the mid 90’s and in 2009 Helen joined the farm team of five (her partner and herself, her brother-in-law and his two sons). The farm turned organic between 2011 and 2013 and built a dairy in 2011 which has now been running for three years.

Cam was elected to the newly-formed Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission in December 2013, and elected Chair of the organization in January 2014. He is looking forward to working with organizations which share the common goal of putting producer interests to the forefront, and maintaining farmer control over all aspects of their businesses.