The Review.ca Wednesday, April 13, 2011 17

Agriculture

Learn about the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food NetworkALFRED – The Eastern Ontario Agri-food Network invites you to the presentation of its new board of directors on Thursday, April 4 at 3:30 p.m. at the Alfred campus of the Universi-ty of Guelph.

Since 2007, several projects were undertaken by interveners related to the economic develop-ment and agri-food through collaboration with organizations willing to invest in promoting lo-cal products in the area.

The establishment of a market for region-al products at Festival de la Curd in St-Albert,

access to the labelling software Nutra Coster, sale of regional products at Festival de Noël in Casselman, Agri-Tour and the first Foire gour-mande inter-rives, as well as Le futur de l’agro conference in 200, are just a few of recent achievements of the sector.

On that momentum, the Agri-food Net-work was created to help promote and coordi-nate development initiatives and development of the agri-food sector, to help support the re-alization of concrete actions, local and regional, in the agri-food business.

On the initiative of three leading partners, Economic and Tourism Office of the United Counties of Prescott & Russell, the Employa-bility and Economic Development Network of Ontario, and L’Union des cultivateurs franco-ontariens, the network is ready to formalize its structure and welcome members so that projects in agri-food business are carried out in the ar-eas of Prescott-Russell and Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry.

It is now time to regroup more producers, processors, artisans and organizations interest-

ed in developing the agri-food business region-ally. In that regard, the network will centralize initiatives, implement partnerships and pro-mote exchange of expertise.

The actions of the network target the estab-lishment of agri-food projects and the awaken-ing of the population towards local products, thus contributing to the development of the in-dustry in the great area of eastern Ontario.

In addition, the implementation of an agri-food network will carry out to structure the sec-tor and to facilitate the dialog of the actors.

Quigley Cheese Manufacturers’ Association recognized on Ag Wall of FameMAXVILLE – The ninth annual induction cer-emony of the Glengarry Agriculture Wall of Fame will be held Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Metcalfe Centre in Maxville.

This year’s inductees are Edwin E. Cha-fee (posthumously), Hamish Grant MacLeod (posthumously), Bruce Munro, the Quigley Cheese Manufacturers, and Alexander Wood (posthumously).

This brings the number of Wall of Fame in-ductees to 38.

In 905, a cheese factory was built and began processing milk for local farmers on lot 32, Con-cession 5, Lochiel Township, known in the area as Quigley’s Corners. In June 92, the Quig-ley Cheese Manufacturers’ Association was formed and, despite a disastrous fire, continued its cheese-making business until 97.

In 963, fire destroyed the factory, and the building was relocated in the village of Lochiel on lot 27, Concession 5. Beginning in 964, milk was received again, and a new charter, written in 966, gave individual members a share in the

business. A board of directors supervised the enterprise, but the daily operations of the fac-tory were handled by Henri Giroux, manager and cheesemaker.

His quality cheeses earned the factory many

awards. A few years later, however, it became evident that changing dynamics of the dairy in-dustry as a whole was creating financial pres-sures for small local cheese factories. The fac-tory closed in 97, and its quota was sold to

the Kraft Cheese Company. The building was purchased by Alexandria Moulding Ltd. short-ly thereafter.

In 976, the board of directors decided they would invest the remainder of the company funds, and they would use the yearly interest to assist in local initiatives.

Since that time, more than $40,000 has been distributed in the form of college or universi-ty bursaries for students studying agriculture, for amateur sports facilities, for music programs and libraries, as well as a book project by a lo-cal author.

The Quigley Cheese Manufacturers’ Associ-ation continues to assist many local individuals and organizations.

The Wall of Fame event takes place Friday, April 29 at the Metcalfe Centre in Maxville, with the so-cial hour at 7 p.m. and dinner at 8 p.m. For tickets, call Wendy MacPherson at 613-525-9976, Robert MacDonald at 613-525-3471, Warren MacIntosh at 613-527-5355 or Jack Fraser at 613-527-2572.

Who has the power in agriculture?

This photo was taken during the recent Ontario Plowmen’s’ Association (OPA) convention. Show here is Charly Leduc, executive member of OPA, surrounded by all the Queens of Furrow representing the districts of Ontario. The queens will travel to the 2011 International Plowing Match (IPM) and Farm Machinery Show, which is set to take place this September in Chute-à-Blondeau. SUBMITTED PHOTO

During the annual Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA) banquet and convention, Ross MacGillvray from the Glengarry district was honoured for having plowed in International Plowing Matches from 1983 to 1999. He was also recognized for being a judge from 2000 to 2010. Pictured here, left to right, are Richard Sauvé, executive member of IPM 2011, MacGillvray award recipient, Courtney Connors, representing Prescott County as Queen of the Furrow, Charley Leduc, executive member of IPM 2011 and executive member of OPA, Tammy Fischer Queen of the Furrow for 2011. SUBMITTED PHOTO

GUELPH – The Na-tional Farmers Un-ion (NFU) Region 3 spring convention and annual general meet-ing was held on Sat-urday, March 5, on the theme of ‘Who Has the Power?”

Convention speak-ers addressed situa-tions in which farmers and citizens are losing power, and situations when farmers can use their influence to pro-tect natural power and family farms.

Environmental law-yer John Goudy spoke on a panel entitled “Farmers/Farmland and Development.” He argued that since the renewable energy projects being erect-ed across Ontario have very little regulation to protect farmers and

farmland in the case of decommissioning, disappearing develop-ers or contamination, farmers need to use their power as ‘Stew-ards of the Land’ be-fore signing contracts with energy develop-ers.

On the same pan-el, Sarah Megans and Dr. Harry Cummings from the University of Guelph, showed that there has been an 8.5-per-cent decrease in farmland in Ontario’s Greenbelt in the 200-06 period, com-pared to a one-per-cent decrease in farm-land across Ontario.

They argued that although develop-ment does pose chal-lenges for farming, there may be an op-portunity for fruit and vegetable farms in the Greenbelt.

The panel entitled “Who Has the Pow-er When It Comes to Trade?” saw NFU first vice-president Colleen Ross and NFU exec-utive director Kevin Wipf draw attention the Canada-Europe-an Comprehensive

Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), presently being ne-gotiated, in secret, between the indus-try-influenced trade department of the European Commis-sion and the Canadi-an Government. They argued that if CETA is implemented intel-lectual property rights will take precedence over all other rights, and the precautionary enforcement meas-ures included in the agreement will give corporations unheard of power over family farms.

The final panel fea-tured Melanie Kem-pers of the Ontario Beekeepers Associa-tion, who presented on the important role that bees play in farm-ing.

Kempers asserted that the loss of bees would result in serious negative consequenc-es for food produc-tion, given the im-portant role that they play in the pollination of many plants.

She argued the power of farmers can

be realized by work-ing together to direct research that is ap-propriate to their on-farm needs.

Joan Brady, NFU national women’s president and conven-tion co-chair, summa-rized the event in her closing remarks: “Al-

though the discus-sions at the conven-tion drew attention to the lack of power we have as farmers and as citizens, it also pro-vided us knowledge of where we can impact the process to pro-tect natural power by providing habitat for

bees on our farms, to protect our land from competing interests or to raise awareness of the impact of cor-porate driven trade agreements on farm-ers and our society as a whole. Truly, there is power in the united voice of farm families.

Elected region-al council members were Michael Trem-blay (Essex), Peter Dowling (Frontenac), Alvaro Venturelli (Hamilton), Michael Schmidt (Grey), and Rae MacIntyre (Grey).