Mmmm Good, healthy and delicious food grow in Ontario!
Please choose locally grown food in your neighbourhood markets to support our fantastic farmers in Ontario, Canada.
Ontario family farms can count on my support to buy their fresh produce.
Also, Ontario farmers can rely on the Ontario Government to provide stable financial support to weather price fluctuations during unpredictable times due to weather and global market changes.
Today is a historic day for Ontario’s family farms as the government announces and implements the New Risk Management Programs as the biggest policy change in 30 years.
The features of the New Risk Management Programs include:
- Bankability, stability and predictability while responding to market trends over the long term.
- To help grain and oilseed farmers manage costs, the government is extending the current pilot Risk Management Program, and will be making the risk management program for grain and oilseed farmers permanent.
- A new Risk Management Program will be set up for cattle, hog, sheep and veal farmers.
- A Self-Directed Risk Management Program for the edible horticulture sector.
- The cost of these programs will be shared between the Ontario government and farmers. Ontario strongly encourages the federal government to partner with the province and farmers in these important programs.
- Since 2003–04, farm income stabilization programs totalling more than $1.9 billion have helped farmers deal with bad weather, volatile prices and rising costs.
- The government continues to promote Ontario foods through such initiatives as Foodland Ontario.
- Ontario’s agri-food sector is one of the province’s leading industries, contributing more than $33 billion annually to the economy.
In recognition of the innovations developed by farmers, agri-food businesses and organizations, awards of the Agri-Food Innovation Excellence program are presented to 55 winners each year.
The two top awards for Agri-food Innovation Excellence are a Premier’s Award and a Minister’s Award.
The Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence has attracted more than 900 applications highlighting on-farm innovations since 2006.
Congratulations to the following farmers who received today the top two awards:
- Paul and Rosie Hill of Willowgrove Hill received the Premier’s Award for producing DHA Omega-3 enriched pork.
- They are the first pork producers in North America to do this.These are considered essential nutrients for the maintenance of general human health, normal growth and development.
- The pork is also enhanced with organic selenium, an antioxidant considered an essential trace element in the human diet.
- In just two years, Willowgrove Hill has seen their nutritionally enhanced pork products jump from two to 90 per cent of their total sales.
- Arie and Lisa Duizer of Duizer Farms received the Minister’s Award for the innovative design of their robotic dairy barn.
- It enables a single producer to manage a milking herd of up to 120 cows.
- The investment has paid dividends in labour savings and improved herd health.
- More than 1,000 dairy producers from around the world have come to visit this innovative barn.
Fifty-five other winners will be awarded for their work at regional ceremonies later this spring.
Please click here to try new recipes using Ontario food.
Ontario, Canada: Newsroom
News Release
Protecting Ontario’s Family Farms
April 4, 2011
New Risk Management Programs Biggest Policy Change In 30 Years
Ontario’s family farms can now count on stable financial support to weather unpredictable times so Ontarians can keep enjoying healthy, locally grown food.
Premier Dalton McGuinty highlighted Ontario’s new risk management programs and thanked farmers for their creativity and innovation today at the annual Summit on Agri-Food.
Ontarians are eating more of the healthy food grown by Ontario farmers, processed in the province and sold by local retailers. When the province’s family farms thrive, Ontarians taste it at the dinner table.
Risk management programs support farmers when prices for their products fluctuate due to unpredictable factors such as weather and global market changes. The province will introduce new risk management programs for cattle, hog and sheep farmers and will be making the risk management program for grain and oilseed farmers permanent.
A separate Self-Directed Risk Management program for fruit and vegetable famers is also being set up.
The Premier also presented one of the two top awards for Agri-food Innovation Excellence.
Fifty-five other winners will be awarded for their work at regional ceremonies later this spring.
QUOTES
“Farmers have always been there for Ontario, so we need to be there for farmers. That’s why we’ve made the single biggest commitment to the family farm in 30 years. The new risk management programs will help our farmers and their families stay strong.”
– Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
“Ontarians count on our farmers. They deliver the high-quality food that we’ve all come to expect, and they should be able to count on us. We’re supporting innovation and programs that will give our farmers the predictability, bankability and stability they need to stay on the land and continue to provide us with the good things that grow in Ontario.”
– Carol Mitchell
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
QUICK FACTS
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Office of the Premier
ontario.ca/premier