The two farm groups are using a platform called ElectionBuddy, which its developers say is a secure method for member-based organizations to conduct elections.

For Alberta Wheat, go to albertawheatvotes.com (opens as a secure ElectionBuddy link) or albertabarleyvotes.com (opens as a secure ElectionBuddy link) for Alberta Barley.

The registration process requires the farm’s name or the producer’s business number. Voting is open until Nov. 6.

Alberta Wheat has elections in six regions, including two director spots, one director-at-large position, and nearly two dozen delegate spots. Alberta Barley has elections for two directors and three regional reps in both Regions 2 and 4.

The post Alberta farm groups using online voting appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The pandemic has, of course, been the big one, but the province’s largest cattle organization is also implementing a major revamp of its entire governance structure at a time when holding producer meetings has proven impossible. And for the first time in 13 years, it has a new general manager and is also in the process of hiring key staff.

Nominations for delegates closed just after the Oct. 19 edition of Alberta Farmer went to press, but chair Kelly Smith-Fraser was hoping for a robust field of candidates.

“We will have a clean slate in all five of the new zones,” said the Pine Lake rancher. “We are hoping to have 14 people running for the seven delegate positions in each zone. I’m really hoping that we get a strong contingency of people putting their names forward and wanting to be part of the organization.”

The change to five zones (northwest, northeast, central, southwest and southeast) from nine previously and cutting the number of delegates by about a third was still awaiting formal approval from the province but “we are moving forward,” said Smith-Fraser.

ABP’s leadership had hoped to have in-person meetings in each of the zones, but the challenges of holding meetings during the pandemic proved to be too much. And although much of the world has replaced face-to-face meetings with Zoom or some other form of video conferencing, that’s not a workable option unless you’re one of the lucky few who has broadband on the ranch.

So the election will be old school.

Every producer on ABP’s membership list will receive a package with a ballot and voting instructions by mail. The packages will also outline the new zones, and include information about each candidate. (Some delegates will serve a one-year term and others two years in order to have staggered elections in future.)

Producers will need to either mail in their ballots or vote online by December — with results being announced in January.

The organization is also going through some major staff changes. Brad Dubeau is now the general manager, replacing former executive director Rich Smith, who retired in June. A new government relations staff member, and marketing and communications manager will soon be joining the team.

An online town hall will be held on Nov. 26 to update members on some new projects, including a new platform to communicate with producers.

“We’ll be introducing the new staff and the new initiatives that we are undertaking under Brad’s guidance,” said Smith-Fraser. “It’s exciting. I’m looking forward to all the changes.”

The November meeting will also feature presentations on the Public and Stakeholder Engagement program, a $600,000-a-year initiative created as part of the national beef strategy. The program, funded by checkoff dollars, is designed to reach out to consumers in a proactive way, rather than just responding when critics attack the beef sector.

The following week, ABP will host another online meeting, and producers will be able to introduce resolutions.

“We’ll do a quick update of what we heard the previous week and move into resolutions from our producers,” said Smith-Fraser.

One thing that, happily, hasn’t changed a lot in the past year is cattle prices — despite the pandemic-caused production problems at the Cargill and JBS processing plants that created a huge backlog of market-ready cattle.

“We’re happy with the prices we’re seeing this fall — it seems we’re on par with what we were seeing previous years,” she said.

The organization is also looking forward to getting back to meeting in person, albeit on a small scale and many months from now.

Although the Alberta Beef Industry Conference has been cancelled, ABP is using that time as an opportunity to meet. It will be holding an in-person AGM March 3-4 in Red Deer with a small number of delegates, said Smith-Fraser.

“It’s been a moving target this fall trying to plan,” she added.

The post Change, change and more change coming to Alberta Beef Producers appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

There were 751 votes by members of the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association — with 414 voting against the merger and 337 voting in favour — even though the board of that organization as well as provincial boards strongly backed it.

“As a board, the Alberta Seed Growers thought that this was a good move forward for the seed industry,” said Renee Hoyme, president of Alberta Seed Growers. “We were in favour of amalgamation because we could see the benefits for the seed industry in the long run.

“We heard from a strong voice against, but we still thought the pros the new organization could bring outweighed the cons.”

The move to unite under one banner, to be called Seeds Canada, was supported by the four industry groups: the Canadian Plant Technology Agency, Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada, Canadian Seed Institute, and Canadian Seed Trade Association.

Advocates said having one organization would mean a stronger, more unified voice.

“Having one voice for the industry has more clout with government than five individual voices,” said Hoyme, a Thorhild-area seed grower.

“With the uncertainty of funding, having a stronger voice for the seed industry was a big plus for us.”

So too was the ‘one window’ system proposed in the merger, she added.

“On my personal farm, we’re basically a member of all of the five organizations, so it would have been nice to have a one-stop shop for that just to be more efficient.”

But opponents said the voice of farmers would be lost in the proposed organization.

“Frankly, from the moment I heard it, the ‘one voice, one organization’ aspect was a concern,” said Stettler-area seed grower Norman Lyster, who was president of the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association from 2014 to 2016.

“I had always felt that a number of voices in harmony carried more weight while allowing some variance in thought process.”

Governance was another key concern — particularly around who would have a seat at the table. The ratification package put forward a board structure of 15 members, but only one of those members had to be a seed grower, sparking concerns among some seed growers.

“It felt like it was a pathway that had already been determined,” said Lyster. “There is a tendency in my mind to think that a lot of this had been decided somewhere well ahead of time. There were bigger agendas floating around. That’s part of life, but in this case, it was causing more friction.”

Moving forward

But the nature of the seed industry made it almost impossible to guarantee that more board seats would be filled by seed growers, said Hoyme.

“In theory, the way it would work is that a majority of the seats would be gained by seed growers, but that required involvement by seed growers — and typically it’s really hard to get board involvement from seed growers,” she said, adding that’s reflected in the low voter turnout for this issue. (The organization has about 3,500 members, so only one in five cast a vote.)

“So we couldn’t guarantee those spots without knowing what the interest in involvement would be. It couldn’t be put in the bylaws that it had to be a grower. Otherwise, the position might never be filled.”

For Lyster, seed growers simply didn’t have the full story about both the benefits and drawbacks of the amalgamation.

“We have to be sure we’re looking at the right problems — that we’ve identified the issues properly — to be able to come up with solutions that are appropriate,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re bound to make mistakes.”

But that doesn’t mean it will be business as usual, he added.

“There’s no going back to the status quo. While some may think that’s what this vote means, I don’t think it means that,” he said.

“Our membership in general has been quite open to change, but I think the change they saw there was not what they had thought it would be.”

At this point, it’s unclear how the seed industry will move forward. One option is a revision to the ratification package to make it more palatable ahead of a second vote. More likely, the four organizations that voted in favour of amalgamation will merge, with the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association repositioning itself as ‘CSGA 2.0,’ said Hoyme.

Either way, the industry will still need to find a way to work together, she said.

“I’d like to think that CSGA and the four other organizations can still have a good working relationship. It will just have to be ironed out what that relationship looks like,” she said. “There will still be change. It will just look different than we had envisioned with the amalgamation.”

Lyster agrees.

“Ultimately, we have to work together in many ways anyway,” he said.

“There is a risk of infighting or fracturing, but ultimately, if it gets into a food fight, it’s not good for anybody. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to sit back and digest this a bit and go from there.

“There are so many different possibilities of how this could play out.”

The post Seed growers reject merger with other industry groups appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But other than a few photo ops on farms, agriculture rarely gets a mention on the hustings.

And, in a way, that’s OK with farm leaders in this province.

Alberta Farmer reporter Jennifer Blair spoke to officials from seven major commodity groups and while their priorities differ, there was a common theme: They’re looking for action, not words and promises.

Many of their action items reflect the fact that today’s farmers have a global outlook.

“At the end of the day, we only have 30 million people in this country, and we can only consume so much. We are an export country,” said Lee Markert, chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission.

“We have the land base and resources to provide for the rest of the world, and we really require these customers from around the world to make ourselves sustainable.”

Along with election stories, our latest issue of Alberta Farmer also has a quiz on some of the buyers of the record $9.7 billion of agri-food products exported by the province last year. And as the graphic at the top of this page shows, there is rich potential in upping that value through processing.

“It’s to the point where we do a lot of value added here in Canada and move different types of products from the same commodity to the rest of the world,” said Markert.

“When you make those programs available, it can create a lot of growth within Canada and provide a lot of basis for value chains here.”

Value added is just one issue: Rail transport, labour issues, trade deals, and not sacrificing supply management in trade deals were also top items.

The bottom line is that whether the current government is re-elected or a new one takes its place, farm leaders will have a full list of priorities they want addressed by the next administration.

The post ELECTION 2015: Action items for Alberta agriculture appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.