Steve Brackenridge Signs On as Local OFA Director

The local agricultural community is pleased to have Squirrel Creek’s Steve Brackenridge represent their interests on the 14-member Ontario Federation of Agriculture board. His broad background, level head and integrity will give a strong voice presenting agricultural issues

His responsibilities do not officially begin until the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s Annual General Meeting in November, but Brackenridge is already unofficially on the job as the OFA Director for Durham, Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton region. With his trademark humility, he explains that his term will begin with “a lot of learning”, but those who convinced him to stand for the position recognize the wealth of experience he brings to the job. Serving as a volunteer in agricultural organization is also a matter of family tradition: both Steve and his father Dave have spent many years serving at the county level, with Dave sitting on the treasury board of the Peterborough County Federation of Agriculture and Steve spending the last 8 years as director, vice-president and president of this organization, one of the 52 County Federations across Ontario.

The Brackenridge family is well-known to the local agricultural community which they serve through their family business, Squirrel Creek Farms just south of Millbrook. This business currently operates as a Pioneer seed dealership, a grain elevator and a supplier of maple syrup production equipment, but previously included a feed dealership and hog production. Brackenridge also produces cash crops on 600 acres. With all of this on his plate, it’s not like he was looking for more responsibilities, nor does he secretly harbour political ambition. He agreed to serve as believes this broad range of industry experience gives him a balanced perspective which he hopes will serve him well as he exercises this new-found influence as one of 14 members on the OFA Board.

The OFA is a grassroots organization providing a unified voice for more than 36,000 independent farm operators across Ontario. It acts as an advocate for farmers, representing their interests through lobby efforts with government and the community at large, developing strong media messages to communicate the agricultural perspective to enable their members to develop prosperous and sustainable farms.

In their most recent strategic plan developed in 2013, the OFA outlines its key objectives, that all centre on the concept of sustainability; economic, environmental, social and organizational. The first priority is to ensure government planning and policies recognize that as a finite resource, agricultural land must be protected. They also intend to ensure the importance of agriculture as an economic driver in the province is recognized and protected to ensure the agricultural community is sustainable. To achieve this, farms must earn sustainable levels of profit to retain farm businesses in Ontario.

At the same time, profit does not come ahead of the environmental responsibilities of today’s farmers, who have demonstrated that they are exceptional environmental stewards. The OFA intends to develop and promote innovation in farm products and production methods to develop food, fuel and fibre through public-private partnership research that are “green”, improving air, water and soil quality and enhance biodiversity.

One of the pet peeves of the agricultural community is the public perception of some that they are not doing enough to protect the environment. In fact, many farmers take action to improve air, water and soil quality and sustain and increase biodiversity, actions which benefit society as a whole but for which farmers derive no economic benefit.

While he may be learning on the job for the first few months, Brackenridge has a few items on his agenda to raise during his three-year term on the Board. One of them is a proposal to establish an industrial rate class for the agricultural sector’s hydro use to control the soaring costs farm operators are facing.

His local efforts also helped drive the recently announced Soil Mapping Initiative introduced last month. This project will provide critical information about agricultural land which will help on many fronts. First it provides a detailed level of information to all farmers which will help them in their soil management decisions. As the price of precision agriculture technology falls, these tools are becoming more accessible resulting in higher adoption levels amongst farm operators to help them make more informed decisions regarding field preparation and crop management. Purchasers of agricultural land will also benefit from objective and publicly available information on the potential of their potential land acquisition before they buy.   The broadest and most long-lasting benefit of this project will be in land use planning, where land classifications determine how land can be employed. When land parcels are classified based on inaccurate information, poor decisions with long term implications can occur.   Brackenridge uses the example of inaccurate slope information resulting in lower land classifications that allow solar farms to be developed on prime agricultural land as an example of something that new soil maps will prevent. One of the primary objectives of the OFA is to protect agricultural land across Ontario.

The agricultural sector and the community at large can feel confident that with his broad experience, forthright approach and unwavering commitment, Brackenridge is an ideal candidate to represent local interests on this organization focussed on building a strong, responsible and healthier province. KG