Two local farmers elected as OFA vice-presidents

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) will continue to boast local representation from Huron and Perth counties in 2025 after its board election this week.

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Sara Wood, a Perth County farmer, was re-elected to a three-year term as director-at-large and, after being elected vice-president last year, will serve a second year in the role. Ethan Wallace of Seaforth was also elected as a vice-president, while Drew Spoelstra, a dairy and crop farmer from Binbrook, was re-elected to another one-year term as president.

Wood, a fourth-generation farmer who grew up in the area, originally had no intentions of continuing in the family business.

“I was going to pursue other avenues. I realized rather quickly that I missed the farm, and I had a real passion for the farm, which drove me to come back to the farm,” Wood said.

Agriculture is her life’s calling because it’s different every day, said Wood, who, along with her husband and son, grow several cash crops and have a broiler barn for chickens

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“I love the challenge. I love that I get to work with my hands and what we grow and raise, not only our family, but families across Ontario and the world. I get to be part of an industry that feeds the world, and that is really a passion,” she said.

One “huge success and a huge win” that Wood has seen over her past three years on the OFA board is her encouragement of young leaders in the sector. This includes inviting five of these young leaders each year to attend the OFA’s advocacy day at Queen’s Park. Wood highlighted how she was able to watch the youth grow as leaders, both at their local OFA boards and their local commodity boards.

“I“ust watching them grow and being leaders in their communities is a huge thing,” Wood said.

In this new term, Wood is looking to continue talks and collaboration with government and between the different agricultural commodities. However, she is also looking to work with industries that are outside the “agriculture box.”

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“The more we can learn from each other, the better we can be as an industry. And for so long, we’ve been so focused on just our commodity or just agriculture that there are things beyond us that we can continue to learn,” she said.

She pointed to the mining industry as one the agriculture sector can learn from and share knowledge with. That industry can help inform concerns, such as environmental assessments and the carbon tax, while farmers can help with the cleanup of a pit or a quarry.

“We may not be experts in that field, but farmers are experts in looking at soil health and rejuvenation of soil health, and so the more we can work together, the better we are,” Wood said.

Wallace looking to engage politicians from urban ridings

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Wallace, a fourth-generation dairy farmer and the third generation to live on his family farm, where they milk just under 100 cows, has been involved in the local OFA branch for around 15 years and joined the Huron County milk committee around 12 years ago as a Huron County Federation of Agriculture liaison.

He rose through the ranks of both groups and was elected as a board member three years ago.

Not only does the University of Guelph graduate have a passion for agriculture, but he has a “passion for sharing the ag story with those who may not understand it completely.” This includes engaging both MPs and MPPs on the similarities between what is already available in urban areas, and what rural Ontario needs.

“It’s never not been there in urban Ontario,” he said.

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“When we think of some of the infrastructure needs – when we speak of the mental-health services needs, when we speak of the health-care needs in rural Ontario, and then when we talk about the tax burden – I mean, it’s something that all Ontarians, all Canadians, can understand,” he said.

Wallace pointed to the potential 25 per cent tariff that may come when US president-elect Donald Trump takes office again as something that will impact everyone.

It is a symbiotic relationship between urban and rural Ontario, Wallace emphasized.

“I can’t produce food for someone that doesn’t exist, and they can’t eat without people like me, so we need to understand that for Ontario to be strong, we both need to be strong.”

Wallace is especially concerned with land-use planning, given that only about five per cent of the soil in Ontario is capable of growing food.

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“Land-use planning has been a massive talking point for the OFA over the last number of years, simply because, without good urban planning, we’re going to eat up all the available land in Ontario to put houses on,” he said .

In particular in the next three years, Wallace is looking to help politicians understand why we need agriculture. He also wants them to know the industry is more than primary agriculture. Agriculture is also the grocery store, the local restaurant and the local brewery or winery, he said.

“At OFA, we talk significantly about the agri-food system, and the economic contribution of the agri-food system: $50 billion in provincial GDP is generated by agriculture or agri-food in the province of Ontario,” he said.

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