News / Announcements:

Federation of Agriculture Participates in National Roundtable

The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture (NLFA), through its president Eugene Legge, participated in a national roundtable discussion on agriculture in Canada.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) hosted the 10th annual Tripartite Roundtable, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan yesterday. The meeting was an open and frank discussion with industry groups and federal and provincial agriculture ministers on proposals for the long-term sustainability of agriculture in Canada. The roundtable is preceding the annual Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers’ agriculture conference.

The NLFA is pleased about the focus on establishing a national food strategy that came out of the meeting, as well as the discussion around stability and measures to address current situations in the industry.

“These types of meetings are very important and go a long way toward advancing the goals of agriculture in our province as it fits into the national picture,” said NLFA President Eugene Legge. “We can easily see that representatives from both levels of government are eager to have a dialogue and really are listening to our perspectives.”

The Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister Responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency is attending the meetings on behalf of the provincial government. From the federal government, the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State (Agriculture) were in attendance.

With participants representing all commodities and provinces, the 10th annual CFA-hosted Tripartite Roundtable served as a valuable forum to share perspectives from all regions of Canada.

The NLFA, in partnership with its national and regional counterparts, looks forward to working in partnership with agriculture ministers on the next generation of agriculture policy with the aim of ensuring effective and responsive programming for farmers now and into the future.