Ed Benjamins of Moorefield has announced he will retire March 28 after five years as chairman of Chicken Farmers of Ontario and about 30 years in elected board positions.
He was first elected to the board in the 1990s after serving as a district committeeman. He then sparred with a neighbour, John Slot, who unseated him as the district director. In earlier times they worked together as critics of board policies.
That was a period of turmoil in chicken politics with many electoral upsets and heated debates, particularly in the Niagara Region.
Benjamins regained his seat in 2014 and Slot went on to work for an association for further processors and launched an on-farm chicken retail business.
Benjamins teamed with board president Rob Dougans to transform the culture of the board. From a time when the board clamped down hard on any chicken production without a quota, the board relaxed to allow more small-scale production without quota, then opened opportunities to develop and serve niche markets, also without quota for either farm production or processing.
The board also paid attention to women and offered workshops and opportunities to support women in the chicken-farming business.
The annual meeting will be an in-person event at the Hilton Meadowville in Mississauga and there will be an online component.
