Accreditation time again for farm organizations

Three sets of public hearings are set for late June to hear applications from general farm organizations for re-accreditation by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeals Tribunal.

The last time re-accreditation time rolled around, all three flunked their initial applications.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario have both been able to continue under special provisions from the minister of agriculture.

They have been warned they better be ready this time.

The National Farmers Union never did win tribunal approval until it went to court to regain accreditation.

The three farm organizations depend on accreditation for their funding which comes from farmers who must register with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs every year and pay a set fee to the farm organization of their choice.

They need accreditation for access to key provincial programs, including a break on municipal property taxes on their land.

The key sticking point the last time around was the inability of the farm organizations to demonstrate that the farmers really wanted to be members of their organization.

Now the organizations are asking members to make their choice clear before they file their annual farm registration papers with AgriCorp.

AgriCorp began sending out registration forms in January and alerted farmers that they will need to fill out the new four-page form and to include their PIN number for AgriStabiltiy and/or AgrInvest if they have one.

The fee, including HST, is $220.35.

Hungry numbers declining

The number of hungry people in the world has dropped to 795 million -- 216 million fewer than in 1990-92 -- or around one person out of every nine, according to the latest edition of the annual United Nation’s hunger report

In the developing regions, the prevalence of undernourishment – which measures the proportion of people who are unable to consume enough food for an active and healthy life -- has declined to 12.9 percent of the population, down from 23.3 percent a quarter of a century ago.

A majority - 72 out of 129 – of the countries monitored by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the prevalence of undernourishment by 2015, with developing regions as a whole missing the target by a small margin.

In addition, 29 countries have met the more ambitious goal laid out at the World Food Summit in 1996, when governments committed to halving the absolute number of undernourished people by 2015.

“The near-achievement of the hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our lifetime,” said FAO director general José Graziano da Silva.

“We must be the Zero Hunger generation.

“That goal should be mainstreamed into all policy interventions and at the heart of the new sustainable development agenda to be established this year," he said.

"If we truly wish to create a world free from poverty and hunger, then we must make it a priority to invest in the rural areas of developing countries where most of the world's poorest and hungriest people live," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

"We must work to create a transformation in our rural communities so they provide decent jobs, decent conditions and decent opportunities.

“We must invest in rural areas so that our nations can have balanced growth and so that the three billion people who live in rural areas can fulfill their potential.”

The World Food Programme also issued an urgent call today for food for hungry people in South Sudan.

CFA bid for “balanced approach” dies

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s “balanced approach” to international trade relations is dead as free-market commodity organizations clash with supply-management marketing boards.

Both are issuing news releases this week, urging the federal government in opposite directions at the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations on this week.

Cattle and hog producers issued news releases emphasing the importance of Canada’s participation in any deal that opens markets for exports.

The dairy and poultry marketing boards issued news releases emphasizing the importance of maintaining import barriers.

But a joint news release from the national feather-industry marketing agencies stopped short of insisting on maintaining current import barriers, said it supports efforts to expand access to markets and will continue to closely monitor the TPP negotiations.

Quebec’s dairy farmers staged a major rally this week and there are some in Ontario who have said they hope the Ontario marketing board will organize a demonstration in Ottawa.

JBS looking to buy more in Americas and Australia

JBS SA, already the world’s largest meat packer, is looking to buy more companies, according to a Reuters News Agency interview with  chief executive officer Wesley Batista.

He told Reuters that JBS will "for sure" be looking at potential acquisitions in the chicken, pork and branded packaged food sectors during 2015.

"I cannot say that, second half of this year, we are not going to be preparing ourselves, to (maybe) look for something for late this year or next year," he said.

JBS recently completed the acquisition of Primo Group, the largest producer of ham, bacon and sausage in Australia, in a move to capitalize on booming sales growth in Asia.

W.H. Group of China, which owns Smithfield, has also said it’s looking for companies to buy. Smithfield once owned Schneider Corp., but sold it to Maple Leaf Foods.

Some market analysts have said that Michael McCain changes to Maple Leaf to focus it on meat processing in state-of-the-industry plants makes it a takeover target.