The Renfrew County Federation of Agriculture is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. I have been reading through the first Minute Book that begins in 1941 and goes to1960 to read about the early history of the local federation. Much of the early handwriting is hard to decipher. There are over 300 large pages filled with handwritten minutes. It’s a good thing I’m a history buff as it’s slow reading.
On October 10, 1941 a group of positive-minded farmers got together in the office of the Department of Agriculture in Renfrew to establish the Renfrew County chapter of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
The minutes read that Sam McLaren of Cobden took the chair for the opening proceedings. Nat E. Lindsay of Renfrew acted as chairman for election of officers.
Election results were as follows:
President: Garfield Richardson of Burnstown.
First Vice-President: Stanley Hunt of Pembroke.
Second Vice-President: Sam McLaren of Bromley Township.
Secretary: Mrs. W.H. Hamilton of Glasgow.
Treasurer: Crawford Dewar of Glasgow.
Directors: Mrs. Gordon Hamilton of Pembroke. Hugh Costello of Brudenall. Ray Forrest of Douglas and Thos Mullin of Eganville.
Alex Jamieson and Duncan Campbell were appointed to the standing committee of the Federation.
A motion was passed that 5-cents a mile be paid any member asked to attend meetings.
On January 19, 1942 the board of directors had a meeting with Frank Dench, who was the agriculture representative of the Department of Agriculture in Renfrew, to set up a war-time agricultural committee for the county. According to the minutes, Mr. Dench explained the set-up of a county war-time committee had been done in other counties in Ontario. The County Federation of Agriculture was to act as the war-time agricultural committee for Renfrew County.
The history of the OFA starts before the Second World War. Following the withdrawal of the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) from direct political action in the 1920s, supporters of the UFO regrouped under the name of the Ontario Chamber of Agriculture as a forum and lobby for the various agricultural interests in the province.
In 1936 the Chamber of Agriculture was renamed the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Thus, the OFA can trace its ancestry to the earliest chapters of the Patrons of Husbandry.
Until 1970 the OFA was a true federation. Membership consisted of almost all commodity associations and a number of co-operatives including the United Co-operatives of Ontario (UCO). In addition, the county and township federations (associations in a strict sense) were indirectly represented on the board of the OFA through five zone federations. There was no direct farm membership. As a means of establishing closer communications with individual farmers the OFA sponsored the Farm Forum which encouraged small group discussions of the National Farm Radio broadcasts.
Views of the various forums were fed back to OFA head office for use in the federation’s policies and programs. Thus, through its member bodies and via the Farm Forum, the OFA represented, directly and indirectly, virtually every farmer in the province. This seemingly stable structure was threatened by two forces in the mid and late1960s. Older farmers will recall the GFO plebiscite of 1969 –for a single general farm organization.
That story next week.
