The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) is Canada's largest general farm organization, representing 200,000 farmers and farm families. The organization is headquartered in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario, with the mandate to provide a unified industry voice at the national level. The CFA was formed in 1935, and continues today as a farmer-funded, national umbrella organization representing provincial general farm organizations and national commodity groups.

Activities

• To coordinate the efforts of agricultural producer organizations throughout Canada for the purpose of promoting their common interest through collective action.
• To assist members and where necessary government, in forming and promoting national agricultural policies to meet changing domestic and international economic conditions; and to collaborate and cooperate with organized groups of producers outside Canada to further this objective.
• To promote and advance acceptance of positive social, economic and environmental conditions of those engaged in agricultural pursuits.

To promote awareness of agricultural producer organizations, the CFA sponsors a "Food Freedom Day", the date when an average Canadian family has earned enough income to pay the grocery bill for the entire year. In 2008, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Ontario Federation of Agriculture

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is a general farm organization established in 1936 and headquartered in Guelph, Ontario. The OFA comprises 52 county farm organizations from across the province. Bette Jean Crews was acclaimed OFA President at the 2008 Annual General Meeting, held in Toronto,...

 calculated that it took 34 days (Feb. 3, 2008) for the average Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 family to make enough to cover their food expenses for the year.

Elected executive

Delegates at the 2009 Annual General Meeting elected Laurent Pellerin as the new President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture on February 25, 2009. The organization had been without a President since September, 2008, when Bob Friesen stepped down in order to participate in national politics. Friesen had been the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's president for over nine years.

Laurent Pellerin had previously served as President of the Union des producteurs agricoles

Union des producteurs agricoles

The Union des producteurs agricoles is an agricultural trade union representing producers in the Canadian province of Quebec. Originally a Catholic union called the Union catholique des cultivateurs , it shed its denominational character as a result of the Quiet Revolution and has existed in its...

 (UPA) as well as serving as 1st Vice-President of the CFA for over a decade. Pellerin, a hog and beef producer from Saint-Gregoire de Nicolet, Quebec, is the first québécois head of the organization in its 74-year history.

CFA Membership and Policy Development

Being a true federation of organizations, the deliberative body is composed of provincial farm organizations and commodity

Agricultural marketing

Agricultural marketing covers the services involved in moving an agricultural product from the farm to the consumer. Numerous interconnected activities are involved in doing this, such as planning production, growing and harvesting, grading, packing, transport, storage, agro- and food processing,...

 groups. Policy is generally developed in the form of grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 resolutions

Resolution (law)

A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion. For long or important motions, though, it is often better to have them written out so that discussion is easier or so that it can be...

, passed through member organizations and finally brought before the general assembly for a vote at the Annual General Meeting

Annual general meeting

An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...

. Additional policy development decisions are deliberated by the 21 board members

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

. Organizational decision-making is decided through a subset of the board of directors, called the National Council.

Members of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture currently include:

Provincial Farm Organizations:

Organization	Acronym	Province
Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture	NLFA	Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture	NSFA	Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture	PEIFA	Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick	AANB	New Brunswick New Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
Union des producteurs agricoles Union des producteurs agricoles The Union des producteurs agricoles is an agricultural trade union representing producers in the Canadian province of Quebec. Originally a Catholic union called the Union catholique des cultivateurs , it shed its denominational character as a result of the Quiet Revolution and has existed in its...	UPA	Quebec Quebec Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
Ontario Federation of Agriculture Ontario Federation of Agriculture The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is a general farm organization established in 1936 and headquartered in Guelph, Ontario. The OFA comprises 52 county farm organizations from across the province. Bette Jean Crews was acclaimed OFA President at the 2008 Annual General Meeting, held in Toronto,...	OFA	Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
Keystone Agricultural Producers	KAP	Manitoba Manitoba Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan	APAS	Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
Wild Rose Agricultural Producers	WRAP	Alberta Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
British Columbia Agriculture Council	BCAC	British Columbia British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

Commodity Groups and Other Organizations:

Organization	Acronym	Area of Focus
Dairy Farmers of Canada Dairy Farmers of Canada Dairy Farmers of Canada is an advocacy group created in 1934, when a number of related groups merged to form a single entity for representing the interests of dairy farmers.-Profile:...	DFC	Dairy Marketing
Chicken Farmers of Canada	CFC	Chicken meat Chicken (food) Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world, and is prepared as food in a wide variety of ways, varying by region and culture.- History :...  Marketing
Egg Farmers of Canada	EFC	Chicken egg Marketing
Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency	CTMA	Turkey Meat
Canadian Hatching Egg Producers	CHEP	Broiler Broiler A broiler is a type of chicken raised specifically for meat production. Modern commercial broilers, typically known as Cornish crosses or Cornish-Rocks are specially bred for large scale, efficient meat production and grow much faster than egg or traditional dual purpose breeds...  Eggs
Canadian Pork Council	CPC	Pork Marketing
Canadian Sugar Beet Producers' Association	CSBPA	Sugar Beet Sugar beet Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...  Production and Marketing
Canadian Wheat Board Canadian Wheat Board The Canadian Wheat Board was established by the Parliament of Canada on 5 July 1935 as a mandatory producer marketing system for wheat and barley in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small part of British Columbia...	CWB	Wheat and Barley Barley Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...  Marketing Pool.
Canadian Horticultural Council	CHC	Vegetable and Fruit Production
Ontario-Quebec Grain Farmers Coalition	OQGFC	Corn Maize Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable... , Wheat, Soybeans, and other grains Cereal Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
Coopérative Fédérée de Québec	CFQ	Agricultural cooperative (aka La Coop fédérée)
Canadian Young Farmers Forum	CYFF	Agricultural youth organization