Dear COG members, partners, supporter and friends,
Time has certainly flown by since I was elected as President in May 2022. Throughout this past year I have been continually in awe of all the great work that the team at Canadian Organic Growers (COG) has accomplished. A lot of this success is due to the leadership of our Executive Director, Deirdre Laframboise as well as the continued hard work of our past president, Gillian Flies. I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank them both for their dedication to this organization.
COG is a busy organization with a lot on the go. This past year we have completed a flag-ship supply chain research analysis looking into the barriers and solutions for six organic supply chains in Canada (blueberries, peas, carrots, garden greens, oats, and beef). The results of this analysis will help to shape the future success of these markets and will be publicly available in January 2023.
At our AGM we were sad to say goodbye to our past directors, Tara Scott, Av Singh, Wentsi Yeung and Shannon Jones. We thank them for all their past work on the board. We were excited to welcome three dynamic new members to the board at the AGM, Iris Vaisman (AB), Karen Klassen (MB) and Dr. Vijay Bhosekar (ON).
Our returning board members include Vice-President Stuart Oke (ON), Secretary Janine Gibson (MB), Treasurer Deborah Wolman (ON), past-President Gillian Flies (ON), Corine Singfield (BC), Maryruth Thiong’o (ON), Sam Appleby (MB), Eric Campbell (ON), Stephanie Khols (ON) and Andrea Barnett (BC). Thank you to all our board members for volunteering your time to COG and giving your unique expertise to the organization. We are thankful you are here.
Programs
We finished the first year of our Regenerative Organic Oats (ROO) program with the valued sponsorship of Nature’s Path and Riverside Natural Foods. This first of its kind program provides individual professional support to prairie oat growers as they learn how to apply new techniques to improve the health of their soil. This network of growers is active and engaged and provide me with lots of inspiration as they move forward into the program. Thank you to all the growers who are participating!
Our Growing Up Organic school garden program is thriving and providing much needed hands-on experience for youth to learn how to grow organic food. They participate in curriculum connected workshops learning about gardening, nutrition, and sustainability. This program is an important one as we look to develop the next generation of organic food producers. We hope to see this program expand even further in 2023!
One of the largest projects COG completed in 2022 was the development of the National Cover Crop Training Curriculum as part of the Farmer for Climate Solutions’ Farm Resilience Management Program. This curriculum provides regionally specific training to farmers who are interested in learning how and why they should incorporate cover crops on their farms. This highly detailed and interactive course is now live on the FaRM website and you can join at anytime and learn at your own pace. We look forward to seeing you there!
The very foundation of COG was built by our Regional Chapters. We currently have four highly active, volunteer driven chapters who are in Toronto, Ottawa, Manitoba and Gulf Islands. These chapters provide much needed grassroots programming in their specific region to promote and educate about organics. Thank you all for your amazing work! If you live in any of these areas, I encourage you to reach out to your local chapter and see how you can become involved.
Our team attended several events across the country in 2022. In November, we lobbied for organics on Parliament Hill with our organic partners and were also excited to attend for the first time, the prairie-wide Organic Connections conference in Saskatoon, SK. COG proudly sponsored this conference and presented a panel on the ROO program. We loved attending this event and look forward to the next one in 2024!
What’s Ahead in 2023?
As busy as 2022 was, we are looking ahead to an even more impactful 2023! We will continue our great programming as well as looking at adding more opportunities around cover cropping and hands-on learning through field days and other events across the country. As well, COG was just recently selected to participate in the newly formed Advisory Committee for the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy as directed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. We are looking forward to providing the organic sector’s perspective as part of this role as we share our vision for an agriculture sector that is more resilient in the face of climate change.
As 2022 draws to a close I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our donors and sponsors. Without your support the work that COG does would not be possible. I want to extend my thanks to our members for their continued support of COG and the work that we do. We deeply appreciate you and look forward to engaging more in 2023.
I also want to send a special thank you to our staff who go above and beyond with all of the work they do. You can’t really get an appreciation for what happens behind the scenes until you see it for yourself, and I can honestly say that I am beyond impressed by the dedication of COG’s staff.
Finally, a special thank you to all of our organic food producers. We place great value on what you do everyday to provide us with quality organic food to enjoy. You are an inspiration to us all and we look forward to continuing to support your important work in 2023 and beyond. We also would love to hear from you.
Happy Holidays and all the best for a successful 2023,
Allison Squires, Ph.d
Board President
Canadian Organic Growers
