TRENTON, Ont. – Bette Jean Crews figures her four decades on the family farm were valuable training for her role as the most powerful farm lobbyist in Canada’s biggest agricultural province.
Since 1970, she and husband, Colin, in partnership with his brother, have operated the fourth generation Crews farm two hours east of Toronto. It has grown and morphed over the years into today’s 800-acre operation that ranges from cash cropping soybeans, wheat and corn on rotation, to a variety of fruits and vegetables that are sold to processors or through a family-run roadside store.
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These days, as the new president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Crews has little time to be directly involved in production although she still spends several days a week on the books.
But the lessons of years operating a U-pick and a roadside stand and hauling apples to local juice plants while raising four children were good preparation for the world of Ontario farm politics, she says.
“This farm, because it is so diversified and has evolved so much over the years, gave me a first-hand experience with so many files that I now deal with,” says Crews. “There are so many issues that come up now that I can relate to from personal experience.”
Crews, 62, was elected president of the OFA last November, replacing former president Geri Kamenz.
“I would love it to be a long-term thing,” she says. “It is a time when the organization needs some continuity and there are so many issues to confront.”
She came to farming as an adult when she married into the Crews family and their farm.
But she quickly got into the business, operating an early version of the direct-to-customer part of the business and working on the books while her husband and brother-in-law operated the cash crop and horticulture segments.
The farm also once had a cattle operation.
She recalls the days when she would put in 12-hour shifts in the fields, picking and selling fruit for the roadside stand. She would take the kids and a babysitter to the field.
Over the years, the farm and the industry have evolved.
In rural Ontario, most of the companies that crushed apples for the juice have closed or been taken over by a single Quebec owner.
“The juice business really has changed,” she says. “There are not the buyers anymore nor the competition. You take the price they offer and it usually is below cost of production.”
On the other hand, the direct-to-customer business for fruit and vegetables located down the road from the farm has taken off because of the buy local movement.
“That really has improved our business. I see it growing every year,” she says. “A lot of that has to do with buy local. And those are sales where we actually get our COP.”
But with her OFA duties, Crews does not spend much time in the fields and concentrates her farm work on keeping the books. “I miss the hands-on work but my back wouldn’t take the work anymore anyway.”
She also was a latecomer to farm politics.
Through most of her first three decades on the farm, raising a family and farm work were her priorities.
“I was not a local OFA activist.”
A decade ago, she got involved in the Farm Women’s Network and that led her to the OFA.
She sees her role in both lobbying and education.
“There are so many issues facing Ontario farmers and a big part of my job is to educate politicians and urban people about the realities on the farm,” she says.
“I have always seen this as a business and not a lifestyle but it is a business with some real challenges. My experience on the farm gives me credibility when I’m talking about those realities.”
While she loves farm life, Crews said she has always rejected the argument that though farmers sometimes face economic struggles, they are compensated with a better lifestyle.
“From day one, when I heard that I would think: ‘my accountant has a good lifestyle. He gets a holiday and a dependable income,’” she says.
“Many farmers don’t get days off. This is about having conditions and policies that allow farmers to maintain a viable business that allows them to continue to stay in the country.”
