CALGARY – A new farm organization for Alberta with a different name and a revised mandate will emerge in 1996.
Alberta farmers are invited to an open meeting of Unifarm Jan. 9-11 for the unveiling of the Wild Rose Agricultural Producers with its new constitution and membership structure.
Recreating a new general farm organization has been on Unifarm’s resolution books for the last two years.
It will be funded by direct farmer membership, said Unifarm president Ron Leonhardt. Funding has been one of the most contentious issues for the group in recent years.
Read Also
VIDEO: British company Antler Bio brings epigenetics to dairy farms
British company Antler Bio is bringing epigenetics to dairy farms using blood tests help tie how management is meeting the genetic potential of the animals.
Unifarm sought a government sanctioned levy collected from all farmers for guaranteed fund-ing to continue working on gen-eral agricultural issues.
“We haven’t been able to accomplish that,” said Leonhardt. “It’s not going to come about. Some commodity groups are sympathetic to it and some of them aren’t.”
Strength on their own
A number of commodity groups collect farmer levies on products sold and many have enough strength that they don’t see the need for a general farm organization to speak for them.
In 1959 the legislature set up the Farmers’ Union of Alberta, and in 1970 the act was amended to create Unifarm. Its membership consisted of commodity organizations and direct farmer members.
