OTTAWA (Staff) – Glenn Flaten turns 65 this summer and he decided it was as good a time as any to start a new career.
With a partner, the former national and international farm leader hung out his shingle in Ottawa as an international agricultural development consultant.
The first small contract for Flaten Associates (International) Inc. involves working with farmers in Guyana to strengthen farm organizations and marketing systems.
Working with farmers
He said last week he hopes other contracts will allow him to do some work with farmers in Africa or Eastern Europe.
Read Also
Alberta crop diversification centres receive funding
$5.2 million of provincial funding pumped into crop diversity research centres
“We’re looking at development, farm organizations, extension and education,” said the former Saskatchewan farmer turned farm leader and federal bureaucrat. “Other opportunities may develop as well.”
Flaten will be looking for Canadian government, United Nations or other international funding for his projects.
“I’ve always wanted to be involved in this kind of thing and I figured if I was going to do it, this was the time,” he said.
Turning 65 was just part of it. Retiring from his eight-year job as a part-time member of the National Farm Products Council was just part of it.
This year, he also has severed many of his lifelong direct connections to Canadian agriculture.
On Aug. 1, the Flatens turned unencumbered ownership of their Regina district farm over to son Wayne. “It was giving away our pension in a way but there was no other way I could see he would have a chance.”
And after most of a lifetime in farm organizations, Flaten has no more direct ties.
He ended eight years on the executive board of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers in the summer. Four of those years, he was the highly-travelled president.
Before that, he had been president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and before that, he was involved in the Canadian Pork Council and the Saskatchewan Chicken Marketing Board.
Search for funding
Now, he is looking forward to finding money for such projects as a proposal from the Kenyan National Farmers Union to develop an agricultural school dedicated to both education and extension work.
“I think work like that could make a difference,” he said. “Now, the question is finding the money to do them.”
