Regular member surveys feed valuable insights to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) that help focus efforts on issues impacting Ontario farm business members.
The most recent survey asked members about their interest and involvement in lobbying their local politicians.
More than three quarters of OFA members responding to the survey view lobbying as an important function of the OFA. That’s good News for Ontario’s largest general farm organization, which has a strong focus on lobby initiatives and farmer advocacy.
Last fall, 1,685 OFA members responded to this survey conducted by Ipsos Forward Research. The aim was to better understand members’ attitudes and interest towards lobbying – the primary function of the OFA. The OFA wanted to know how many of its members have engaged with politicians at the municipal, provincial and federal levels – and the methods they used to seek them out.
More than half 58 per cent of OFA members responding to the survey have contacted at least one political representative.
Nearly one quarter, 24% have contacted their political representatives at all three levels of government within the last two years. Meetings, phone calls and letters were the top three ways members engaged their elected officials.
And elected officials are listening. Two thirds of members who contacted a politician got a response most commonly by phone calls, letters and email.
What issues motivate farmers to become politically active?
OFA members shared a diverse range of issues that would spur them to lobby government – with land use, government regulations and farm income or support programs topping the list.
Each year, OFA engages elected officials on issues that affect Ontario farm businesses. And OFA relies heavily on member participation to help carry a united farm voice to government officials and policy makers on legislative changes. Individual farmers, speaking the same message, can have a tremendous impact on government and policy makers.
There’s still a lot of work to be done. The majority of survey respondents 73% expressed interest in receiving more information about OFA lobby efforts.
Those members can find OFA’s MPP Newsletter at www.ofa.on.ca. The Newsletter covers messages and issues OFA takes to Queen’s Park.
Members will also find links to OFA’s lobby website, actnow.ofa.on.ca, which provides an easy-to-use format for engaging political representatives on hot issues for OFA and Ontario’s farmers.
All OFA members were invited to participate in the survey via print or online, and survey responses represented solid distribution across all 15 OFA geographic zones.
Debra Pretty-Straathof is an executive member of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture
