New CFA president Keith Currie discusses top priorities and what he’s learned from around the world

Agriculture is an industry engrained across Canada and there are many similarities to the needs of Canadian farmers and farmers from other countries.

Newly-acclaimed president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), Keith Currie, discusses what the CFA’s current priorities are and how international collaboration has influenced the work he is doing on behalf of Canadian farmers.

The first order of business for Currie as president is to maintain the work that is ongoing for the CFA, he says. The key strategies the CFA is working on according to Currie are addressing legislation decisions as they arise, continuing collaborative efforts within industry, and becoming proactive in efforts to address problems.

CFA’s annual general meeting was held in early March at Ottawa, and one topic of discussion and focus of resolutions was farm transition. Currie says that as farming operations are getting larger, transitions are an important , crucial conversation for producers to have. He says that ensuring policy decisions are made to support family owned and operated farms from a tax perspective is a priority for the CFA.

Currie says that international outreach has been a key part of learning what is important to farmers. He says that the more ways he learns we are different the more we are the same, so even when using different methods and machinery the overarching goals are the same. Being able to collaborate has been a terrific opportunity, Currie says that this September is the North American European Union Agricultural conference where farmers from both North America and the EU come together. Currie says opportunities like this give hime the chance to learn from others and apply this knowledge to his work representing Canadian farmers.

Check out the full conversation, below:

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