Our History

The Ontario Farmers Union, a voluntary farm member organization, is active and advocating on behalf of its members. This involves issues like: Unfair pork prices, Support for producer-controlled marketing boards, Limits to the feed grain freight subsidy, Incentives for on-farm separated cream producers, Support for blended milk prices, Clear labelling and separation of/or banning of imitation milk products, Creating a beef marketing plan, Collective bargaining for fertilizer purchases and grain sales, Lobbying for a two-price wheat system, Rural telephone services, Inclusion of family members as employees under the Employment Standards Act, Legislation requiring the replacement of trees and woodlots on farms, Review of eligibility of government loans for farmers with off-farm income & Support for parity income.

Working with the Union Catholique des Cultivateurs of Quebec and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Ontario Farmers Union organized one of the largest demonstrations ever on Parliament Hill— 20,000 Ontario and Quebec farmers.

Members in Lees, Essex, and Kent counties and other farmers withheld property taxes, protesting education funding from farm land. Their activities led to a 25% rebate on taxes, and later a 50% rebate.

1,600 Ontario farmers picketed Borden Milk in Ingersoll, Ontario (other pickets marched in Belmont, Cornwall, and Peterborough), protesting imported milk powder and threatening a nation‐wide boycott. The pickets were shut down by injunction on June 30. NFU Vice‐President Walter Miller led negotiations with the company and secured an agreement that milk imports would stop.

The Local in Leamington began collective bargaining for the purchase of vegetable containers (that bargaining continues today).

Efforts in Ontario succeeded in gaining a public inquiry into the unauthorized release of BST‐treated milk for public consumption by the Ontario Milk Marketing Board. 

Members in Ontario helped organize anti‐GATT rallies in Renfrew and Essex counties.

Ontario members pushed the Ontario Milk Marketing Board to take a strong stand against rBGH and push for the continuation of supply management.

After years of work from members of NFU Region 3, the National Farmers Union - Ontario is formed and successfully achieves accreditation, becoming an Accredited General Farm Organization in Ontario, and continues to support farmers across Ontario.

Ongoing community outreach work in Ontario on local food and sustainability led to the first "Feast of Fields" event in Kingston.

The NFU-O submitted a major report to the province's Ombudsman charging that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was "failing to live up to its public trust". 

Local 316 launched the "Food Down the Road" project - an initiative to build local food networks and capacities.

That same year, the NFU-O launched the "New Farm Project" to build local capacity and meet local demand.

Local 316 led the "Save Our Prison Farms" campaign, spearheading national opposition to the closure of prison farms and calling for revitalizing the program and re-orienting it toward sustainable farming and food security for the prisons and local communities. In 2018, after nine years of campaigning, the federal government committed dollars to re-opening the prison farms in Kingston. Over those years, many local NFU-O farms housed the cows from the prison farms. [link to When the Cows Come Home video]

The NFU-O launched a campaign against the use of neonicotinoids, leading to the Ontario government's decision to restrict this insecticidal seed treatment.  

The NFU-O's 2019 Climate Action Project brings together 300 people across Ontario for “Kitchen Table Meetings” (KTMs) on climate change and agriculture. The KTMs empowers farmers to take deliberate, immediate actions to benefit the environment by providing information about climate change and available financing programs, as well as encouraging community-level analysis, networking, and problem solving.

In November of 2022, Ontario’s Ford Government passes Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act. It threatens to remove 7,400 acres of highly productive Greenbelt farmland and natural areas to develop housing.

Over 78 organizations including the NFU-O come together in opposition to Bill 23, ultimately pressuring the government to return the lands to Greenbelt protections in December 2023 – a major win for all Ontarians.

As a result of growing farmland grabs across the province, NFU-O develops a Protect Ontario Farmland Campaign and an online tool for tracking threats to Ontario farmland. This tool documents regional threats, such as the Wilmot township farmland expropriation, Ed Lake Farm gravel pit, Highway 413 farmland, and more. This is a living map with the goal of bringing awareness to farmland grabs and to the grassroots organizations fighting against them.