Meet your elected farm leaders and the NFU-O staff team.

The NFU-O is governed by a board of elected farm leaders from across Ontario. Directors represent different geographical regions of the province and different sectors including grains, livestock, greenhouse and vegetable production, market gardens and CSAs, wine grapes, cut flowers, as well as urban agriculture. Directors are elected for a two-year term and set the strategic direction of the organization.

The NFU-O staff team is a small but passionate group of individuals that works on behalf of our members to undertake research, review policy, deliver workshops and educational events, and support our members with any concerns.

Max Hansgen and Orlando Martin Lopez Gomez visit an urban farm in Toronto.

Your NFU-O Board

Max Hansgen in front of many potted plants.

Max Hansgen

NFU-O President, Local 310

president@nfuontario.ca

Max works with his wife Shelagh in their market garden called Earth’s Mirth just outside of Lanark Village in eastern Ontario. Earth’s Mirth grows vegetables to sell at the Almonte Farmers’ Market and for a food box program. His first paying job was harvesting and processing garlic on a large organic farm in the area. For two years after high school he worked as a paid intern/apprentice on a bio-dynamic farm. There he found a lifetime interest in sustainable farm practices by helping tend to pigs, goats, diverse vegetable crops, and by working with horses. For the past 15 years Max has worked at Kiwi Gardens where he currently manages production of ornamental perennials, maintenance of display gardens and retail sales at the nursery. Max has been selling Kiwi Gardens’ plants through farmers markets for many years.

len bio

Len Van Hoffen

Vice President / DIRECTOR-at-Large, Local 303

vp@nfuontario.ca

Len Van Hoffen is the Vineyard Manager at Southbrook Organic Vineyards, a pioneering 57- acre biodynamic, organic, and regenerative organic vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake. A lifelong horticulturist, Len has extensive experience growing a variety of crops, including nursery stock, greenhouse plants, athletic turf, and wine grapes. A graduate of Niagara College with a background in Horticulture, Viticulture, and Winemaking, Len combines traditional expertise with innovative sustainable practices. Since joining Southbrook in 2019, he has been dedicated to enhancing biodiversity, improving soil health, and implementing low-impact farming techniques to produce premium wine grapes while preserving the vineyard ecosystem. His initiatives include introducing a wildflower habitat to support beneficial insects, advancing cover cropping strategies, and increasing carbon sequestration through regenerative farming. In his free time, Len can be found in his vegetable garden, and camping with his wife Kelly.

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Sage Barker

youth advisor, Local 351

youthadvisor@nfuontario.ca

Sage Barker is a first-generation farmer and land tender currently growing a diverse range of annual vegetables, perennial food crops, and native trees just outside Hamilton, ON. She has worked on organic farms in Ontario for the past six years and now runs a small nursery and seed collective committed to regeneration and biodiversity. Sage is passionate about land stewardship and ensuring food security for future generations.

Michael Watson

Michael Watson

National Board REPRESENTATIVE, lOCAL 303

nationalrep1@nfuontario.ca

Michael Watson is a University of Guelph Agricultural College graduate and 6th generation farmer who has worked with his wife Sukyi for the last 20 years in the York and Niagara regions. Since 2005, Michael has established farming operations including tender and small fruit, field and greenhouse vegetables, floriculture, and herb production. Michael has a focus on financially viable sustainable agriculture, adopting a pesticide-free strategy in 2015, and introducing biological controls to greenhouse operations in 2022. Michael and Sukyi faced the expropriation of their farm house in 2022, triggering a relocation back to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where they currently reside. The focus now is redeveloping a neglected nursery into a new farm model, coinciding with the 200th year of Watson family farming in Ontario. As a new member of the board, Michael is interested in supporting first-generation farmers who don’t have the same family farming history or mentorships to rely on.

Claire Perttula - Region 3 National Board Member

Claire Perttula

National board REPRESENTATIVE, local 305

nationalrep2@nfuontario.ca

Claire Perttula (she/her) started farming in 2017. She loves growing potatoes and raising grass-fed beef. Right now, Claire is the Food Justice Projects Coordinator at Malvern Family Resource Centre in Scarborough, Ontario, where she manages Malvern Urban Farm and its accompanying farmers' market. Claire works with 40+ community members and a staff team of 3-6 depending on the time of year to cultivate 2 acres of public land with lots of diverse vegetables and a new 1200 cell hydroponic microfarm. Claire is also a PhD student at York University studying food systems planning and policy and the succession crisis.

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Amy Kitchen

Women’s Advisor, Local 344

womensadvisor@nfuontario.ca

Amy is a first-generation farmer who, alongside her partner Patrick, runs Sideroad Farm in Grey County, Ontario. They grow certified organic vegetables, cut flowers, and raise pasture-raised pork and chicken and focus on direct marketing. Amy's farming journey began in 2009 in British Columbia, where she developed a deep passion for ecological agriculture while starting a farm with a couple of friends. Amy is passionate about building a resilient local food system and ensuring that future generations have access to opportunities in agriculture in our communities.

Orlando Martin Lopez Gomez in an apron.

Orlando Martín López Gómez

BIPOC Advisor, local 305

bipocadvisor@nfuontario.ca

Orlando oversees FoodShare’s food growing projects across the city – turning under utilized schoolyards, hydro corridors, and parks into vibrant and productive urban farms and community gardens. Orlando is passionate about food justice, and community leadership, and provides lots of resources and support for communities to design, implement, and run their own growing and composting projects. He is a trained agronomist with an incredible depth of knowledge in all aspects of growing food.

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Dave Kranenburg

Treasurer / DIRECTOR-at-Large, local 345

treasurer@nfuontario.ca

Dave (he/him) is a farmer, entrepreneur & sustainable food systems advocate .  On Kendal Hills Farm he looks after 70 acres of forest, orchard and pasture by cultivating specialty mushrooms and raising pastured poultry and pork.  In 2020  he founded the Green Circle Food Hub, publicly known as Graze & Gather, as a distribution and sales channel for food from 100+ small producers to reach thousands of customers across the GTA.  Previously he served as the Executive Director of Meal Exchange, a national food security charity, and as the Director of Programming for the Centre for Social Innovation, a nonprofit that provides coworking and programs for social purpose enterprises.  Dave was part of the inaugural 'Getting to Maybe' Social Innovation residency at the Banff Centre and has received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee award for his work on food security in Canada.

The NFU-O Staff Team

Krista Long with basket of seeds in her backyard.

Krista Long

Executive Director

Krista is a passionate advocate for farmland protection, ecologically viable farming practices, and local, equitable food systems. She has over 20 years experience in the not-for-profit sector with a variety of organizations including the Canadian Organic Growers, the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, and the Ontario Farmland Trust. She brings her experience in fundraising, policy, research, and program development to her role at the NFU-O.

Briana Vanular holding basket of young onions.

Briana Vanular

MEMBERSHIP and SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER

Briana is an experienced farm worker and researcher with a Master’s degree in Environmental Assessment. She operates a small market garden in Sudbury, ON growing vegetables and flowers. Briana has previously worked with the NFU-O as the Land Access and Protection Coordinator, and is passionate about land access and farmland protection, the shift to environmentally considerate farming practices, supporting diversity in farming, and maintaining strong farming communities and localized food systems across the province. 

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Jessica Tong

Land Access coordinator

Jess (she/they) is a first-generation, young, queer farmer. She has familial roots in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Scarborough, ON. After studying agriculture, Jess worked on several farms throughout Ontario. Alongside her partner, she started and operated a small market-garden that sold at Farmers’ Markets, a Food Co-op and through a small CSA program. She has experience leasing land, growing via incubatorships as well as purchasing/stewarding (and losing) farmland. Jess comes into this work with the intention of building meaningful relationships with the land, nourishing community connections and uplifting intersectional food sovereignty movements. These intentions are grounded by the past and present work already being done by amazing communities beyond her.

A middle-aged white woman with short hair.

Michelle Ryan PhD

Member Communications and Administration Coordinator

Michelle Ryan PhD (She/Her) is connected to agriculture in the Ottawa Valley through her PhD research on Community Supported Agriculture. Her background is in food movements, non-profits, and social media. Her current work includes social media for food studies scholarship. She has learned that how we talk about food and food production impacts our understandings, our activism, and policy. Michelle is a passionate supporter of local, organic food and good labour standards to support the health of the land, the farmers, and our communities. She believes that by coming together through unions, nonprofits, and community organizations, we can effect change. She finds joy in cooking, running long distances slowly, and yoga.

Stuart OKE

Stuart Oke

Land Transition Research Coordinator

Stuart is the co-owner and operator of Rooted Oak Farm, a certified organic CSA and market garden supplying veggies to customers and members from Ottawa to Kingston. In addition to his role at NFU-O and on the farm Stuart works with the EFAO as their Government Relations Coordinator.  He also sits on the Policy Working Group for the coalition Farmers for Climate Solutions. He is a former Youth President of the National Farmers Union(NFU) and former Vice president of Canadian Organic Growers (COG). Previously Stuart worked as the Communications and Membership Manager at the Organic Council of Ontario. When not otherwise occupied he helps produce and host the Sow and Grow Podcast exploring the forces that shape Canadian agriculture. Stuart is working with the NFU-O on our Non-Family Farm Transfer project, which will provide a legal guide, toolkit, and direct support for succession planning around non-family farmland transfers, adapted to an Ontario context from the Young Agrarian's British Columbia guide, "Transition Toolkit for Non-Family Farm Transfer”.

Lara Jerome.

Lara Jerome

Grants Research and Support Coordinator

Lara has been an ecological vegetable farm worker for over 10 years in Perth County, Waterloo Region, and now in the GTA. She studied food security at both UWaterloo and TMU, using every research opportunity to support local food systems, food policy councils, and community food projects. Lara currently farms for County Left Farm in Claremont, ON while working to secure a long-term farmland lease in Rouge National Urban Park to begin her own farm operation! She hopes to learn the skills to experiment with fibre farming and eventually contribute to the community of small-scale farmers that are producing high quality wool and other fibers for textiles. Lara is supporting the NFU-O's Pollinating Diversity: Overcoming Financial Barriers for Underrepresented Farmers project.

Pollinating Diversity: Overcoming Financial Barriers for Underrepresented Farmers Project Staff

Pollinating Diversity: Overcoming Financial Barriers for Underrepresented Farmers is a new project aimed at supporting equity-deserving and underrepresented farmers to navigate applications for grants, loans, insurance programs, and public land rentals. 

 

If you are looking for support on a financial opportunity application, or are just looking for general information, please connect with a mentor below. They can answer questions about a specific financial opportunity, and offer tips and tricks based on experience. Our mentors have a wealth of knowledge on a range of opportunities. Be sure to read through each bio to find the right fit!

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Fianna Dirks

Farm Finance Mentor

fianna@nfuontario.ca

Fianna Dirks has been working as a farmer for the last 15 years focusing on organic growing, on-farm compost production, beneficial insect habitat creation, and is the Co-Owner of It's Giving Farm. They are extremely passionate about literally almost everything and get immense joy from sharing this abundance of excitement with anyone around her. When not ogling over the micro universes of soil microbes and insects, they are usually reading Sci-Fi, elbow-deep in a sourdough starter, or on the hunt for a sequin outfit.

How Can Fianna Help You?

Fianna has a background in government proposals, crafting an environmental farm plan, fundraising, utilizing different business structures, farm insurance, marketing, wholesale and farmers markets. Specifically, they have successfully applied for opportunities like lines of credit, Canada Summer Jobs, Carrot Cache, a Fair Finance Loan, a Rouge National Urban Park land rental, YESP, and more.

Jacqueline Dwyer.

Jacqueline Dwyer

Farm Finance Mentor

jacqueline@nfuontario.ca

Jacqueline Dwyer (MES) is a farmer and community food planner with a background in equitable food access, climate solutions and environment, renewable energy, cultural food export and import and more. Jacqueline is a co-founding member, farmer and food advocate at Toronto Black Farmers and Growers Collective, and holds a Master of Environmental Studies from York University

How Can Jacqueline Help You?

Jacqueline has twelve years of experience in urban commercial scale agriculture, including experience with business planning, grant applications, and navigating agricultural finance programs. She has lived experience as a black woman farmer with the finance system and can provide practical financial advice tailored to the unique needs of underrepresented farmers.

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Tina Gokstorp

Farm Finance Mentor

tina@nfuontario.ca

Tina is an award-winning entrepreneur with a corporate background in the telecommunications and technology industry.  Over the last 10 years or so, she has shifted to a more purpose and meaning driven career path in the agriculture sector.  Tina is the owner and founder of Good Food Farms, a farm to table business focused on value added products that meet a consumer demand for convenience and value and also meet Tina's passion for quality and nutritionally dense foods.  Tina is passionate about creating consumer awareness of how and where food comes from and has a personal interest in seeing more diversity in the agriculture sector.  Through her business she has committed to mentorship of more women and girls in leadership and ownership positions within the agriculture sector.

Tina has a background in business administration and finance and has been successful in accessing funding to implement projects and fund growth in her farm business.  She is excited to work in partnership with the NFO as a Mentor to assist other farmers doing such important work to access funding and finance opportunities for their business.

How Can Tina Help You?

Tina’s strengths include financial planning and management, developing product and business strategies, new product/market development, and new business development and sales channels.  As a farmer herself, she clearly understands the constraints farmers face and her goal is to help keep things simple, clear and actionable.  As a mentor, Tina's approach is to provide feedback and information, but the priority is to listen and understand the goals and objectives of the mentee, regardless of her personal opinions.  There are no wrong ideas, nothing is wasted, it all contributes to a path forward.  Tina will provide honest and unbiased feedback when needed, support, direction and kindness.  Life is hard, farming is hard, we all deserve help along the journey.

Specifically, Tina has a background in OSCIA funding for cover cropping, working with a local conservation authority, wetland installation, successful applications for CSJ, YESP, Foodpreneur, CAHRC, IDEA, CIP, Agristability, Agri-invest, WEOC, VERGE, private lenders, and more.

NFU Ontario Accredited Farm Organization Drawing Woman with Chickens - Flat Edge

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