The Ontario government has sacked the farmers on a board that negotiates vegetable prices with food processors, replacing them with a former politician, amid talks on the price of this year’s tomato crop.
“I’m still reeling from the shock of this. It’s made it a very unstable situation for growers,” said Tom Keller, former vice-chair of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers board.
Keller and his colleagues were informed by the deputy minister they were fired. Talks were at an impasse, Leal said, and this year’s tomato crop was at risk, which is why he stepped in. A new board is set to be elected in the fall.
Elmer Buchanan, a former NDP agriculture minister, is now in charge of negotiating 2017 contracts with processors, appointed by the Liberal government’s agriculture minister.
The move comes after the province’s vegetable-processing companies hit farmers in December with a wave of unprecedented attacks, accusing them of everything from bargaining in bad faith to lying.
source: lfpress.com