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Although the National Farmers’ Union has been active in New Brunswick for decades, it wasn’t until Saturday, March 15, that it elected its first slate of officers and became officially a New Brunswick organization.

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Robert LaFrance photo

NFU holds first annual in P-A: The National Farmers Union held its first annual convention on Saturday, March 15, 2008, at the Royal Canadian Legion in Perth-Andover. Although the NFU has been active for decades in the province, this is the first time the Canada-wide farm organization has organized and recruited members for a New Brunswick chapter. Guest speaker for the event was NFU National President Stewart Wells of Saskatchewan (at the microphone). Seated is meeting chairman Robert Jeppesen of New Denmark.

Robert LaFrance photo

NFU Secretary: Barb Somerville, a Juniper area farmer, is the secretary of the newly created District 2 of the National Farmers’ Union’s Region One of the Atlantic Provinces.

Region One of the NFU covered the Atlantic region, and it now contains District 2, New Brunswick, whose slate of officers elected at that March 15 first annual meeting in Perth-Andover includes Jean-Eudes Chaisson, District Director; Betty Brown, National Director; Sally McGrath, Women’s Director, and Marc Coté, Youth Director. Secretary is Barb Somerville and Treasurer is Judy Barr.

The March 15 meeting was the result of a vigorous recruiting drive by the NFU in New Brunswick and the result of ‘stable funding legislation’ by the New Brunswick government. Without a New Brunswick chapter, the NFU, created by an act of Parliament in 1969, would not have been able to see its members take part in the funding which can see farmers benefit to the tune of many thousands of dollars. Until the NFU’s District 2 was created, only members of the farmer organization Alliance would have been able to take part. Today a membership in the NFU District 2 entitles the holder to benefits including the stable funding, rebates on fuel taxes, vehicle licensing fees, and other help.

Gerry Chevrier and Ben Mersereau, representatives from the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture and Aquaculture were present to answer questions about the Agricultural Producers Registration and Farm Organization Funding Act, known as farm income stabilization.

The morning half of Saturday’s meeting that took place in the Royal Canadian Legion Hall in Perth-Andover was chaired by Robert Jeppesen and the afternoon one by Betty Brown. Both these farmers have long been active in agriculture issues. Among the speakers at the morning session was NFU National President Stewart Wells of Saskatchewan, who touched on the organization’s history and stressed that the NFU, though often thought of as aligned with one particular political party (the NDP), is not.

“The National Farmers’ Union is a non-partisan organization,” he told the assembled delegates. “That’s a lot different from saying that we’re not political.

We are most definitely political, just not partisan.” He said that one main way the NFU differs from many other farm organizations is that it does not allow corporate memberships. “We’re just not interested in mega-operations,” he said.

The newly created organization had many resolutions on the table as well.

They all passed unanimously and included one to have the crop insurance commission to quickly dispose of diseased potatoes and collect crop insurance; one to set up a committee to investigate the feasibility of wind energy at the farm level; one to persuade the government to compensate farmers who find Potato Cyst Nematodes in their crop; and finally, they resolved that the NFU communicate its opposition to uranium mining in rural Canada through letters to the Prime Minister and all provincial and territorial Premiers.