Tobacco.org

Tobacco farmer lobby continues to push province  

The Ontario Farmer Products Marketing Commission, which oversees the province's system of commodity marketing boards, moved in with a sledge hammer last Monday. It swept away the old Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board with its leadership of 11 directors elected from across Norfolk, Brant, Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex counties, after all of them had taken exit packages from the federal government's $300-million tobacco transition program.

The commission set up a new five-member board and appointed three directors immediately, with two more to follow soon.

Neukamm, one of the three appointees, immediately gained a mandate as chairman, a position he had held in the old board for four years, before his ouster about a year ago.

And what were Neukamm's first words to the media? He said the new board will assume a double role in protecting the interests of about 1,100 former growers who took Ottawa's limited exit package, and will advance the concerns of licensed growers under the new system installed for the 2009 crop year.

Jump to full article »