Some of Ontario’s leading commodity groups, including the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA), are hoping sugar goes farther than vinegar in the increasingly important court of public opinion.
    

Over the past year or so, farmers have been frustrated – and let it show – over the challenges of connecting with consumers and decision makers.  Producers certainly need the end users of their commodities to trust them. And decision makers need to know the public approves of what’s happening on the farm.
    

But there’s a disconnect. Farmers feel the goalposts keep getting moved. They address one public concern, or at least think they do, and up pops another. And many of these concerns cross commodities, particularly when it comes to the environment, one of the province’s biggest targets.
    

Acting independently has not achieved the kind of results farmers need going forward. Neither have legal approaches, such as the Grain Farmers of Ontario’s attempts to block the province’s limitations on neonicotinoids, and going way back, CropLife Canada’s failed efforts to successfully stop municipal legislation in Ontario against cosmetic pesticides. 
    

Against a huge and more sophisticated PR machine, and with little public sympathy on their sides, neither group could convince the public to let them battle bugs and weeds with products and in ways that federal authorities had deemed sound.
    

Now, it’s time for a different approach. Big commodity groups – OFVGA, Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, Grain Farmers of Ontario, Ontario Pork and Beef Farmers of Ontario – have come together with a program called Grow Ontario Together, to try a kinder and gentler way of generating public support. 
    

They hope leadership, education and conversation will do what tough talk and litigation could not – namely, preserve the brand quality of Ontario agriculture, and stave off legislation that ties farmers’ hands.
    

They’re calling it a “comprehensive engagement strategy” and it could result in some interesting pairings. The group quotes research showing the public trusts policies or programs that have support from organizations representing opposing viewpoints. So on some issues, you could see activists and farmers standing hand in hand. 
    

The first issue the group wants to address is overusing phosphorus, the nutrient blamed for algae blooms in the Great Lakes and elsewhere. 
    

This was a huge issue years ago. When the connection between phosphorus loading and certain farm practices were realized, farm groups, led by pork producers and the University of Guelph, conducted a great deal of research and rallied together to help lessen phosphorus loading. 
    

So, farmers are not starting from scratch. They can point to some successes they’ve had, and drive towards their goal of what Grow Ontario Together spokesperson Amy Cronin, chair of Ontario Pork, describes as “working with municipalities, environmental groups, citizens and bordering U.S. states to make sure we are all taking action. We recognize and acknowledge there is a problem and being proactive is one of the best ways to show the public we want to be part of the solution.”
    

Grow Ontario Together’s four-point plan involves a research-based approach, recruiting arm’s-length expertise such as that found at the University of Guelph to arrive at mutually agreed upon science and data, and creating for provincial consideration what Cronin calls “a solid plan that works for everyone.” That will be one measure of victory, as will phosphorus reduction itself.  
    

Coming together from such diverse and previously divisive perspectives is indeed a different approach to leadership. It’s a measure of willingness and patience, especially given the trying summer many farmers have experienced with the likes of low rainfall and high energy prices.
     

Now, on with the quiet revolution.