Happy Holidays: We’ve got a lot to celebrate! 
 

It’s been a busy year at OCO!  Like preparing for a good holiday gathering, OCO has been working hard in the kitchen, gathering ingredients and cooking up a storm!

What have we been cooking up? 

• In 2022, OCO launched the Organic Climate Solutions Campaign, which made over 798,000 impressions in the form of ad, article and video views and inspired 10780 actions in the form of clicks, shares and reactions. We promoted the climate benefits of organic in 20 articles, 19 blogs, 10 climate-focused webinars and 4 promotional videos. A recent report published as a result of that work shows the high degree of climate awareness that organic farmers have.

• We hosted a virtual Guelph Organic Conference with over 20 speakers, 11 workshops and over 1100 live attendees. 

• We initiated the first-ever Canada-wide organic labour audit to understand the unique labour needs and opportunities in the organic sector.  The Organic labour report and recommendations will be launched at the 2023 Guelph Organic Conference. 

• We are bringing back a hybrid version of the Guelph Organic Conference in January 2023! After decades of managing this foundational conference, Tomas Nimmo has gifted OCO the opportunity to run it. Registration is open now.

• We have been an active member in the Farmers for Climate Solutions coalition, working to ensure climate-friendly agriculture is front and centre in the national budget and the Federal-Provincial-Territorial negotiations of the next Agricultural Policy Framework (now SCAP) 

• We continue to work towards Organic Regulation in Ontario. We have been meeting with OMAFRA and the CFIA behind the scenes for months.

• We supported several organic research applications to the Organic Science Cluster with funding and knowledge transfer commitments.

• We represented organic interests in government consultations and letters - more organic at research centres, more organic in new funding programs, more organic considerations in Act amendments, more organic representation in the census… and the list goes on!  

Let’s take a moment to celebrate some of the cooks in the kitchen! 

• OCO said a big thank you to former Board President and Chair Rob Wallbridge and ushered in the new dynamic duo of President Ben Cullen and Vice President Krysten Cooper.

• OCO welcomed a new board seat for the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, our first commodity group member! 

• OCO expanded our staffing contingent to include two permanent positions: Policy and Research Manager, Kaelin Barichello, and our new Communications and Membership Manager, Kelly Carmichael. But some of the heavy lifting this year could not have been done without our team of dedicated contract staff and coordinators! 

Now, we hope you will join us in celebrating our great organic feast and ringing in an organic New Year! Thank you to all of our members for your ongoing support.
 

You can support our future work by joining hundreds of organic leaders in becoming a supporting member or by leaving us a small gift.
 

Best Wishes for the Holidays,

The OCO Team