FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 20, 2013 (OTTAWA)—Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) is proud to announce the election of the 2013 Executive Committee. The elections followed the annual general meeting and the award ceremony yesterday morning where CFC was awarded with full federal, provincial and territorial government recognition for its On-Farm Food Safety Assurance Program (OFFSAP). The announcement was made by the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

CFC is the first commodity organization in Canada to achieve this level of government recognition for the effective and consistent implementation of its OFFSAP that promotes the production of safe food at the farm level. A release was issued and is here.

The 15-member Board of Directors, made up of farmers and other stakeholders from the chicken industry, provides leadership on CFC’s strategic plan and mission and has chosen the following representatives for 2013:

Dave Janzen, re-elected as the Chair of CFC, has represented British Columbia at CFC meetings as an alternate since 2006 and has been their director since 2008. He joined the Executive committee three years ago and became the CFC Chair in 2012. His family farm in Abbotsford that he and wife Jeannie started from scratch in 1981 has been home to four Janzen kids, and is right next door to the Fraser Valley dairy farm where he grew up. Dave and his family produce nearly 1 million kg each year.

Adrian Rehorst, from Teeswater, Ontario, was re-elected as the 1^st Vice-Chair for 2013. His family farm is about 20 km from Lake Huron and he represents the farmers of that area, Region 1, on the Ontario chicken board. Adrian has spent many years in the industry, over 30 in fact, and has previously been an alternate to the CFC Board and has served as a member of the CFC Food Safety Committee. Adrian and his wife Lisette raise over 400,000 kg of chicken each year; have 1,500 acres of cash crops and a 55 head cow-calf operation.

Martin Dufresne, representing the province of Quebec, was re-elected to the position of 2^nd Vice-Chair. Martin and his family farm near St. Félix-de-Valois and they produce approximately 1.7 million kilograms of chicken per year on the farm started by his father in 1954. He has been farming for over 20 years and is a past Chair of the Québec provincial board, Les Éleveurs de volailles du Québec.

Yvon Cyr, re-elected as the Member at Large, has been a chicken farmer since 1987. He produces approximately 3.3 million kg of chicken each year on his farm near Saint-François-de-Madawaska in New Brunswick. He is part of the Westco Group, which produces 16.5 million kg of chicken per year, 1.5 million kg of turkey, 80,000 breeders, 70,000 commercial laying hens and operates one hatchery. Yvon and his wife Linda have four boys.

CFC’s main responsibility is to ensure that Canada’s 2,700 chicken farmers produce the right amount of fresh, safe, high quality chicken to meet consumer needs. CFC is proud of its role in a continuing agriculture success story and over 30 years of raising the quality chicken that Canadians trust.

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For more information, please contact Marty Brett, Senior Communications Officer (613) 566-5926 or mbrett@chicken.ca.