CFC announces 2014 Executive Committee

March 20, 2014- Chicken Farmers of Canada announced the election of its 2014 Executive Committee yesterday in Ottawa. The elections followed its annual general meeting. The 15-member Board of Directors, made up of farmers and other stakeholders from the chicken industry, has chosen the following representatives: 

Dave Janzen, re-elected as Chair, has represented British Columbia as an alternate since 2006 and has been their director since 2008. He joined the Executive committee in 2010 and first became the 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.

 Yvon Cyr, elected as the 1^st Vice-Chair, 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.

Benoît Fontaine, from Stanbridge Station, Quebec, was elected as the 2^nd Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee. He joined the Board last year as an alternate, served on the Production Committee and became the Quebec Director this year. He farms in the Lac Champlain area and raises 3 million kg of chicken, 100,000 ducks and 85,000 turkeys each year. A 2^nd generation chicken farmer, Benoît has also been heavily involved in the Union des producteurs agricoles, the Quebec farmer organization, since 1999.

Vernon Froese, of Grunthal, Manitoba has been on the Chicken Farmers of Canada Board since 2012, but was an alternate prior to that. At the 2014 AGM, Vernon was elected to the Executive Committee as the Executive Member. Vernon, wife Hilda, and two sons grow over 800,000 kg of chicken each year; cash crop about 750 acres of corn and canola, and raise 12,000 feeder pigs. He has previously served on the Board’s Policy Committee.