Farmer fumes after marijuana expert made guest speaker at agriculture AGM

A Hants County farmer is not happy with the choice of guest speaker made by his local chapter of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture for their annual general meeting.

Martock farmer Kim Kenney is upset Av Singh, an expert on marijuana production in North America, was a speaker at Wednesday night's meeting in Windsor.

"This is not growing corn, this is just asinine," said Kenney. "It's totally inappropriate for us as the federation of agriculture to be looking at this. It is not an issue for farmers to be getting into in Nova Scotia."

The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture represents more than 2,000 farming businesses in the province.

The decision to have Singhspeak about growing marijuana came as a late add to the meeting's agenda. But the organizers are standing by their decision.

"At this point it's not legal, but it's not illegal to talk about it and when it becomes legalized why wouldn't it become an option for farmers," said Hants Federation of Agriculture president Cameron Taylor. "It's a new kind of thing that's going on, so why not?"

Taylor said his group often finds it difficult to find guest speakers for their meetings.

He's encouraging anyone who doesn't like the chapter'sdecisions to come to the meetings and share their concerns.