MILTON — The Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame will see four more inductees this year at the June 11 ceremony in Milton, east of Kitchener.
The ceremony will be held at Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ont. on June 11. Tickers are $25, and the purchase form is available at www.oahf.on.ca.
The four industry leaders being inducted into the hall of fame are:
Arthur Loughton (1931-2013)
Born in Britain, Loughton’s contribution to the Ontario horticulture industry began in 1967 and lives on through the cabbage variety that bears his name. The former director of the Horticulture Research Station in Simcoe from 1975 to 1996, he was dedicated to research, both on the crops themselves and new technologies to help produce veggies, such as seedless English cucumbers, cabbage, and broccoli.
Robert Lang (1944-)
A champion of genetic improvement and developing new markets for Canadian livestock, Lang is being recognized for a lifetime of helping livestock farmers as a dairy cattle specialist with OMAFRA, as associate manager of Eastern Breeders Inc. from 1979-1986, and as the president of the Ontario Association of Animal Breeders from 1981-1986. Lang was also the founder of the International Livestock Management Schools and its executive director from 1986-2001.
Jack Riddell (1931-)
A former Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs from 1985-1989, and a Liberal MPP for Huron from 1973-1990, the farmer, teacher, and auctioneer led the introduction of over 30 new ag programs while minister of OMAFRA. One of those was the Ontario Family Farm Interest Rate Reduction program in 1985, to curtail interest rates that had risen to over 20 per cent.
John Charles Steckley (1887–1965)
As a leader in ag education in Ontario, Steckley led an after-class study group in 1912 while an employee at the Department of Agriculture in the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus that would become the Junior Farmers Club. He also fought for a Western Ontario Agricultural School at the campus, and his dream was fulfilled when the first class graduated in 1953. Through the late 1940s he was the director of the Western Ontario Experimental Farm.
