NPF & VGA Award of Merit

BY LILIA N SCHAER

Dr. Wendy McFadden-Smith, Tender Fruit and Grape IPM Specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is the recipient of the 2022 Industry Award of Merit.

Dr. Wendy McFadden-Smith didn’t have a career in horticulture in mind when she was a student at the University of Guelph; she was focused on becoming a veterinarian. Fast forward to 2023, and she’s been named winner of the Niagara Peninsula Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association Award of Merit for her commitment and dedication to the horticulture industry. She’s a researcher, teacher, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Specialist for tender fruit and grapes with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

“I didn’t know I was going to be nominated or be the recipient (of this award) — it’s amazing to be recognized for the passion I have for the industry,” says McFadden-Smith. “The people who have received it before me have all had huge footprints in the industry and I hope that I’m worthy of the honour.”

After completing a master’s degree at Guelph, she moved to Saskatchewan for a job working on winter wheat research and ended up completing her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan in plant pathology. A position working on IPM in fruit at the former Horticultural Institute of Ontario, now part of Guelph’s Department of Plant Agriculture, brought her back to Ontario in 1990, and in 2002, she launched her own IPM consulting business. She also began teaching biology and pest management courses at Brock University and Niagara College and joined OMAFRA in 2008.

“When a position opened up at OMAFRA in Vineland, I was torn – I liked the independence of being self-employed, but this was a job two kilometers from my home,” she recalls. “Wayne Roberts said to me, you can do more for the industry working for OMAFRA than as a private consultant, and that has always stuck with me and has been my philosophy throughout my career at OMAFRA.”

She still teaches evening courses at Brock and her appointment as an adjunct professor in the university’s Department of Biological Sciences gives her the ability to supervise student theses. It also lets her be involved with grape and tender fruit IPM research, a field that has changed considerably since her early days.

The use of molecular techniques and digital technologies, for example, allows her team to develop better recommendations, and do so more quickly than in the past, which benefits growers and the whole fruit and vegetable growing industry when it comes to new pest management strategies.

“I feel like most of the time growers are afraid to see me show up on their farms because I’m always telling them about the newest pest, disease, or fungicide resistance issue – but I also learn a lot from the growers I work with,” she says. “It’s important to listen to them and learn from them; they have a lot of practical experience we don’t get from books.”