CHARLES STEVENS Born in Bowmanville on a family dairy farm, Charles is the last of the Stevens to have farmed this land for over 200 years. While attending the University of Guelph, Charles rented a 40-acre orchard. After graduating in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree, Charles purchased an orchard in Newcastle that he has now been farming with his wife and partner Judi for 38 years. Judi is also a graduate of the University of Guelph with a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics. The farm is a state of the art 105 acre orchard planted mainly with Honey Crisp, Ambrosia, and Royal Gala, as well as 22 acres of highbush blueberries. Charles attributes his success in the industry, in part, to his adapting new technology and his continued involvement in organizations within the industry.
PATTI STEVENSON Patti believes in empowering her staff and creating a positive work environment. With her many years of managing a learn to ski program, and the experience of owning her own business, she enjoys mentoring her young staff as they start out in the work force. Patti joined Barrie Hill Farms in 2010, and has helped grow the business from a combined pick-your-own farm and small fruit stand, to a thriving retail 4,800 square foot destination marketplace.
Bachelor of Mathematics degree in 1978 from the University of Waterloo and he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1979.
DR. JAYASANKAR (JAY) SUBRAMANIAN Dr. Subramanian is a Professor with University of Guelph, working at the Vineland location. He has over 25 years of experience in fruit crop improvement, breeding, biotechnology and post harvest technology. He has worked with diverse crop species and for the past 12 years has been working with tender fruits- both using conventional and contemporary approaches. Currently he is leading a successful IDRC project involving researchers from 6 different countries and in over 100 farms in these countries. He has been invited to deliver talks in several countries including a recent one at the UN General Assembly’s Market Place event in September 2015 and at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Government of Canada, Ottawa in December. He has published over 60 research papers, released 15 improved crop varieties. He is a member of the editorial board in three international journals and reviews manuscripts for several journals in plant sciences.
DR. ANTONET SVIRCEV
Crystal is a regional vegetable specialist for Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. She works closely with organic and small, diversified farms in 17 counties in Eastern NY and also provides guidance to the industry as the state garlic specialist. Her research interests focus on root crops, organic systems, and brassicas.
Dr. Svircev is a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Vineland, Ontario, specializing in fire blight management and the development of biological control agents for the control of pre- and post-harvest pathogens. Current research on fire blight involves: a Canada wide streptomycin resistance survey in apple and pear orchards, management of young orchards to prevent fire blight infections and the development of a novel biopesticide that uses bacteriophages and a carrier bacteria. Dr. Svircev’s ultimate goal is to keep on advertising (to any one that will listen) and promoting the importance of incorporating biologicals in fire blight control programs.
PAUL STRINGER
DR. TOKTAM TAGHAVI
CRYSTAL STEWART
Paul’s practice currently focuses on entrepreneurial and family businesses. This builds on over 40 years of experience in providing traditional assurance services, income tax and estate planning advice related to reorganizations and business successions, financial consulting with respect to the purchase and sale of businesses and generational transfers, and general business consulting in numerous industries. Paul is a FAMILY ENTERPRISE ADVISOR™ certificant, obtained through the Institute of Family Enterprise Advisors after completion of the UBC Sauder School of Business Family Enterprise Advisor Program. This skill set, along with his extensive business and accounting experience, allows Paul to help the leaders of family businesses manage the more complex and sensitive issues they face when making important decisions about the future of their business and their family legacies. Paul obtained his
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Dr. Taghavi is an Adjunct Faculty and a Research Associate with the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, Simcoe Research Station. Her research interests include the development of new cultivars of strawberry and hazelnuts for Ontario climate. She is a board member of the Ontario Hazelnut Association and co-lead the research and development working group. She has previous professional experience as an Assistant Professor at the University of Tehran in Iran as well as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Florida. She has experience in transferring research knowledge from the lab to growers, including multiple horticultural crops, fertilizers and crop protection, and post-harvest technologies.
VANESSA TAYLOR Vanessa is the Food Safety and Traceability Advisor on the Traceability Team at OMAFRA. Her background includes being raised on a dairy farm in New Brunswick, and moving to Ontario in 1991. She has gained experience in the shipping and logistics industry and as in quality assurance for the meat and dairy processing and pharmaceutical sectors. She came back full circle to agriculture in 2003 as the Milk Quality Assurance Program Lead at OMAFRA working with producers to help improve the quality of milk, mostly in the goat and sheep sectors, and then took on the role as Food Safety and Traceability Advisor in 2007.
JIM TODD Jim joined the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), as the transition crop specialist in 2005. He began his career with a BSc from the University of Waterloo, followed by a PhD in plant physiology from the University of Guelph. After graduation, his research focused on plant wax and lipid metabolism and using microarrays to study large scale gene expression in plants. As OMAFRA’s transition crop specialist, Jim works on identifying crops with potential to serve as agricultural feedstocks for Ontario’s developing bio economy.
K ARON TRACEY-COWAN Karon launched AgTech GIS in 1995 to provide tools, information, support and training services to the agriculture industry using GIS and web based technologies. AgTech GIS has a 20 year history promoting products from Ag Leader Technology, Farm Works (Trimble) and recent addition iCropTrak, always promoting solid tools to get quality data into the hands of decision makers. More than just a software reseller, Karon is a front line user of ag-specific GIS software products to communicate soil sampling information, yield maps, imagery analysis, field level topographic data and variable rate application prescriptions. Her career focus has been to develop data and customer competency for growers, consultants and local agri-businesses through a personalized training approach. Since 2010 Karon has been teaching the hands-on lab portion of the Precision Ag Course at University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus.
THOMAS TURINI Thomas is a UC Farm Advisor in central California with extension and applied research responsibilities in vegetable crops. He holds a baccalaureate and Master’s degree in Plant Protection from California State University, Fresno. He has worked for the University of California, Davis since 1992. Currently, his position serves an area in which the largest vegetable crops in terms of area and total