MURRAY PORTEOUS Murray is a fourth generation apple grower and father of four. As well as apples, he and his family grow pears, sour cherries, peaches and asparagus on 865 acres in Norfolk County. Murray has represented the agricultural industry at the local, provincial, national and international levels on the topics of human resource management, research and innovation, safety nets, crop protection and integrated pest management. He has served as the Chairman of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association, Agricultural Adaptation Council, Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council and is the Past President of the Canadian Horticultural Council. As a member of the Ontario Research and Innovation Council, he helped develop Ontario’s Research and Innovation Strategy for the Premier. As Chairman of the Canadian Horticultural Council’s Labour Committee, Murray deals with horticultural labour issues and represents Canada when negotiating contracts for the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.
PHILIP POWELL Philip was born and raised in the Ottawa Valley. For the past 25 years, he has managed Ottawa’s famous ByWard & Parkdale Markets. Philip was a founding member of Farmers’ Markets Ontario, the association that represents the provinces 171 farmers’ markets, and is presently serving as its chair. He was also involved in getting Savour Ottawa, the Capital areas “buy local” culinary initiative off the ground in 2006. He continues to sit on the Savour Ottawa steering committee. In 2009 he assumed responsibility for the city’s business licensing and enforcement sections in addition to the markets program.
VALERIO PRIMOMO In 2011, Valerio joined Vineland Research and Innovation Centre as a Research Scientist, Vegetable Breeding. His work is focused on developing greenhouse tomato varieties as well as sweet potato varieties that perform well under Ontario’s environmental conditions using traditional breeding methods and current molecular technology.
Shortly after graduating, Valerio accepted a Post Doc position with the Genomics Integration group at Pioneer Hi Bred headquarters in Johnston, Iowa, where he identified and developed genome wide genetic markers in soybean. In 2007, he accepted a Research Scientist position with Pioneer Hi Bred in Caledon, Ontario, as a molecular breeder for several crops including canola, sunflower, sorghum and rice. Valerio received his BSc in Biochemistry from McGill University and his MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Guelph. In 2004, Valerio completed his PhD at the University of Guelph where he identified genetic regions associated with isoflavone content in soybean seed.
NIGEL RAINE Nigel, a leader in pollination conservation and ecology from Britain, joined the University of Guelph, School of Environmental Sciences (SES) in May 2014 as the Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation. He was previously a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway University of London. Raine studies the impacts of pesticides on bees, insect behaviour and pollination ecology. At Guelph, he will raise awareness of the importance and plight of pollinators, inform public policy, and help train highly qualified conservationists and agriculturalists, all critical to the health of pollinators and food systems. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Entomological Society and the Linnean Society of London, has held academic positions at Sheffield University, the Zoological Society of London and Queen Mary University of London and has studied zoology and biological sciences at Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
ALLYSON REID Allyson is an urban gal with a rural heart. She grew up on a farm north of Belleville, Ontario and received a degree in film and theatre from Queen’s University in Kingston. Telling stories is her passion and it has her shooting biz owners, animals, car chases, explosions, farmers, actors, CEOs, CFO’s, products, organizations, corporations, and big ideas. Chockablock Media Inc., is her Torontobased digital content creator that runs on heart and a sense of humour. She believes everyone can hit their marketing goals via video on YouTube, Intranet sites,
Instagram, websites, trade shows, conferences, social media campaigns and live events. Allyson helps her clients motivate more action, increase buys and buyins, and spark more of the most valuable authentic online engagement.
DAVID ROSENBERGER Dave grew up on a dairy farm in eastern Pennsylvania, spent summers during high school and college working on a diversified fruit/vegetable/greenhouse operation, and completed his doctorate in Plant Pathology at Michigan State University in 1977. He spent 36 years doing applied research and extension programming for tree fruits while working at Cornell University’s Hudson Valley Lab, which is located in the fruit-growing region 90 miles north of Manhattan. Although he retired a year ago, Dave has continued some of his research and extension activities in his new role as Professor Emeritus.
BRIAN RIDEOUT Brian graduated from Lambton College in 1994 as an Environmental Technologist, then moved to northern Manitoba to work as a Water Quality Specialist for a Mining Company. Before moving to Manitoba, he married the Farmers Daughter, Robin. They returned to the Robin’s family farm in 1998 where Brian started to learn how to grow quality produce from his father-in-law, Rusty Smith. Since moving back, Brian has become the manager of the IPM program, assisting in converting the farm from overhead irrigation to drip irrigation and moving apple production from standard trees to dwarfing stock orchards.
ELAINE RODDY Elaine is involved in field research trials and extension and specializes in sweet corn, cucurbits, beans, peas and asparagus. Her responsibilities include all aspects of crop production, pest management and marketing. Elaine’s current projects include; nitrogen use efficiency in legume vegetables, vine crop disease management and purple spot of asparagus. She is also the editor of the Ontario Field Vegetable Guide (OMAFRA Publication 839).
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