OAFT President Honoured at BIO2002

OAFT President Honoured at BIO2002

by Owen Roberts, University of Guelph

After the applause subsided last month for the unveiling of the $100-million, four-year federal plan to increase Environmental Farm Plan adoption across Canada, the spotlight fell on Ontario, where the initiative all began. Exactly 10 years earlier, the Environmental Farm Agenda Coalition held a news conference in Guelph to announce the kick-off of the initiative that would go on to form the basis of an on-farm environmental program that would spread across the country. One of the spokespeople behind the podium that day in June, 1992, was the program’s scientific advisor, Dr. Gord Surgeoner of the University of Guelph.

Ironically, a decade later, Surgeoner would rise to the podium again…except this time, he was the newsmaker, and the topic was biotechnology. At the mammoth biotechnology convention in Toronto in June, BIO2002 (attended by more than 16,000 participants), BIOTECanada, a rapidly growing industry, government and academic association concerned with advancing biotechnology here, bestowed on Surgeoner the “Contribution to Advancing the Benefits of Biotechnology for Canadians” award. A great deal of that activity has come as a result of Surgeoner’s role since 1998 as president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies (OAFT), a position he holds while maintaining his faculty appointment at Guelph.
Said Art Stirling of Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited, last year’s inaugural winner of the BIOTECanada award and a member of the organization’s board of directors: “Through his advocacy and relationship-building, Gord has helped bring a focus to the economic opportunity both in Ontario and nationally that these technologies can deliver to our agricultural, medical and industrial sectors.”

Gord Surgeoner receives the BIOTECanada Award for Contribution to Advancing the Benefits of Biotech for Canadians, from Mark Lievonenen, Chair of BIOTECanada, along with Allan Rock, Minister of Industry, and Janet Lambert, President of BIOTECanada.

Surgeoner embodies the drive towards leadership in an agri-food industry that is both environmentally friendly and technologically advanced – not unlike “Our Environmental Farm Agenda,” Ontario’s program, which was driven by a coalition of farm groups, including OCPA. With his inclusive speaking style, he has been a leader in spreading the word of the environmental farm plan initiative far and wide, trying to get as many farmers involved as possible.

Over the years, that effort’s led to some 20,000 Ontario farmers enrolling in courses on how to improve on-farm environmental conditions. Well over half that many have gone the next step by creating their own farm environmental plans. Other provinces have picked up the environmental farm agenda to varying degrees: the $100-million federal plan will give the ideas wings to fly even further. “He is a big reason the environmental farm plan is going in Ontario,” said Terry Daynard, former OCPA executive vice-president. “The federal plan is taking the leadership shown in Ontario and adapting it nationally. None of that would have happened without Gord Surgeoner.”

Surgeoner’s become a trusted spokesperson for the agri-food industry. In his role at OAFT, an organization dedicated to helping the industry get the best from emerging technologies (including biotechnology), he’s made many people feel comfortable with the rapidly developing science. With biotechnology on the cusp of developing consumer applications, he’s well-positioned to introduce agricultural scientists and big thinkers to business people who can make commercial-scale applications out of laboratory developments.

The BIOTECanada award reflects Surgeoner’s willingness to make those connections (recently, he’s become a member of the Agricultural Adaptation Council board of directors, extending his reach even further) and deepen the understanding of biotechnology. “Gord is an exceptional spokesperson, teacher and leader within the industry, in terms of making this technology accessible and understandable to everyone he talks with,” said Janet Lambert, president of BIOTECanada. “He is a wealth of knowledge for people looking to understand the value of how Canada's agricultural sector is growing and benefitting from biotech innovations on our farms, in our supermarkets and on our kitchen tables."