Ontario grower to head national council

Thursday, March 22, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario fruit and vegetable grower Murray Porteous is following in his father Ken’s footsteps to become president of the Canadian Horticultural Council.

Murray was named president at the council’s 90th annual meeting held in Ottawa on March 13 to 16. His father served in 2007.

It’s only the second time in the council’s history that a father and son served as presidents. The first father/son to do that were Ed Connery, who served in 1977, and his son, Doug, who served in 2003 and who passed away last year. He was honoured with a new award – the Doug Connery Award Celebrating Leadership Excellence. It honours exemplary passion, commitment and dedication to advancing the interests of Canada’s horticultural industry. The two winners this were council members Keith Kuhl and Steve Levasseur.

Murray is a graduate of the University of Guelph. After working in sales and marketing for six years at Elanco he joined his family’s Lingwood Farms, made up of 750 acres of orchards and 100 acres of asparagus in Southern Ontario. The farm is involved in value-added marketing though its partnership with the Norfolk Cherry Company and as a member of the Norfolk Fruit Growers Association.

In 1998, Murray was named Outstanding Young Farmer. He been a spokesman for agriculture with a number of farm and industry groups and has served as chair for several provincial farm groups, including the Agricultural Adaptation Council, the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, the Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council and the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario.

He is currently the vice-chair of the Ontario Asparagus Growers’ Marketing Board and chairman of its new seed company.

Murray couldn’t be reached for comment. BF