The 2026 Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame inductees include leading policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and visionaries. This year’s honourees—Senator Rob Black, Scott Graham, Brian O’Connor, and posthumous recipients, Dr. Helen Fisher and Percy Hodgetts—will be honoured June 14 at the GrandWay Event Centre in Elora.

The Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame recognizes industry leaders whose lifelong contributions have made a lasting, positive impact on agriculture and beyond.

Brian O’Connor
O’Connor’s industry-standard tools and technology increased farm profitability, and his leadership transformed Ontario’s dairy and agricultural sectors. As EastGen’s founding general manager, he helped merge Eastern Breeders Inc. and Gencor, establishing a world-class cattle genetics organization. During the BSE crisis, he established Gencor Foods’ meat plant and supported Thornloe Cheese’s revival, safeguarding processing capacity and jobs. His commitment to a resilient, collaborative, and youth-oriented industry is reflected in the Canadian Intercollegiate Judging Competition, which he founded, expanding EastGen’s youth events and successful advocacy around the Ontario Veterinary Act rewrite, protecting farmers.

Scott Graham
Graham’s leadership and vision as a second-generation egg farmer have profoundly influenced the national egg industry and the provincial agriculture sector. He led vital initiatives like the Quota Transfer System, which created a fair, transparent auction process for buying and selling quota, and championed the Consumer Choice Campaign, which evolved into the nationally recognized Egg Quality Assurance program, ensuring high standards for food safety and animal welfare. Recently, he was a key advocate for the non-invasive in-ovo gender identification Hyper-eye project, defended supply management during trade negotiations, played a leadership role in launching the Food Bank Egg Donation Program supporting 130 Ontario food banks, and participated in international development projects in Africa to help develop sustainable poultry operations and fight food insecurity.

Senator Rob Black
Senator Black’s work on Ontario’s and Canada’s agriculture sector spans four decades, including eight years as a national advocate, serving as chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry and Deputy Leader of the Canadian Senators Group. Black led a national soil health study, the first in 40 years, and officially established Food Day in Canada. Beyond policy, he served as the founding CEO of the Rural Ontario Institute, program director of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP), mentor to more than 136 Ontario agricultural and rural leaders, and, most passionately, a keystone in youth development by transitioning 4-H Ontario into an independent charitable organization.

Posthumous recipients, Dr. Helen Fisher, the “Grape Doctor,” and Percy Hodgetts, the “father of Ontario’s modern fruit industry,” are celebrated for transforming their sectors.

Dr. Helen Fisher
A pioneering viticulturist at the Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario and associate professor at the University of Guelph, Fisher’s research revolutionized the province’s wine industry, elevating its international reputation. She played a vital role in transitioning the industry from labrusca to vinifera grapes and provided growers with practical, science-based solutions, including wind machines to mitigate cold injury, trellising systems to increase yields, and expertise in rootstock selection. Beyond her technical advances, Fisher mentored future industry leaders and broke gender barriers as the first woman appointed to the provincial agricultural field advisory service.

Percy Hodgetts
Hodgetts spent 41 years at Ontario’s Department of Agriculture and 35 as the first director of the Ontario Fruit Branch, transforming household orchards into a thriving commercial industry. The sector advanced under his appointment of Ontario’s first specialized apiarist and entomologist, the establishment of the Horticultural Experimental Station at Vineland as an innovation hub, and support of the Fruit Pests Act, which introduced vital orchard protections. Hodgetts cooperative marketing, standardized box packing, cold-storage infrastructure, and “Big O” brand development, along with numerous training programs, provided growers with vital knowledge and laid a strong foundation for the industry’s resilience and adaptability, even during the 1930s climate crisis.

Induction ceremony tickets are $40 for in-person attendance or $20 for virtual access and are available on the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association website.

Source: Farmtario / Diana Martin