PHOTO FROM WWW.ALBERTA.CA
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier stands with 2018 Agriculture Hall of Fame inductees (L to R: Dr. Ronald Howard, Dietrich Kuhlmann, Minister Carlier, Garnet Altwasser).
Medicine Hat News
Two new members of the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame have deep connections to Brooks and the ranching community in southeastern Alberta.
Garnet Altwasser, the founder of Lakeside Industries, and biologist Ron Howard, who spent his career at Crop Diversification Centre South, are among three entries announced Monday to the Hall this year.
“The Hall of Fame is a tribute to the ongoing legacy of agricultural innovation in this province,” Alberta agriculture minister Oniel Carlier said in a statement. “This year’s inductees are pioneers in their fields who have worked hard for decades to improve agricultural practices, support growth in the industry and educate the next generation of Alberta farmers and ranchers.”
Dieter Kuhlmann, an Edmonton-area greenhouse owner and advocate for horticulture industry in Alberta for 50 years, was also inducted in a ceremony in Leduc on Oct. 26.
Over a 30-year career as the founder and head of Lakeside Farm Industries, Altwasser’s company grew to include feedlots, beef processing plant and fertilizer distribution,=.
The company’s Medicine Hat area facilities were sold to Viterra in 2009. The packing plant in Brooks was sold to Tyson Foods forerunner, IBP, in 1994, though Altwasser remained as president of the local division. After several ownership changes it is now owned and operated by JBS-Canada.
He is a founding director of the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association.
Howard’s four-decade research career involved studies 50 different species of crops and plants as a plant pathologist to evolve breeding and cultivation protocols. That led to 1,000 articles on high value crop production.
Kuhlmann is a past-president and a founding member of the Alberta Greenhouse Growers Association, and a former director of the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund.
Formed in 1951, the Alberta Agriculture Hall of fame has honoured more than 130 Albertans for their leadership and accomplishments within the agriculture sector.
