Alberta's Agriculture Hall of Fame inducts individuals every two years.

On Friday, Nate Horner, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation announced the 2022 honorees Bruce Beattie, from Mountain View County a driving force in shaping the dairy sector and Alberta Milk,  Simone Demers-Collins from Edmonton, for her leadership as an agriculture and agri-food advocate, educator and food champion, and Jack Lewis (posthumous induction) from Parkland County, for pioneering new farming techniques for seed potato production, founding the potato growers’ co-operative and advancing agricultural education.

Horner says agriculture and rural communities are a foundational part of Alberta’s history and will continue to drive economic development.

"In a time when innovation and diversification are increasingly important, I congratulate the inductees for their vision, dedication and pioneering spirit. Their hard work to improve agricultural practices, grow the industry and educate the next generation is helping build a stronger future for our province.”

Due to the pandemic, the formal induction for 2020 was not held so those inductees are also being honoured this year.

They include Walter Paszkowski, from Sexsmith, for his vision in building the province's canola industry, David Price from Acme, for his outstanding contribution as an innovator in swine genetics, production, processing and marketing for more than 50 years, and George Visser from Barrhead, for his leadership in building Alberta’s pork industry and advocating for value-added agriculture and rural economic development.

Information on Alberta's Agriculture Hall of Fame inductees for 2022 and 2020 can be found here.