Ron and Sharon Douglas of Huron County received the 2023 Ontario Pork Recognition Award and their pig mobile.
“It’s been a very interesting trip for us, but we haven’t done anything that anybody in this room couldn’t do,” said Ron Douglas during the Ontario Pork (OP) annual general meeting. “It’s very important to promote the industry, and we’ve got an industry to be proud of.”
An OP board member, Tara Terpstra, said the Douglas’ worked diligently to nurture a better understanding of Ontario Pork’s contribution to a community’s economy and social fabric.
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In addition to crisscrossing the province in the pig mobile educating people on the ins and outs of pork production, Ron served as a Huron County delegate on the board from 1986 to 1995 and remained an alternative.
“(They) would spend nearly 100 days on the road at the peak of their travels across the province, sharing their passion for farming and raising hogs,” said Terpstra. “Engaging with school children and grownups alike and answering questions about how pigs are cared for.”
The Douglas’s pig mobile began as a rudimentary flatbed trailer with glass siding evolving into a sophisticated travelling unit where a sow and her piglets remain the star attraction, even after 40 years of appearing at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
Even Queen Elizabeth was amused when meeting the sow and her piglets during a 2002 Golden Jubilee event in Toronto.
Ron said the most impactful moment for the pig mobile wasn’t meeting the Queen but when they went to the CNE during a disease outbreak in the hog industry to talk about what was happening.
“It was better to step up to the plate and tell our own story on what’s going on,” he said. “It turned out to be a showpiece by accident, and I had people from Europe saying you made the news in Denmark about hogs behind glass.”
2022 award recipient
Bruce Hudson, an OP board member, retrospectively presented Marion Myers of Glengarry/Prescott with the 2022 Ontario Pork Recognition Award. The award was not able to be given to Myers in person last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
When Myers joined the Ontario Pork Board in 1975, she was the only woman serving on a provincial board and the second woman to sit on a Canadian agricultural board.
“In 1975, the producers of eastern Ontario took a chance on me and elected me to the board,” Myers said. “Yes, I was the first woman in Ontario to be elected to a marketing board, and it was a real honour that they allowed me that opportunity.”
She served two stints on the board, one from 1975 to 1982 and the other from 2000 to 2010, with a focus on advocacy.
“Her persistence and determination have made her a strong voice at this board’s table and in government relations,” said Bruce Hudson, OP board member.
“(We’d) like to recognize Marion’s long services as a pork producer for her fearless attitude and tireless work to continuously improve the integrity of the pork industry,” he said. “One thing for sure, Marion always has an opinion.”
Myers said you don’t accomplish board work in a vacuum; you collaborate with the team, your members and, most importantly, the support crew you leave behind on the farm.
“Your family back home is holding down the fort while you’re here. And back then, because we were a family operation, somebody had to do the work when I was away,” she said.
“My family has always been the most important thing in my life, and I thank them for all the help they have given me over the years.”
