The Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) selected Blair Roth, who has been instrumental in building Alberta’s pulse industry, as the winner of the third annual Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award.
“Each year APG recognizes a person or organization whose progressive thinking and tireless efforts helped build Alberta’s pulse industry into the flourishing industry that it is today,” said APG Chair Allison Ammeter. “Blair Roth has dedicated his career to the advancement of the pulse industry and truly deserves to receive the Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award for his many contributions.”
Roth discovered his life-long passion for pulses when he worked in applied research at Alberta Agriculture in the 1980s and ran field scale demonstrations for many crops, including early soybean, lupin, faba bean, chickpea, bean, pea and lentil crops. He worked very closely with producers to establish the Alberta Pulse Growers Association, which he then helped transition to the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission in 1989. Roth saw the potential for pulses in Alberta and the need for a strong provincial organization that could continue to improve production and marketing research. In 1990, Roth started working in special crops with Alberta Pool, and then Agricore. He has continued to support the growth in the pulse industry over the last nine years as the Director-Special Crops for Viterra, overseeing the North American procurement, processing and marketing of pulses for Viterra.
Tim VanderHoek, APG’s Bean Director-at-Large, had high praise for Roth’s contributions to the pulse industry.
“Blair Roth not only helped create markets for pulses,” VanderHoek explained, “but also assisted the farmers who created this body, the Alberta Pulse Growers, that is very successful today and has grown tremendously throughout his career. He was instrumental at the start of the association, and his opinion continues to be respected at the zone and provincial level.”
Roth said that he was honoured to learn that he was chosen as the recipient of the third annual Industry Innovator Award sponsored by ATB Financial.
“This means a lot to me and I truly appreciate the honour,” Roth said. “I am humbled to be put in the same category as previous recipients. Of course, to me, these type of awards are a team game. I hope I have played some small part, and I don’t expect the momentum of this industry to slow as the next generation takes on the challenges of the future.”
Source : Albertapulse