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Denton Hoffman awarded OF&VGA Award of Merit

January 14, 2009, Niagara Falls, Ont. – Denton Hoffman, general manager of the Ontario Asparagus Growers’
Marketing Board, and the Ontario Ginseng Growers’ Association, was
presented with the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association
(OF&VGA) award of merit at its 150th annual meeting Jan. 12-14 in
Niagara Falls.

January 14, 2009, Niagara Falls, Ont. – Denton Hoffman, general manager of the Ontario Asparagus Growers’ Marketing Board, and the Ontario Ginseng Growers’ Association, was presented with the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OF&VGA) award of merit at its 150th annual meeting Jan. 12-14 in Niagara Falls.

Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association board chair Brenda Lammens presents the organization’s annual Award of Merit to Denton Hoffman at OF&VGA’s 150th annual meeting in Niagara Falls.  Photo by Jim Meyers

The award was presented by re-elected OF&VGA chair Brenda Lammens who is also chair of the asparagus growers marketing board.

“Denton has been seen grilling asparagus everywhere – from the lawns of Queens Park to the streets of Brantford, and the aisles of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention and trade show,” she said about his passionate promotion of Ontario asparagus and his culinary skill.

During his earlier 15-year tenure as general manager of  the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers’ Association (OVGA) he saw the need for growers to assure consumers that the vegetables they bought were not only good to eat, but also safe to eat, Lammens said. Denton helped to usher in a grower-driven on-farm food safety program in the greenhouse industry long before safe food handling from the grower to the consumer became the issue it has become today. At the national level of the Canadian Horticulture Council, he was a member of the committee that developed the current On Farm Safety Program.

“Denton’s impressive tenure with the OGVG established many industry milestones that remain legendary today in the horticultural world,” Lammens said in her introduction.

He also led growers through what was a very difficult post-free trade agreement when the sale of Ontario-grown greenhouse tomatoes into the U.S. was threatened and the continued existence of the grower association was in doubt.

Denton was born and raised in Eganville, Ont., in the Ottawa Valley and ran the family creamery after graduating from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in agrology. He later became general manager of Ault Foods (Black Diamond) in Napanee and then moved to London where he was general manger of the Elgin CO-OP before joining the OGVG.