London, Ontario, Canada
August 21, 2009

The Ontario Soybean Growers marked their 60th Anniversary by creating a fifteen thousand dollar OSG Graduate Student Legacy Award. Over the next ten years, an annual award of fifteen hundred dollars will be presented to one graduate student per year, in support of research providing value to the Ontario Soybean Industry.

The award announcement was made today by OSG Chairman Leo Guilbeault at a special event held in London, Ontario, to recognize past Directors and Chairmen of the OSG Board for their contribution to the industry. Upon announcing the award, he said, “Since OSG was formed in 1949 by foresighted farmers, our Board has been committed to seeing Ontario’s soybean industry grow and prosper. We created this Legacy Award in recognition of the vital role that research, innovation and market development play in driving sustainability back to soybean growers’ family farms”.

Chairman Guilbeault also noted that the OSG’s proud history and commitment to building a sustainable future for Ontario’s soybean industry will be carried forward into the new Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) organization. Later this year, OSG will be merging with Ontario’s corn and wheat producers’ groups to form the GFO, one provincial association representing the interests of Ontario’s grains and oilseeds farmers.

Since 1949, the number of soybean growers in Ontario has grown from 6,000 to 23,000, and the growing area for this crop has spread across the province. This expansion is largely due to the work of public researchers, who developed soybean varieties specifically for Ontario. Today, soybeans are grown on nearly half of Ontario’s farmed acreage. In 2008, the farm gate value of Ontario’s soybean crop was over $800 million, with the value-added figure for the crop approaching $1 billion.

In 2009, Ontario’s 2.4 million acres of soybeans are projected to yield approximately 1.1 metric tons (MT) per acre. Over 30% of Ontario’s soybeans are exported to Asian markets, with the balance going to animal feed, soy food and beverage processing, and industrial uses such as soy-based polyols, which are increasingly replacing petroleum-based content in a wide range of products including plastics, foams and lubricants.

Website: http://www.grainfarmersontario.com

Published: August 21, 2009