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OSCIA name Harry Stoddart as new Executive Director

The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) has announced that starting January 16, 2023, Harry Stoddart will take the helm as the new Executive Director. Stoddart brings a unique combination of leadership experience in not-for-profit and public agencies along with 25 years of direct experience in Ontario agriculture.

Andrew Graham, the current ED, plans to retire in June 2023 after a celebrated career that will have spanned 43 years, starting at Upper Thames River Conservation Authority in London, and then the Oxford County office of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in Woodstock. In 1990, Graham’s career in soil and water conservation shifted to OSCIA where he worked for many years, primarily in the design and delivery of numerous stewardship education and incentive programs and special projects for the farm community. He has served in the role of ED for the last eight years. Graham will take on the role of Executive Officer in January and provide support for the transition to Stoddart.

OSCIA is a not-for-profit grassroots farm organization. Over 50 county and district associations encompassed by 11 designated regions make up OSCIA’s network of members. The diverse membership of over 4,000 has a significant presence in all agricultural areas of the province and across all major sectors. The OSCIA mandate is to facilitate responsible economic management of soil, water, air and crops through development and communication of innovative farming practices. They are farmers actively seeking, testing, and adopting optimal farm production and stewardship practices. The organization focuses squarely on producer education and has been delivering stewardship programming to Ontario producers for 35 years. Their top research priority is soil health.

Stoddart brings to OSCIA considerable consulting experience in agri-food business strategy and policy design and has proven expertise in leading teams of employees and volunteers. He graduated in 1992 with a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph and completed his Master’s in Economics at Guelph in 1995. Before joining the Lindsay Agricultural Society as General Manager seven years ago, Stoddart and a business partner operated a 2,000-acre family farm that was successfully transitioned to certified organic. While farming, he took part in Environmental Farm Planning and conducted on-farm trials, including building, and field-testing the first cover crop roller in Ontario in 2005 to terminate cereal rye while no-tilling soybeans.