McGill alumni inducted into the Quebec Agricultural Hall of Fame
Congratulations to two alumni of McGill's Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Ann Louise Carson, B.Sc.(Agr.)’81, and Odette Menard, B.Sc.(Agr.Eng.)’83, M.Sc.’91, who were inducted to Quebec's Agricultural Hall of Fame at the organization's gala on October 26th. This year, the annual event made history as it marked the first time the Quebec Agricultural Hall of Fame has welcomed two women in the same induction year.
“It now takes a whole hand to count the number of women in the Hall of Fame,” recalled Carson, who was the first woman to head Holstein Canada, in . “I've always been against quotas. You don't get a job because you're a woman. You should get the job because you're the best person. But brace yourself, the wave is coming!”
“When I started studying rural engineering and arrived in my class, I thought there was a girls' class somewhere. I was the only girl among the guys,” recalls Ménard, a pioneer in soil health who was also named to the Canadian Soil Conservation Hall of Fame in 2005.
“There's a lot of work to be done to achieve true gender parity. Recognition and expertise are still often attached to the guy rather than the girl.”
—Odette Menard, B.Sc.(Agr.Eng.)’83, M.Sc.’91
Carson and Menard were inducted alongside Serge Lefebvre, the co-owner of Ferme St-Ours, who was also president of Producteurs d'œufs du Québec from 2004 to 2011, and the former General President of the Union des producteurs agricoles, Marcel Groleau.
Groleau, who in 2024 was awarded McGill University's highest honor, an honorary doctorate, thanked and congratulated those who have supported him over the years.
“I've always been impressed by the biographies of the people we've inducted, and I must admit I never imagined I'd end up here,” said Mr. Groleau in an interview with La Terre before the ceremony began. “The most important thing is to remember the people I worked with.”
Translated and adapted from