SUDBURY—The name Carleton Mackinnon Emiry might not be all that familiar, but just about everyone in the region’s dairy industry knows Mack Emiry. The Expositor recently learned that Mr. Emiry is to be inducted into the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame after a lifetime spent in the dairy industry. Mr. Emiry is being honoured for his “significant contributions to the Ontario agriculture and food industry.”
“I don’t know what the right response would be except to say that I am amazed and baffled, I never anticipated to be included in that company,” said Mr. Emiry. “That being said, it is a great honour knowing the people who are in the Hall of Fame.”
It is a testament to Mr. Emiry’s involvement in agriculture that he knows, or knows of, eight of this year’s inductees, having sat at the table with many of them.
Mr. Emiry was born to the farm life and raised on a Massey farm where milk production, along with livestock and crop production, was a key part of the farm’s income. Mr. Emiry made no pretense of aspiring to any other life than the farm, despite excelling in academics through to Grade 13.
While he may have suffered some ridicule from his teachers for his decision to return to the farm after finishing high school, with one Mr. Samatowka telling him his talents would be wasted, the record clearly shows otherwise.
Organizations such as the Manitoulin West Sudbury Milk Producers Association, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association and the Provincial Nutrient Management Advisory Committee have all benefited from Mr. Emiry’s considerable contributions. All provided while exhibiting “admirable values of integrity, diplomacy and humility.” His impact has extended far beyond the boundaries of the family farm, the district, the province and the nation, his influence even extending into the world beyond. All this while raising four children and operating a farm and remaining active in his church and community.
He has served at the province’s pleasure on the aforementioned Provincial Nutrient Management Advisory Committee following the disaster at Walkerton and as a board member of the selection committee for the Premier’s Award for Agri-food Innovation Excellence. His passion for the land led to his helming of the Land Stewardship Committee, helping to shape changes in management and farming practices, introducing new methods and approaches to farming and soil health.
His list of involvements run to pages—including the establishment of the Emiry Family Prize in Soil Management at the University of Guelph, even though he himself was never a student of that institution. That $1,000 scholarship is presented annually to the student who attains the highest grade in Soil Management.
Internationally, Mr. Emiry is a strong supporter of St. Alphonsus Social and Agricultural Centre in Kersong, India. That school of 2,000 underprivileged “scholarship” students not only benefits from his vast experience in agriculture, but benefits financially from his contributions. Mr. Emiry has visited the school three times over the years and the school’s dairy shed has been named “Mack and Beth’s Barn,” in honour of he and his wife.
Now at 82, Mr. Emiry is passing on his considerable wisdom and knowledge to his family, while keeping his hand in operations and tending his extensive vegetable gardens. In fact, The Expositor caught up with Mr. Emiry while he was in a tractor delivering feed to some of the livestock on the family’s farm operations.
Mr. Emiry has truly been the face of agriculture in Massey, the North Shore and Manitoulin during his lifetime and The Expositor joins the entire Island and North Shore community in congratulating this humble individual on his induction into the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame for his invaluable contributions to this most important of industries.
