Kenneth George Proudfoot

Newfoundland & Labrador

Kenneth Proudfoot has been a research scientist responsible for the plant breeding program at the Agriculture Canada Research Station, St. John's, Newfoundland since moving to Canada from Ireland in 1967. From 1986 to 1990, he was Director of that Station and in 1991 was acting Director of the Kentville Research Station. Mr. Proudfoot is now semi-retired and working part time on potato and rutabaga breeding at St. John's. Prior to his employment in 1967 with Agriculture Canada, he was employed as a plant breeder with the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture from 1953. There, he participated in the development of two blight and nematode resistant potato varieties for Ireland, one of which, Stormont Enterprise, became widely grown in England. He was awarded the Senior Research Fellowship by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 1961 to work in the United States and Canada and a Rockefeller Foundation grant for blight research in Toluca, Mexico. During that period he was also a lecturer with Queen's University in Belfast from 1957 to 1967.

Since coming to work in Newfoundland Mr. Proudfoot has developed and registered eight varieties of wart resistant potatoes (the latest being AC Blue Pride) with some selections also being resistant to the golden nematode. These varieties form the basis for 75% of the province's seed potato industry. He has also developed three varieties of rutabagas which are clubroot resistant. The latest variety is also resistant to root maggot while another variety was given an award of merit in Britain for outstanding performance. Mr. Proudfoot's productivity is reflected in his publication record of 22 scientific papers, 108 technical papers and numerous other reports.

Kenneth Proudfoot has provided industry leadership by fully participating on many boards and committees as well as being a prominent local expert on horticultural matters always making himself available to farmers through farm meetings and individual enquiries. He has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining a seed potato program for Newfoundland in co-operation with FP&I and the provincial government. He was a founding member of the Newfoundland & Labrador Crop Insurance Agency, and the Newfoundland & Labrador Livestock Owners Compensation Board, serving from 1973 to 1986.

Kenneth and his wife, Helene, reside in Goulds, Nfld. They have four children, Michael, Andrew, Valerie, and Oonagh.

Nominated by the Newfoundland & Labrador Institute of Agrologists for his contribution to agriculture we welcome Kenneth Proudfoot as an inductee in the Atlantic Agriculture Hall of Fame.