SASKATOON — Joe Kleinsasser will lead the 2026 class of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, after the six inductees were announced on Tuesday, Jan. 13, during the 48th Western Canada Production Show at the NuFarm Information Theatre in Hall B of the Prairieland Park.
Kleinasser, whose family is a member of the Hutterite Colony in Rosetown, was honoured for his over two decades of advocacy for educating consumers on the farm-to-table aspect of food production, pushing for education about the farm-to-table journey of their food, from producers and processors to grocery stores, markets and to meals served in every home kitchen table.
He said that he felt honoured for being included in the province’s Ag Hall of Fame, where he will be joined by Cecil Werner, Terry Baker, Norbert Beaujot, Mary McKay Lindsay, and Mark Picard. Lindsay and Picard will be inducted posthumously.
Kleinsasser served for seven years on the Sask Pork board, beginning in 2002, and was also SPI Marketing Group’s director from 1999 to 2013. He served as Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan’s inaugural chair and has been part of the Saskatchewan Agri-Food Council board since 2019.
He has worked to bridge the gap between consumers and the people who produce their food, such as grain and livestock farmers, through his advocacy spanning two decades, which has built public trust in agriculture. His contribution was left unnoticed, as he will join five others in the formal induction to the Ag Hall of Fame in April.
“When I started, consumer trust really wasn’t an issue. Now it’s one of the primary issues we face. We realized at some point we had to tell consumers why we do what we do and who we are, because in the absence of good information, someone else will fill that void and not always in a way you’d like,” said Kleinasser when asked what has changed since he started with his consumer education advocacy.
“It looks like a long time ago, but now it is one of the primary issues that we are facing. And so we evolved into talking, we realized that at some point, we need to tell consumers why we're doing what we're doing, and who we are, because in the absence of good information, does somebody feel that void, and maybe not in the way that you like to tell.”
He added that public trust in his advocacy for educating consumers, which he believes is needed, won’t be possible without the people who have helped him throughout the years, including farmers, food processors, and the Farm Animal Council.
That shift in public expectations helped redefine how agricultural organizations approached education. Kleinsasser said the industry moved from focusing mainly on producer education to actively engaging consumers, recognizing that transparency and communication are essential to maintaining public confidence in modern food production.
Werner, who started WestCan Alfalfa in the 1980s, is honoured for his contributions to increasing exports of Saskatchewan’s processed dehydrated and sun-cured alfalfa pellets. He also began CanMar Grain Products, which grew to a major exporter of mill-roasted flax, opening a processing facility in Regina in 2003.
Baker, who joined the Centre for Agricultural Medicine board in early 1990, was credited for his contribution to building the province’s agricultural infrastructure and has served as Agrivita’s board chair since 2010. Beaujot is the founding president of SeedMaster Manufacturing, where he developed and patented the first active hydraulic ground-following opener that limited soil disturbance.
Lindsay, who passed away in 1991, was the first Canadian producer to import Highland cattle from Scotland and crossbreed them with her neighbours' cattle, laying the foundation for a new breed, Speckle Park. Pickard, who died last year, founded InfraReady in 1994, and the company used a unique infrared precooking technology that shortened wheat’s cooking time while enhancing its quality.
