Ernest Mercier (agronomist)
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Dr. Ernest Mercier OC |
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Official portrait of Dr. Ernest Mercier while deputy minister of agriculture
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| Born |
March 1, 1914 Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | March 4, 2002 (aged 88) Quebec City, Quebec, Canada |
| Resting place | La Souvenance |
| Residence | Quebec City, Quebec, Canada |
| Nationality | Canada |
| Alma mater | Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Agronomist, public servant, genealogist |
| Spouse(s) | Marcelle Normand (1945-2002) |
| Children | 6 |
| Awards | Order of Canada, Ordre du Mérite agricole du Québec, Commandeur de l'ordre du Mérite agronomique, Lazzaro Spallanzani Medal |
Dr. Ernest Mercier, OC (1 March 1914 – 4 March 2002) was a reputed agronomist in Quebec, Canada. Born on a family farm in Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire, he went on to do graduate studies in Cornell University and founded the Artificial Insemination Center of Quebec. After many years as the superintendent at a federal research farm, he was promoted deputy minister of agriculture of Quebec, a position which he held for 6 years. Retiring from his government work, he became a private consultant and collaborated with the Canadian International Development Agency and the Canadian delegation at the Food and Agriculture Organization on projects that took him around the world.
Dr. Mercier has been credited among other things with the implementation of innovative agrifood policies that transformed the family farm of the past into the efficient and profitable modern operation of today. For his contribution to the agriculture and the field of agronomy, Dr. Mercier was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989 and inducted to the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Agricultural Hall of Fame of Quebec in 1992.
Born in 1914, Ernest was the 12th of 13 child of Georges Mercier and Williamine Dion, then subsistence farmers in Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire. From 1920 to 1928, he went to the local primary and secondary school but had to quit due to the Great Depression to work on the family farm and in forestry. Ernest had shown good potential at school so as soon as the economy permitted, his whole family gathered funds to send him back to further his education. He attended college in Nicolet from 1933 to 1939 and went on to complete a B.Sc from 1939 to 1943 in agronomy at Laval University at the La Pocatière campus.
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