The Long Island Farm Bureau honored two outstanding people in the regional agricultural industry at its 103rd annual awards gala last week at East Wind Caterers in Wading River.
Karl Novak received the Amherst Davis Memorial Farmer Citizen of the Year Award in recognition of his lifelong dedication to the agricultural industry and agricultural community.
Margaret (Meg) McGrath received the Long Island Farm Bureau Citizen of the Year Award in recognition of her decades of contribution to the field of vegetable and herb pathology research and education.
“The farming community is fortunate to have so many people who provide such tremendous service and support to our industry,” Long Island Farm Bureau President Juan Micieli Martinez said. “We are honored to add these individuals to the already lengthy list of past recipients and carry on the legacy of celebrating their accomplishments to agriculture and our communities.”
Novak, whose career in agriculture spanned more than 43 years, retired as general manager of Half Hollow Nursery in Laurel. Before joining Half Hollow Nursery in 2012, he spent more than 30 years at Imperial Nurseries in Granby, Connecticut, one of the largest wholesale nursery growing operations in the United States. Over the course of his tenure with Imperial Nurseries, Novak worked in various roles, starting at the wholesale distribution facility in Windsor, Connecticut. He managed the 850-acre field growing operation and eventually became the general manager of the company’s 350-acre container growing facility before leaving the company in 2011.
He became involved in the Long Island Farm Bureau Board of Directors and was quickly invited to join its board of directors, where he served as vice president, president and a member of the executive board. He held various volunteer positions within the organization, including serving as chair of the golf outing fundraiser committee for several years. He was also a perennial delegate to the state annual meeting and participated in every lobby day event since joining LIFB, advocating for farmers in both local and state issues affecting agriculture. He also served as the County Legislature’s representative to the Cornell Cooperative Extension Board.
“Karl’s dedication to agriculture and community service, as well as his leadership in the LIFB, has made him a well-respected figure within the industry. He leaves behind a legacy of service, advocacy, and a deep commitment to preserving the future of agriculture,” the farm bureau said in a press release.
In his retirement, he looks forward to traveling and spending more time with his two daughters, Tia and Ashley.
McGrath, an educator and former longtime researcher at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center in Riverhead, was recognized with the Citizen of the Year Award for being a positive force in the industry with a proven record of leadership, and outstanding service to farmers and the community, the farm bureau said.
McGrath is associate professor emeritus of Cornell University’s Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section in the School of Integrative Plant Sciences. She is a vegetable pathologist who was stationed at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center for her entire career, from July 1988 to May 2023.
She received her B.A. degree in biology from Carleton College, her M.S. degree in botany from the University of Vermont and her Ph.D. in plant pathology from the Pennsylvania State University.
McGrath conducted research and extension activities on optimizing management of diseases affecting vegetable crops and herbs within organic as well as conventional production systems. Research topics included investigating fungicide resistance, monitoring occurrence of diseases, and evaluating management practices: fungicides, biopesticides and other organic fungicides, resistant varieties, plus cultural practices including reduced tillage, mustard biofumigation, compost amendments, and soil solarization. She researched diseases such as cucurbit powdery mildew, Phytophthora blight, foliar diseases of tomato, basil downy mildew, cucurbit downy mildew, and brassica black rot.
Her findings and knowledge were published in books, scientific journals, reports, abstracts and articles. She presented her work regularly at extension and scientific meetings.
She also extensively posted information mainly for growers from the start of the internet. Two web pages continue to attract readers:
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/pest-management/disease-factsheets/ and http://blogs.cornell.edu/livegpath/ .
Her previous awards include Northeast Division of the American Phytopathological Society Award of Merit in 2024, 2022 Professional of the Year awarded to the professionals located at LIHREC by Long Island Nursery and Landscape Association, 2016 Excellence in IPM Award from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, 2014 IR-4 SOAR Award (for excellent Service, Outreach, Altruism, and Research efforts), and Best Review Article of the Year in Journal of Integrative Plant Biology for 2009.
McGrath credits her passion for agriculture and helping growers to her long family farming history that started in 1632 in New Hampshire and continued for 11 generations. Her cousins still farm on land long part of the family in Maine and Florida. Meg is proud that her daughter Lauren shares her passion in her positions as Long Island Farm Bureau Associate Director and County Manager with New York Farm Bureau, and that her husband Bill gained the passion and joined the CCE Viticulture Program as field assistant following his career at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
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