Chin farm wins major award

By Lethbridge Herald on November 21, 2025.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald
Local journalism Initiative Reporter

It was a tremendous recognition for the Perry family farm. 

During the first ever PepsiCo Global Farmer Awards in Purchase, New York, the Perrys were given the company’s Farmer of the Year award.

The awards had six different categories, including sustainability, next-gen farming, leadership and advisory, heritage and growth, quality along with the farmer of the year award. The Perry Family Farm was nominated by Frito-Lay North America.

The Perry Family Farm was founded back in 1909 near the hamlet of Chin on Highway 3 between Coaldale and Taber. It is currently in its fourth generation under brothers Chris and Harold Perry and their families. 

In an interview with the Herald, Chris Perry says it was special to even receive an invitation to the awards.

“It’s a great honor to be invited. It was their inaugural event. It came out of the blue, I’ll be honest. They have over 300,000 farmers globally in 60 different countries. There were 60 different farms represented from 19 different countries that were invited. Not just potatoes, but oats out of their Quaker oats division, canola and some others. Just being recognized for what we do and we had come off of a timing was great because we managed to win the the Frito-Lay North America’s Grower of the Year back in January, and so the timing was right for us to be nominated and we worked with with PepsiCo on a number of platforms around digital data-driven agriculture back as early as 2012.”

The Perry farm has invested into GrowTEC which converts organic waster into renewable energy. The Grow TEC Biogas plant converts large volumes of manure and organic waste into nutrient rich and pathogen free soil amendments, reducing the need for commercial fertilizer.   While Frito-Lay is their main customer, the Perry farm has also produced potatoes for the nearby McCain plant.

The farm delivered its first carbon neutral potato to Frito-Lay in 2021. Chris says the award showcases the work they’ve put in and the contributions from their entire team.

“It’s a farm award. It’s the family that recognizes that, but it’s the whole team of us, and we have some really key players. All that families that are supportive of where we’re at and the culture around it is paramount. It really is a farm recognition, not just the family. This is a win for all of us in the industry, putting us in there, it could have been a lot of others. There’s five growers for Frito-Lay in Southern Alberta, but there’s over 80,000 acres growing potatoes alone. It’s really putting Alberta on global map from this perspective. So I think it’s a win for all of us together in the community of what the potato industry is.”