Ontario’s food system follows a linear model, meaning that our food waste has an end point and is not being repurposed as it would be in a circular economy. As a result, Ontario is saddled with a whopping $12 billion in food waste across the entire value chain, from farmers to retailers to households.
University of Guelph researchers are working to identify areas that will help the province reduce food waste’s economic impact.
Hidden in plain sight—if that’s even possible, with Ontario’s bustling Highway 400 cutting through it—is one of North America’s most influential vegetable field research facilities, the Government of Ontario’s Bradford Muck Crops Research Station.
As field research stations go, it’s hidden because it’s relatively small. At just four acres, it’s about the size of four football fields.
A so-called ancient oilseed called camelina is attracting attention in Ontario. Researchers believe it has potential as a superb cover crop here and are field testing it now in research plots in Simcoe, Winchester and Ridgetown.
Camelina, a member of the mustard plant family, originated in Europe. It was first identified in Canada in the mid-1800s. It’s realized significant growth in Western Canada over the past decade among producers who appreciate its winter hardiness and versatility.
Efforts to replace agriculture and food imports with homegrown products are arising in even the most specialized market segments, such as micropropagated trees.
Micropropagation uses small parts of plants instead of stem or root cuttings, allowing more trees to be grown faster. This innovation is important—demand for apple root stocks and varieties is predicted to reach more than two million plants per year for at least the next decade.
The relationship between agriculture and food is a natural one—at least for producers, who nurture it daily. But the agri-food connection is increasingly becoming a “eureka moment” for the public, too. People are waking up to the realization that agriculture precedes food, and that what they see on their plate comes from complex agri-food systems.
The Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) Program, supported by OMAFRA and the Food from Thought program, thanks in part to funding from the Canada Research Excellence Fund, provides scholarships for Masters and Doctoral students working in program areas that relate to OMAFRA research priority areas.
Being a carbon footprint-conscious dairy farmer improves the planet and farm profitability, say University of Guelph researchers. They’ve determined that environmental best practices, such as manure management, also improve producer profit margins.
Research associate Susantha Jayasundara and Prof. Claudia Wagner-Riddle, School of Environmental Sciences, collected production data from dairy farms across Ontario and classified them as having a high or low carbon footprint.
To support the demand for goat products, University of Guelph researchers are involved in an intensive, three-year, Ontario-wide herd health and management study.
Prof. Cathy Bauman, Department of Population Medicine, and a team of researchers have surveyed or visited almost 60 goat farmers over the past 18 months to investigate mortalities and management practices among their herds.
The researchers are also wrapping up a project to conduct autopsies on all goat kids under four months of age that died on about half of the farms.
Feed costs represent about 70 per cent of cattle producers’ total expenses. Cattle are under the microscope for contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
And breeding could address both matters.
That’s what one University of Guelph researcher is doing, with help from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance. Using genomics, she’s identifying cattle that naturally use their feed more efficiently.
The provincial government and the University of Guelph have partnered through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance and the University’s Food from Thought program to deliver enhanced training to graduate students.