"Let’s raise a fork to the food we love and the people who produce it! This February, celebrate Canadian agriculture and food both online and with friends, family and co-workers, and let everyone know how you feel about this awesome industry." -Canada's Agriculture Day website
Canada’s Agriculture Day 2021 is on February 23. To celebrate we asked our students about the importance of agriculture. Here is what they had to say:
Dr. Lawrence Goodridge holds the Leung Family Professorship in Food Safety in the Department of Food Science and is the Director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety.
The Department of Food Science of the University of Guelph has launched a new Cheese Maker Certificate for professional cheesemakers. The online certificate includes six online courses on topics such as fermentation, quality assurance, ripening, grading, composition and yield control.
Profs. Tina Widowski and Claudia Wagner-Riddle have been named Research Leadership Chairs (RLC) by the University.
“The RLC program promotes and sustains the groundbreaking research happening at the University of Guelph. These outstanding researchers have remarkable records of excellence in their respective disciplines, and we are proud that they make University of Guelph the home for their research and delighted to recognize all of the work that they have done and continue to do,” said Dr. Malcolm Campbell, vice-president (research).
A Department of Animal Biosciences study has discovered that dairy herd health may be linked to the farmer’s mental well-being. The study, published in the journal Animal Welfare, focused on Ontario dairy farms that had adopted robotic milking systems, an automated technology becoming more popular across Canada. “Both the automated milking and feeding systems have already become crucial to providing farmers with more time flexibility,” said lead author Dr. Meagan King, who was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Animal Biosciences during the study.
Four OAC alumni will be inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame this year: Stan Eby, Herbert Norry, Dr. Peter Sikkema and the late Doug Williams.
A virtual induction ceremony will take place on June 13, 2021.
Kitty and Jenny Lin, naturalist interns with the Arboretum, were recently featured on a segment of CBC's Fresh Air. Kitty and Jenny provide tips on how to spot a snowy owl, while also giving these special birds the space they need to thrive.
Dr. Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor, professor of agri-food trade and policy in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, recently co-authored a peice for Conversation Canada on the effects of the U.S. presidency on agirfood-trade.
The OAC Dean’s Office is pleased to welcome Abdul Kusebati as IT Services Technician. He began in this new role on January 4, 2021.
Kusebati will provide desktop IT support, including personal computer hardware, operating systems, and personal productivity applications. This includes diagnosis and resolution of issues, providing training, and software and hardware installation and troubleshooting.
Justine Richardson is the new director of the University of Guelph’s Arboretum. She started on February 3, 2020, and a lot has happened in the last year. She recently took some time to tell us all about the Arboretum’s activities during an unconventional, but very busy year.