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The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has launched an online training program for workers new to the agricultural sector, created in partnership with the University of Guelph – Ridgetown Campus Business Development Centre. The Ontario Agriculture Worker Safety and Awareness Certificate is geared towards helping job seekers become more familiar with on-farm safety, while making it easier for employers to train new hires.

Tom Armitage (B.Sc. (Agr.) in Organic Agriculture, 2013) is a lifelong learner and advocate for local food security. He works as the Social Enterprise Development Coordinator at The SEED, a not-for-profit food project at the Guelph Community Health Centre. We recently chatted with him about his role and the importance of providing accessible food to the community.

James MacGregor (Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, 1970) has led a rich career as both a landscape architect and a sustainable tourism planner. He founded North Africa's leading sustainable tourism planning, development and marketing firm, ecoplan:net, and has improved the sustainability of the tourism industry in over 40 countries.

Rosalind Morris and Erika Gaertner graduated from OAC at a time when women rarely pursued agricultural education. But, these talented women went on to lead impactful and prolific careers in botany, all while maintaining a lifelong friendship. Here are just a few brief highlights from their careers. 

Economist, data analyst, researcher, statistician. Bishnu Saha says all these roles complement each other and are appropriate titles for his work. His daily tasks as director of the Yukon Bureau of Statistics require a clear understanding of the intertwined systems of production and consumption. They also require the ability to analyze data for insight on issues, such as the effects of a new policy on trade or the reasons for trends in the labour market.

In 1970, the first tree, an ironwood, was planted in the newly established University of Guelph Arboretum.

Today the 400-acre site is almost unrecognizable from its beginnings as farm fields anchored by woodlots planted in the early days of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC).

Establishing an arboretum had been a dream of many OAC professors, dating back to 1939 when Prof. Leslie Hancock proposed a plan for a small arboretum near Watson Hall at the north east edge of campus.

Latin America is biodiverse, with prosperous agricultural industries. The region is a world leader in food production and exportation. But local populations, including Indigenous peoples and rural communities, face significant food security problems.

Prof. Silvia Sarapura, two-time OAC alumna (M.Sc. Capacity Development and Extension ’08 and PhD Rural Studies ’13), supports these vulnerable populations through her research and knowledge extension.

$25 doesn’t get you a lot these days. But it got Thomasina Orr a wild mustang.

In 2019, Thomasina had settled into a job she loved, working for Pfera Inc., a tech company that provides software for horse breeders. She had graduated from the equine management major in 2016 of the Bachelor of Bio-Resource Management degree. 

“I was doing less travelling and felt more stable and good in my career, so I wanted a project, one where I could see the rewards,” she says.

Her job was a perfect fit, but Thomasina could find herself falling into a rut.

“She’s just a girl, and she’s on fire… Oh, we got our feet on the ground… And we’re burning it down... This girl is on fire.” These are lyrics from a popular 2012 Alicia Keys song, but they’re also a clever analogy used by Big Mike to represent the current state of the planet for their 2020 Science is a Drag lip sync performance.

The pet food aisle can be an overwhelming experience for pet owners. Scanning labels, you can make decisions based on health benefits, sourcing practices, cost, ingredients, breed and more.

Behind each pet food formulation, there is a team of scientists providing you (and your pets) these options. And more than likely, one of those scientists is an OAC grad.