$1-billion local food industry highlighted during Alberta Local Food Week

Aug 14, 2019

From the Government of Alberta:

“Alberta has some of the world’s best farmers, food producers and processors. Now is a great time to step up and show support for Alberta’s agriculture industry. I encourage Albertans to buy local food, meet a farmer in their community and get to know the people who put food on their tables.” Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.

Alberta Local Food Week runs Aug. 11-18 this year. There are many ways to go local, such as visiting local producers, growers, distillers and brewers, shopping the local food section in your grocery store, eating at a restaurant that serves local food or visiting your community farmers market.

“We have some awesome products made in Alberta – maybe even more than people realize. Local Food Week and Open Farm Days is a chance to showcase different farmers, producers and markets.” Jason Andersen, vice-president, Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association.

Alberta Local Food Week wraps up with the popular Open Farm Days, which offers Albertans opportunities to visit local farms to get a better understanding of where their food comes from and sample the diversity and abundance of food produced in Alberta.

“We are well on our way to educating people about food and animal husbandry, but we can always do more. Local Food Week gives us that opportunity to reach people and develop our industry. I enjoy being a part of the conversation about where food comes from.” Susan Schafers, and co-chair, Alberta Local Food Council.

Local food sales from farmers markets and through direct-to-consumer channels have more than doubled since 2008 and exceeded $1 billion last year.

Continuing to support the growth of the local food industry is an important step in renewing the Alberta Advantage and getting Albertans back to work.

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Video: Moving Ag Research Forward Through Collaboration

BY: Ashley Robinson

It may seem that public and private researchers have different goals when it comes to agricultural research. However, their different strategies can work in tandem to drive agricultural research forward. Public research may focus more on high-risk and applied research with federal or outside funding, while private sector researchers focus more on research application.

“For me, the sweet spot for public private sector research is when we identify problems and collaborate and can use that diverse perspective to address the different aspects of the challenge. Public sector researchers can work on basic science high risk solutions as tools and technologies are developed. They then can work with their private sector partners who prototype solutions,” Mitch Tuinstra, professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue University’s Department of Agronomy, said during the Jan. 10 episode of Seed Speaks.

Public researchers they have the flexibility to be more curiosity driven in their work and do discovery research. This is complimentary to private research, which focuses on delivering a product, explained Jed Christianson, canola product design lead for Bayer CropScience, explained during the episode.

“As a seed developer, we worry about things like new crop diseases emerging. Having strong public sector research where people can look into how a disease lifecycle cycle works, how widespread is it and what damage it causes really helps inform our product development strategies,” he added.

It’s not always easy though to develop these partnerships. For Christianson, it’s simple to call up a colleague at Bayer and start working on a research project. Working with someone outside of his company requires approvals from more people and potential contracts.

“Partnerships take time, and you always need to be careful when you're establishing those contracts. For discoveries made within the agreement, there need to be clear mechanisms for sharing credits and guidelines for anything brought into the research to be used in ways that both parties are comfortable with,” Christianson said.

Kamil Witek, group leader of 2Blades, a non-profit that works with public and private ag researchers, pointed out there can be limitations and challenges to these partnerships. While private researchers are driven by being able to make profits and stay ahead of competitors, public researchers may be focused on information sharing and making it accessible to all.

“The way we deal with this, we work in this unique dual market model. Where on one hand we work with business collaborators, with companies to deliver value to perform projects for them. And at the same time, we return the rights to our discoveries to the IP to use for the public good in developing countries,” Witek said during the episode.

At the end of the day, the focus for all researchers is to drive agricultural research forward through combining the knowledge, skills and specializations of the whole innovation chain, Witek added.

“If there's a win in it for me, and there's a win in it for my private sector colleagues in my case, because I'm on the public side, it’s very likely to succeed, because there's something in it for all of us and everyone's motivated to move forward,” Tuinstra said.

$1-billion local food industry highlighted during Alberta Local Food Week

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Video: Moving Ag Research Forward Through Collaboration

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