APG Welcomes New Chair and Directors

Feb 01, 2019

Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) is pleased to announce that Don Shepert of St. Brides was selected as Chair of the organization. He will serve a one-year term leading the Executive, which also consists of Robert Semeniuk of Smoky Lake as Vice-Chair and Jerome Isaac of Crooked Creek as the Third Executive Member.

New Directors on the Board include Semeniuk for Zone 5 and Kelisha Archer of Drumheller for Zone 2, who were each elected for a three-year term. Will Muller of Bow Island was acclaimed as Director-at-Large (Bean), and Peter Konstapel of Spirit River was acclaimed as Director-at-Large (Non-Bean), each for a one-year term.

At its AGM this week, AGM thanked outgoing Directors D’Arcy Hilgartner (Zone 5), Doug Sell (Zone 2), John Kowalchuk (Director-at-Large, Non-Bean), and Tim van der Hoek (Director-at-Large, Bean) for their many contributions to APG and Alberta’s pulse industry.

Source : Alberta Pulse Growers

Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.