David Price to join the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame

Jan 28, 2021

David Price honoured for being an innovator and visionary in swine genetics, production, processing and marketing.

‘I believe that no significant accomplishments are made alone,’ says David Price, one of 3 inductees into the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame.

‘With the wonderful support of my family, I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with, and to learn from some tremendous people of all ages and walks of life.’

As founder, past president, and company director of the Sunterra Group of Companies, Price’s leadership was integral to building a fully integrated family-run food company with top-quality pork and a true farm to fork business model.

The Sunterra Group of Companies now comprises pig production in Canada and the U.S., crop and greenhouse production, two meat-processing plants, and 9 retail markets in Alberta. Price’s ability to see potential future trends and opportunities, but not compromise on quality or service, was a critical pillar of the company’s success.

As a young man in 1968, Price spent a year in England working with the Pig Improvement Company, a new pig-breeding concept. Upon returning to Alberta, he, his parents and some very close friends decided to launch Pig Improvement Canada.

They imported ‘modern’ swine genetics from England in the 1970s, built a national swine breeding company, and pivoted to an innovative swine production company with exceptional health and quality.

Price led his team in their continued quest to expand into marketing areas previously not considered by others. They added a PhD in genetics and another PhD in meat science to their group (believed to be the first by a North American meat processor) to assist in creating a focus on production of ‘premium quality pork’.

Their combined vision paid off. Continual advances in genetic research, cross breeding techniques, swine nutrition, meat science analysis and management produced more pork per sow per year, at less cost and, over time, produced higher quality pork for consumers with more protein and less fat.

In honour of the premature death of his late son Greg, Price and his family have also worked diligently to make changes in health care to make it safe, continuous, collaborative and patient-centred. They shared their thoughts and experiences on the healthcare system through their Health Arrows website and, more recently, they established the not-for-profit organization Greg's Wings Projects.

‘Thank you for this unexpected honour, and a special thanks to everyone that has been part of our journey,’ says Price.

David Price joins Walter Paszkowski and George Visser as the 2020 inductees into the Hall of Fame.

Due to public health measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, the in-person 2020 Agriculture Hall of Fame Ceremony was cancelled. The 2020 inductees will be formally recognized at an event, likely in 2021, when it is safe to gather.

Source : alberta.ca

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.