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Governments Invest $5 Million In Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre

Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and Saskatchewan's Agriculture Minister David Marit announced funding today of $5 million for the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre in Saskatoon.

The funding, delivered through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), will support the Food Centre's work to enable the continued growth of value-added revenue and agri-food exports in the province over the next five years.

"Saskatchewan has always been a leader in agriculture production," said MacAulay. "With the Food Centre's hard work over the years, and continued work to come, there will be even more opportunities to commercialize regional products in the heart of the Prairies and we're proud to support their efforts."

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Designing a Robotic Berry Picker

Video: Designing a Robotic Berry Picker


Since blackberries must be harvested by hand, the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To support a growing blackberry industry in Arkansas, food science associate professor Renee Threlfall is collaborating with mechanical engineering assistant professor Anthony Gunderman to develop a mechanical harvesting system. Most recently, the team designed a device to measure the force needed to pick a blackberry without damaging it. The data from this device will help inform the next stage of development and move the team closer to the goal of a fully autonomous robotic berry picker. The device was developed by Gunderman, with Yue Chen, a former U of A professor now at Georgia Tech, and Jeremy Collins, then a U of A undergraduate engineering student. To determine the force needed to pick blackberries without damage, the engineers worked with Threlfall and Andrea Myers, then a graduate student.