Now recruiting new members for Canadian Food Policy Advisory

Jul 07, 2023

Ottawa, Ontario – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Today, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, launched a new recruitment process for membership on the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council (the Council).

The Council was created to support greater collaboration in understanding complex and interconnected food systems issues from diverse perspectives to make meaningful and sustainable progress. It plays a key role in the Food Policy for Canada, providing advice to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food on addressing challenges and opportunities across Canada’s food systems.

The membership of the Council is intended to reflect diversity of Canada’s food systems, and bring forward economic, health, social, and environmental perspectives to issues that impact, or are impacted by food. To achieve this, we are seeking new members from across Canada’s food systems, including from the food and agriculture sector, academia, civil society, and Indigenous communities, with a focus on ensuring Indigenous and other underrpresented or marginalized groups have a voice on the Council.

More information on the Council, including the portal to apply to become a member, can be found on the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council web page.

Source : Canada.ca

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.