As an essential service, this spring farmers enter a season of more uncertainties than normal In the last few weeks, the Covid-19 crisis has impacted every segment of Canada’s economy. A month ago, on March 25, the Government of Saskatchewan released their list of essential services that can continue operation Read more…
As the trend towards urbanization continues, the Canadian agriculture industry faces increasing concerns about the disconnect between consumers and food production. In 2016, only 19% of Canadians lived in rural communities, dropping from 46% over the past one hundred years. The disconnect from agriculture has caused many consumers to become Read more…
Are GM Crops Contributing to Increased Rates of Female Education? The number one item on the United Nations’ (UN) list of Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce poverty. The UN estimates that 650 million people live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than US$2/day. People in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are Read more…
The challenging dilemma between genomic sequencing and traditional knowledge Historically, to develop a new plant variety, there needed to be two distinct varieties to be able to cross-pollinate. If one variety was higher yielding and the other had strong disease resistance, they could be crossed with the goal of being Read more…
Are Canadian plant breeders utilizing the innovations of gene editing? It would be inaccurate to say that plant breeders in Canada are ‘a dime a dozen’. A rough estimate places the number of professional plant breeders in Canada at 500. Given the recent innovations available to plant breeders, we thought Read more…
The dawning of a new era in ag sustainability Who would have fathomed how significant a day in March 1995 would become in the history of Canadian agriculture? On March 14th, 1995, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) approved the two genetically modified (GM), herbicide tolerant varieties of canola for Read more…
By Sara Ingell, University of Saskatchewan Student There is an ongoing debate in the agriculture industry between small family farms and large corporate farms. The controversy between these two different farming operations both have their advantages and disadvantages in regards to their farming practices. Small family farms can not compete Read more…
Unfounded fears of chemicals threaten modern society Chemicals are everywhere and all around us, they compose everything, including ourselves. As the basic elements of all matter, we have identified 118 chemical elements. Of those chemical elements, the human body is composed of oxygen (65%), carbon (18%), hydrogen (10%), and nitrogen Read more…
By Makenna Laventure, University of Saskatchewan Student Food security Food security is defined in terms of people having access to nutritious, safe food, that allows all individuals to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. Many individuals are food insecure, especially those living in developing countries. The FAO estimates that in Read more…
Proud of a simple idea 5 years later turning into SAIFood success When I began my Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovation back in October 2014, one objective was to establish a blog that would facilitate the communication of scientific information about agriculture and food production. After some deliberating about titles Read more…