Karen Tanino, a University of Saskatchewan plant sciences professor, and master’s student Ariana Forand, investigate how plants withstand multiple stresses such as heat, drought, cold and disease. The results of a study they recently completed could be used to help plants better withstand stresses caused by climate change and disease.
University of Missouri plant scientist Ron Mittler has discovered a new way to measure stress in plants using signalling molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS). His work is especially timely given the challenges farmers face due to variable climates and extreme weather events. The results of Mittler’s work could be used to increase plant resilience in the face of environmental stress.
With $1.1 million in industry and government funding, the University of Saskatchewan will soon be home to a brand new, high-tech, bio-secure insect research facility.
Most bakers will tell you the “starter culture” is the essence of sourdough bread. This includes Jay Cummings, director of bakery and deli operations for Freson Bros., an Alberta-based grocery market chain that sells locally produced food. “Before they hired me, they asked what I would do if I was to run their bakery program,” said Cummings. “I said I would go back to real baking—sourdough baking.” He has developed many starters, but said his one culture, dubbed “Charlie,” which he created for the grocer, is special.
When he and his wife Gabriele immigrated to Kaslo, B.C., from a small Bavarian town in the summer of 1979, Silvio Lettrari craved the sourdough bread he grew up eating. He began baking and selling his own loaves as a summer project in 1991. Locals raved and demand grew, so the couple launched Kaslo Sourdough in 1993 and marketed their bread across the West Kootenays.
Unpredictable weather and fall uncertainty in recent years have seen farmers harvest early and rely on grain dryers to handle crops with markedly high moisture levels. With this near-dependence on drying, they are constantly on the lookout for methods to improve their financial return.
Over the past two years, University of Calgary plant breeder Marcus Samuel has demonstrated impressive drought-tolerant proof-of-concept improvements in wheat using an innovative, non-GMO breeding technique. The project has received $398,000 in funding from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Results Driven Agricultural Research, the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions, SaskWheat and the Manitoba Crop Alliance. Samuel hopes to bring these same drought tolerance gains to elite wheat varieties nearing commercialization.
As the Canadian Agricultural Partnership sunsets over the next six months, the next round is finalizing its planning, which includes a name change. Starting April 1, 2023, the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) will begin a new five-year work cycle with funds totalling $3.5 billion.
In February, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) approved ABO Wind Canada’s Buffalo Plains Wind Farm proposal, an 83-turbine project scheduled to begin spinning in farm fields near Lomond in the winter of 2023. The Buffalo Plains project is just one of a surging tide of renewable energy investments proposed for southern Alberta that carries clear benefits as well as potential risks for area farmers.
Farmers everywhere continue to do their job through whatever is thrown at them. Their resilience in striving to feed a perennially troubled world is the embodiment of compassion.
