As a microbiology student at the University of British Columbia, Rickey Yada struggled with his chosen path, until he received a recruitment letter from the school’s Food Science department and sat down with its chair. The young student had taken classes in chemistry, biochemistry and physics, and the administrator suggested Food Science addresses these disciplines as applied to food. Yada loved the idea, and the offer of a scholarship sealed the deal.

Oil and gas production remains the province’s golden ticket, but with a sustained push, renewables continue to fight for market share. So many projects have gone into development or are at the assessment stage, it’s been hard to keep up. One of the newest types of builds is agrivoltaics, which has attracted big interest from farmers and corporate investors alike.

As part of a two-year project, the University of Alberta is building the Database on Alberta Soil Health (DASH). The goal is to create an online resource that marries soil data with associated agronomic and climate data to generate recommendations for use by farmers, soil scientists and agronomists.