Canada's agriculture schools need major investment

  • National Newswatch

Want Canada to keep up global food demand. Ottawa—Canada's 13 agriculture and veterinary schools need a major investment to develop the infrastructure needed to train the next generation of agrifood sector workers, says The Deans Council - Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine. A funding program is needed to modernize, upgrade and expand existing infrastructure at institutions focused on training students in sustainable, secure, safe and affordable food production , the Council said in a statement. The schools require “classrooms, labs and specialized facilities essential for training the next generation of a highly skilled workforce -including new Canadians- and driving innovation through basic and applied research.” With a world population of 10 billion expected by 2050, “sustainable, secure, safe, and affordable food is a fundamental and growing global priority.” Recent years have demonstrated the vulnerability of the global food supply, the Council said. “Canada is in the fortunate position to have the natural resources, the talent and the know-how to be a world leader in food production and to ensure the supply of secure, safe and affordable food produced in a sustainable manner to its own citizens and the world.” To remain a world leader in food production, Canada needs “to foster talent and promote innovation by investing in research, education, and skills training. If Canada does not make these investments now, the lives of people in Canada and around the world are at risk to die of malnutrition and infectious diseases spread between humans, livestock and wildlife.” The 13 agriculture and vet schools and their 1,200 professors are educating 25,000 students and “conducting cutting-edge research, driving innovation second to none in the world. However, both our training and research capacity are threatened by aging, outdated and missing infrastructure. “We need substantial investment in infrastructure to expand our capacity and augment our global leadership. It is absolutely vital that our future workforce is trained in environments that meet current industry operating standards and that our researchers have the resources they need to develop innovative solutions necessary to address the global challenge of sustainable, secure, safe and affordable food.” A Growing Canada (GC) program would support the adaptation and applications of leading-edge technologies in the agriculture and food processing sectors and transdisciplinary research and development, innovation, and skills training to enhance Canada's leadership in food production and processing. It would be based on four key areas - innovative food and beverage processing and value-added product development, advanced sustainable and climate smart farming, vertical farming and advanced controlled environment agriculture and digital agriculture and agricultural automation. Also key to long term agriculture success is One Health Canada (OH), which is an integrated approach to benefit environmental, animal, and human health by preventing and controlling the emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that can spread between livestock, wildlife, and humans and enhancing Canada's leadership in the production/consumption of safe food and One Health.