July 2003

The Tools Needed to Succeed

Early in the 20th century, Dr. Charles Saunders changed the course of the Canadian west. Working at the Central Experimental Farm, Dr. Saunders developed Marquis wheat, a crop that flourished in Canada's northern latitudes. Canada earned the reputation as "the breadbasket to the world." The success is one of many. Canada's reputation for agricultural excellence, earned in those early years, endures today. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada remains a catalyst, working across the nation to give the agriculture and agri-food industry the tools it needs to succeed.

Putting Canada First

Since 2001, federal, provincial and territorial governments have been working with the agriculture and agri-food industry to help strengthen and revitalize the sector through an Agricultural Policy Framework. Over the next five years, Canadian farmers will have new tools, services and options to strengthen their businesses, increase prosperity and meet the demands of consumers at home and abroad. The policy framework brings together five key elements—Business Risk Management, Environment, Food Safety and Quality, Renewal, and Science and Innovation—in a single, solid platform that will help Canadian agriculture maximize new opportunities in world markets. No other country can claim such a cohesive and integrated policy approach to agriculture. For Canada, there will be international recognition as the world leader in food safety and quality, environmentally responsible production and innovative products. See www.agr.gc.ca/puttingcanadafirst

New Product Potential

On the heels of vitamins - one of the first generations of food additives - domesticated microbes are now finding a place in commercial recipes. From Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers are scouting the world for super achievers in the bacteria family called lactobacilli. By harvesting bacterial cultures, the researchers hope to discover microorganisms able to improve consumer health and develop effective, economical methods of producing these friendly cultures, called probiotics. Some of these bacteria stimulate the immune system. Others are effective against diarrhea or help to reduce cholesterol. Eventually these good bacteria may be added to a variety of food products. Food improved by probiotics, which can be called “functional foods,” could reduce the incidence of various diseases.

Support for Organic Sector

The National Organic Accreditation Assistance Program (NOAAP) has been extended until Dec. 31, 2004. Under NOAAP, Canadian organic certifiers who receive accreditation from the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) can be reimbursed 50 per cent of the SCC application fee, the assessment cost and the initial annual accreditation fee, up to $25,000. Applications to the SCC must be received by Sept. 30, 2003. NOAAP has also been expanded to provide assistance to provincial accreditation agencies which enter into a collaboration agreement with the SCC. These agencies are now eligible to receive a grant up to a maximum of $25,000 for 50 per cent of the costs related to the required SCC assessment to determine compliance with ISO requirements. Following an agreement between AAFC and the Canadian Standards Board, the Canadian National Standard for Organic Agriculture is available for free download at www.pwgsc.gc.ca/cgsb

Getting the Skinny on Fat

A front in the battle of the bulge is being turned by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe, AB. With as much as 30 per cent of the human population suffering from obesity, the economic and social costs are tremendous, but seemingly fat can be fought with fat. In swine feeding trials, feeding fat was found not to result in fatter carcasses, but in increased dietary energy. Ingesting certain types of fat may actually inhibit fat production from carbohydrates and other sources. The research team is currently evaluating how effectively different fatty acids turn-off fat production and turn-on fat breakdown. The pieces of the puzzle coming together at the molecular level may prove how fat can pass the lips and miss the hips.

Canadian Vineyards Enter Digital Era

Wireless networks and viticulture – digital technology has come to the wine industry. Palm-sized, sensors suspended throughout a vineyard, measuring air temperature and other environmental conditions, may soon enable a grower to select varieties ideal to sub-climates in a vineyard. More practically, these radio-transmitting devices called motes could make targeted frost control a reality. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers in Summerland, BC, with colleagues Intel Research of Portland, Oregon, are using motes to characterize the location and size of cold air pockets. Once identified, the pockets can be targeted for precision frost control using selected sprinklers to conserve water. The motes may also be used to determine the number of high- and low-temperature days the fruit have received to allow the precise harvests of the best grapes for different wines.

Sprouting Confidence

Bacteria-infecting microorganisms, called bacteriophages (phages), are bad news for pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and are good news for people who enjoy fresh alfalfa sprouts. At a lab in Guelph, ON, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers have isolated and characterized specific phages that destroy Salmonella. A set of phages was tested and found to effectively minimize contamination of alfalfa seeds and sprouts without reducing the seeds' ability to germinate. The work was undertaken because, in some circumstances, sprouts pose a health hazard to consumers because bacterial contaminants, present in trace amounts, multiply during germination and sprouting. Research of this type improves food safety and security by reducing the potential for outbreaks of food-related illness.

What's Old Could Be New

Herbs, oriental vegetables, elderberry and sea buckthorn are among the crops selected for an in-depth, national study by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. As "new crops," the plants have potential for high nutrition, health promotion, to be environmentally friendly and to be supportive of wild life. The researchers know diversified agriculture can form the foundations for new Canadian industries. To be useful in diversifying production and helping farmers reduce business risk, the new and relatively new crops must display the characteristics needed to generate innovative products for new markets. New foods are possible. But non-foods commodities linked to medicine, health and nutrition, could find their source in new agricultural products. Everyone along the value chain from producer to processor to distributor benefits from innovative products.

Les Jardins de Métis

When Elsie Reford created Les Jardins de Métis in 1920, she would not have believed her picturesque landscape in the Gaspésie would become a tourist attraction. Her grandson Alexander Reford, who oversees the botanical treasure, has partnered with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) to presents some of the finest plants available. The Horticulture Research and Development Centre in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu provides Les Jardins de Métis with ornamentals developed at the AAFC centre to beautify the garden. As consultants, the centre’s researchers suggest plants and advise the landscape architect on the appropriate ornamentals and rose varieties. Fifteen varieties of roses from the Explorer series, developed by AAFC, have been made available. More than 125,000 visitors come annually to Les Jardins de Métis, a showcase for AAFC's research in ornamental horticulture.

Research rides the range

Picture a cowpoke riding the range, not a 19th century cow puncher, but a 21st century cowboy riding herd above Kamloops, B.C. Since 1995, Keith Ogilvie has been riding for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Range Research Unit. He now helps manage 40,000 hectares of provincial Crown land while tending more than 800 mostly privately-owned cattle. They are more than beef on the hoof. Some of the animals are essential to research in cattle behavior, water quality, poisonous plants, soil compaction, and succession in the montane forest. This grazing land is the shared resource of forestry, recreation and wildlife.