![Ruchira Nandasiri and his team are responsible for profiling and optimizing growing conditions for the OCN smart farm to create vegetables that may combat the progression of diabetes. (Karen Pauls/CBC)](https://news.umanitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Ruchira-Nandasiri.png)
CBC News: Can we grow veggies designed to combat diabetes? Manitoba researchers hope so
August 21, 2024 —
Researchers at the University of Manitoba are working with a northern First Nation to develop vegetables with increased nutritional characteristics that may help combat health conditions like diabetes. But they also have to convince local folks to eat them.
“There’s a lot of stigma that we were met with,” said Stephanie R. Cook, Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) smart farm operations manager. “People were like, ‘Oh … it’s artificial, it’s fake food.’ “
Cook understands this hesitancy, because in her first few months on the job, she was also too scared to eat the produce. Coming from a traditional background, she says she was taught that food comes from the earth, not from a lab.
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