AG e-news February 12, 2018
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
The Faculty now has a Facebook page! Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/UMFAFS/.
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, February 13 – A Final Ph.D. Oral Defence by Shatha Hammad, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, is scheduled for 9:00 am in 104 Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, on “Genetic variants influence the response of body composition and insulin resistance to dietary monounsaturated fatty acid consumption”. Faculty, students, staff and general public are welcome to attend.
Tuesday, February 13 – A Department of Entomology Seminar will be presented by Dr. Neil Holliday, Entomology, on “A year in the life of Chlaenius cordicollis”. Refreshments at 10:00 am, seminar begins at 10:10 am sharp in 220 Animal Science/Entomology Building. All are welcome.
Tuesday, February 13 – A special seminar hosted by the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment features Dr. Robin White, Assistant Professor, Animal and Poultry Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech, on “Environment and Nutrition Implications of a Vegan America” at 11:30 am in 219 Animal Science Building. In her most recent scientific publication “Nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from US agriculture” Robin White, study lead, tackles what might happen if all Americans went vegan. Their findings point to the complexities of a food system that is more shades of grey than black and white. Their scientific publication is available open access at: http://www.pnas.org/content/114/48/E10301. Robin is collaborating with NCLE researchers (Kim Ominski, lead) to assess human nutrition and environmental impacts of changing agricultural production practices in response to dietary preferences of Canadians – a project funded by the AAFC-Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program. All are welcome!
Tuesday, February 13 – A Ph.D. Oral Defence will be presented by Oscar Molina Tirado, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Soil Science on “Identification of Vertillium Species and Control Methods for Verticillium Wilt of Potato in Manitoba” at 1:00 pm in 346 Ellis Building. Faculty, students, staff and general public are welcome to attend.
Tuesday, February 13 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Program Seminar will take place at 3:00 pm in Room 207 Human Ecology Building, with Comfort Fasakin presenting “Characterization and structure-function relationship of hemp seed proteins”.
Tuesday, February 13 – The University of Manitoba speaker series Visionary Conversations hosted by President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. David Barnard resumes with the presentation “Are Black Canadians equitably represented in positions of power and influence?” at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (85 Israel Asper Way). Doors open at 6:30 pm, panel discussion 7-8:30 pm and reception at 8:30 pm. Admission is free but seating is limited. RSVP to rsvp@umanitoba.ca or 204-474-9071. More information at http://umanitoba.ca/visionaryconversations/.
Wednesday, February 14 – The next seminar in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Seminar Series will be held at 3:30 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building. Paul Bullock, Department of Soil Science, will present “Canopy Reflectance for Agricultural Assessment”. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 pm in the Atrium. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Thursday, February 15 – As part of the CCARM Food for Thought lecture series, Dr. Kent HayGlass, Professor of Immunology, University of Manitoba) will be giving a seminar in the Cohen Auditorium (St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre, 351 Tache Avenue, Winnipeg) at 11:00 am entitled “Interventions to Modify Human Health: Vitamin D …. And Pregnancy Too”.
Tuesday, February 20 – A M.Sc. Thesis Defense by Temitola Awosika, M.Sc. Candidate in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences on “Structure-function properties of pea protein-derived peptides with inhibitory activities against gastrointestinal enzymes” at 10:00 am in 207 Human Ecology Building. Faculty, students, staff and general public are welcome to attend.
February 23-24 – The 2018 Prairie Organics Think Whole Farm Conference will be held at the Keystone Centre in Brandon. This year’s conference will highlight producers and researchers discussing livestock, horticulture, grains, pulses and oilseeds. The conference features a 26 000 sq ft tradeshow and business to business meetings, connecting buyers and sellers of organic grains. The conference is FREE TO STUDENTS and volunteering slots are available. For conference agenda and to register: www.prairieorganics.org. Email: info@prairieorganics.org for more information.
Monday, February 26 – As part of the “Applied Skills in Food Preparation” workshop series organized by the Farm and Food Discovery Centre, the second workshop is “Healthy Snacks” with Getty Stewart, PHEc from 4 pm to 6 pm at the Farm and Food Discovery Centre located at the Glenlea Research Station. Fee is $10. For more information or to register, call 204-883-2524 or email ffdc@umanitoba.ca, or visit www.ffdc.ca.
Wednesday, February 28 – As part of the Seniors’ Alumni Learning for Life Program, a session will be presented by Jason Gibbs, Entomology, on the topic “The Diversity of Wild Bees and How To Conserve Them”. To register, visit http://news.umanitoba.ca/alumni/seniors-alumni-program/.
September 30-October 3 – Save the date for the 12th Congress 2018 International Society of Nutrigenetics-Nutrigenomics which will take place in Winnipeg, MB. Check out the website at www.isnn2018.org.
STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS
Michael Eskin, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, will receive the Stephen S. Chang Award from the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS). The Stephen S. Chang Award recognizes scientists or technologists who have made decisive accomplishments in research for the improvement or development of products related to lipids. The aware will be bestowed on Michael at the 2018 AOCS meeting in Minneapolis in May.
Students in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences can now relax and study in style thanks to a recent renovation made possible by Richardson International Limited and the Richardson Foundation. The new investment of $60,000 allowed the Faculty of Agriculture Students’ Organization to update the student lounge and council office located in the historic 105-year-old Agriculture Lecture Block building. A grand opening ceremony was held on January 31 where Jean-Marc Ruest, Richardson International, Brian Archibald, FASO and Karin Wittenberg, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences unveiled the room’s new name – the Richardson Aggie Student Lounge. Read more at http://news.umanitoba.ca/aggie-students-welcome-renovated-space/.
Ryan Cardwell, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, participated in the annual Canadian Agricultural Economics Society policy conference in Ottawa on January 24 and 26.
IN THE NEWS
Kristen Matwychuk and the Farm and Food Discovery Centre were featured in the Manitoba Teachers’ Society magazine the Manitoba Teacher (January/February 2018) in the article “City Meets Country” – read the article at http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/discovery_centre/media/MBT_JanFeb_2018_Pg20-21.pdf.
Rob Duncan and his team in Plant Science were featured in the latest University of Manitoba ResearchLife magazine in the article “Improving Canada’s Most Important Crop” – read online at http://news.umanitoba.ca/improving-canadas-most-important-crop/.
David Lobb, Soil Science, was featured in the article “Erosion lessons learned… and forgotten” “VIDEO: A return to the Dust Bowl days?” on the Manitoba Co-operator site (February 8) – read the article at https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/crops/soil-erosion-lessons-learned-and-forgotten/ and watch the video at https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/crops/video-a-return-to-the-dust-bowl-days/.
Peter Jones, Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, was interviewed by CTV News (February 7)for the story “Research looks to link almonds to a healthy gut” – read the article at https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/research-looks-to-link-almonds-to-a-healthy-gut-1.3794144 and watch the video at https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1321593.
Peter was also interviewed in the article “RCFFN supporting province’s functional food industry” for The Manitoban (January 31) – http://www.themanitoban.com/2018/01/rcffn-supporting-provinces-functional-foodindustry/33558
Research by Ryan Cardwell and Chad Lawley, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was featured in a Business News Network story on January 30. Link to video: https://www.bnn.ca/video/egg-farmers-of-canada-disappointed-with-new-tpp~1315092
Kristen MacMillan, Agronomist-in-Residence, Plant Science, was featured on the cover of the December 2017 issue of Top Crop Manager, “Evaluating the effect of hail damage on soybean maturity, yield and quality” – https://www.topcropmanager.com/soybeans/effect-of-hail-damage-on-soybean-maturity-yield-and-quality-20948.
PUBLICATIONS
Lawley, Chad. 2018. “Ownership Restrictions and Farmland Values: Evidence from the 2003 Saskatchewan Farm Security Act Amendment,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 100(1): 311-337.
Amiro, B.D., M. Tenuta, K. Hanis-Gervais, X. Gao, D. Flaten, and C. Rawluk. 2017. Agronomists’ views on the potential to adopt beneficial greenhouse gas nitrogen management practices through fertilizer management. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 97:801-804.
Trying to understand the properties of soft materials is important in many fields: from preventing concussions in hockey to designing better cellphone screens. Often, internal structure changes within a soft material dictate its performance. This is certainly true in bread dough, a complex multi-phase soft material, where inappropriate changes in its bubble distribution portend a poor loaf of bread. Representing the culmination of a number of years’ research, ultrasound was used with a bubble resonance model to non-invasively predict changes in a dough subsample’s bubble sizes with time. To validate the model, fast X-ray microtomography was performed on subsamples of the same dough on the Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamline at the Canadian Light Source. The landmark results are reported in November’s issue of the Journal of Cereal Science.
Filiz Koksel, Anatoliy Strybulevych, Serdar Aritan, John H. Page & Martin G. Scanlon. 2017. The use of synchrotron X-rays and ultrasonics for investigating the bubble size distribution and its evolution in bread dough. Journal of Cereal Science 78: 10-18.
GENERAL NEWS
The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences welcomes applications for Head, Department of Soil Science. Applications will be accepted until March 16, 2018 or until the position has been filled. For more information visit https://viprecprod.ad.umanitoba.ca/DEFAULT.ASPX?REQ_ID=01304.
The Endowment Fund Committee of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences is once again seeking proposals from students, alumni, and academic and support staff of the Faculty for special projects requiring funding. This year, approximately $249,000 is available to fund a variety of projects, from teaching equipment/projects to student competitions and field trips. The fund has also been allocated for visiting scientists and lecturers, conferences and workshops, and library acquisitions.Please submit an application via email to Heather Wiebe at Heather.Wiebe@umanitoba.ca by NOON Wednesday, February 28, 2018. Complete Endowment Fund details and application form are available online at: http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/endowment/index.html.
Volunteers needed for Almond Study – The University of Manitoba is conducting a study to investigate the effect of almonds on gut health. The study is open to men and women who are aged 18-75 years, with an elevated waist circumference and are non-smokers. Participants will be compensated for their contributions to this study. For more information email almondstudy@umanitoba.ca.
Our fiscal year end of March 31, 2018 is just around the corner. Visit our Year End at the University website (http://umanitoba.ca/admin/financial_services/comptrollers/yearend.htm) to review the Year End Guidelines & Schedule for 2017-18 which includes frequently asked questions, key deadline dates, checklists & your Financial Services contacts to help you through the process.
Glenlea Research Station house for rent – Tenant must be an employee of the University of Manitoba, over the age of 18, with livestock experience. Apply by March 1, 2018. For more details visit https://och.cc.umanitoba.ca/listing/glenlea-mb-glenlea-research-station-house-rental-for-u-of-m-employees/