AG e-news April 24, 2017
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Manitoba.
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 24-26 – The Agricultural Institute of Canada will be holding its 2017 conference in Winnipeg. The theme is “Agricultural Innovation in a Changing Environment”. The conference will foster important discussions among policy makers, industry stakeholders, entrepreneurs and the research community about agriculture’s impact on the environment in a changing climate. AIC 2017 will also showcase world-class innovative research taking place across Canada and explore how green growth in the sector can build on a strong scientific, evidence-based foundation. Presenters include Dean Karin Wittenberg, Mario Tenuta and Dilantha Fernando. Visit http://www.aic.ca/conferences-and-events/aic2017/ to stay up to date.
Thursday, April 27 – An Advanced Plant Science Seminar will be held in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building at 3:30 pm. Teresa Chernecki, Data Scientist, Manitoba Consumer Monitor (MCM) Food Panel, , will be presenting “Food Data Analytics: Finding Meaning in Fields (or Pastures) of Information”. All are welcome to attend. Coffee at 3:00 pm in the Atrium.
Friday, May 5 – MCWESTT 2017, a local, one-day conference dedicated to connecting women in engineering, science, trades, and technology, and empowering them to Create, Foster, and Lead. Master of Ceremonies for the day will be Winnipeg based comedian Dana Smith, and keynote speakers include Susan Auch, Shari Graydon and Sarah Neville. There are a number of subsidized student registrations. Learn more and register at http://www.mcwestt.com/. For the first time ever, MCWESTT 2017 is offering a full day pre-conference workshop on Thursday, May 4. The WinSETT Effective Communication workshop will be facilitated by Edna Dach with guest speakers Trish Jordan and Dawn Nedohin-Macek. Thanks to the generous partnership of the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering – Prairies, this workshop is available at a significantly discounted rate of only $75, exclusively for our conference participants. Be sure to register early as the workshop is limited to only 30 participants. http://hollettandsons.ca/winsett-leadership-program/.
Friday, May 5 – The 2017 Diploma Convocation will be held at 3:30 pm in the Investors Group Athletic Centre. All are welcome to attend!
Tuesday, May 9 – The Metis Earth-to-Table Workshop Series will feature Monica Cyr, M.Sc. student in Human Nutritional Sciences, for this session on “Metis Traditional Foods and Culinary Knowledge”. The workshop will take place 6 pm – 8 pm in Elsie Bear’s Kitchen (basement level) at the MMF Home Office, 150 Henry Avenue. Monica will be sharing food preparation and consumption practices of Metis people in southern Manitoba. To register dall Brielle Beaudin-Reimer at (204) 586-8474 (ext. 399).
May 10-11 – A National Microbiome Workshop on “Statistical Challenges and Opportunities for the Analysis of Microbiome Data” will take place in Winnipeg at the Apotex Building, 750 McDermot Ave, University of Manitoba. Co-organized by Ehsan Khafipour, Animal Science, the event will feature a number of national and international speakers who are leading the research in this field. The workshop is free of charge to accommodate attendance of researchers and highly qualified personnel but there is a registration deadline of May 1. For more information please visit http://chimb.ca/events/DSworkshop2017.
May 13 – Science Rendezvous 2017, a nation-wide science open house, will once again be held at the University of Manitoba campus. Bring your family down and check out the Faculty booth in the Engineering Atrium between 11 am and 4 pm. There are also lots of other exhibits planned, from the Chemistry Magic Show to a robotic painting snake to a science photo booth. Get your geek on and come visit! See the complete list of activities at http://www.sci.umanitoba.ca/?page_id=916.
May 16 – Science on Tap – As part of Science Odyssey Week, scientists and beer enthusiasts will meet at the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre – Malt Academy for this adults-only night of experiments and merriment. Guest speakers include Michel Aliani, Human Nutritional Sciences. Tickets $60. Limited spots available. For details, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1413635295323977/
June 3-4 – The 3rd Annual Northern Great Plains Lipids Conference will be held at St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Four Thematic Sessions with speakers Marie-Claude Vohl (Laval University): Nutrigenomics/Nutrigenetics; Brent Hulke (USDA-ARS): Plant Lipids; William Harris (University of South Dakota): Lipids and Clinical Outcomes; and Douglas Mashek (University of Minnesota): Lipids Signaling. The event will feature Lipids School on Lipid Metabolomics, poster/oral opportunities for trainees, and the opportunity to publish in a special issue of Lipids. For more info and to register visit https://ngplc.blog.
September 25-28 – The Agricultural Bioscience International Conference is coming to Winnipeg! Themed “Solutions Start Here”, ABIC 2017 is the premier global meeting which promotes innovation in bioscience to ensure sustainable food, feed, fibre and fuel security as the climate changes. Delegates from around the world will gather to promote the application of agricultural biotechnology. Program and keynotes can be explored at the conference webiste. Register today at http://www.abic.ca/abic2017.html.
STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS
A research project led by Kim Ominski, Animal Science, has received $1.9 million to study strategies for reducing greenhouse gases on Canadian cattle farms. At the news conference held Friday, project co-leader Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, shared details of the project. Read more at http://news.umanitoba.ca/research-supports-on-farm-adoption-of-clean-technologies-and-practices/.
Olean Kloss, Ph.D. student with Miyoung Suh in Human Nutritional Sciences, received a prestigious Manitoba Training Program for Health Services Research Fellowship valued at $22,500.
Clement Adomah, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, defended his M.Sc. comprehensive paper entitled “An Empirical Investigation into the Effects of the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement on Countries’ Protection of Intellectual Property Rights” on April 11.
IN THE NEWS
Ryan Cardwell , Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was interviewed by four CBC stations (Nova Scotia, Victoria, Winnipeg, and Whitehorse) on April 19 regarding Donald Trump’s recent comments about Canada’s supply-managed (dairy and poultry) industries.
Research on supply management by Ryan and Chad Lawley was featured in a Global National television news story April 19 – http://globalnews.ca/video/3390369/pros-cons-of-canadas-supply-management-system/ and was referenced in the April 20 Maclean’s magazine article “Now is our chance to scrap the milk tax once and for all” – http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/now-is-our-chance-to-scrap-the-milk-tax-once-and-for-all/
Don Flaten, Soil Science, was featured in the article “Urban foodies sniff and learn at manure demo” in the Western Producer (April 20) – http://www.producer.com/2017/04/urban-foodies-sniff-and-learn-at-manure-demo/
Rob Currie, Entomology, was quoted in the article “Bee population decline sees beekeeper boom” in the Western Producer (April 20) – http://www.producer.com/2017/04/bee-population-decline-sees-beekeeper-boom/
Alejandro Costamagna, Entomology, was interviewed for the article “Give your insect friends a home” in Country Guide (April 18) – see page 54 at https://static.agcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CGW170418.pdf#_ga=1.257809675.1630552202.1460561045.
Dylan MacKay, Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, wrote an opinion article for the Vancouver Sun (April 15) on “Three nutrition trends to stay away from — based on best evidence” – http://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/opinion-three-nutrition-trends-to-stay-away-from-based-on-best-evidence
Devin Pouteau, School of Agriculture, was quoted in the article “Safely extricate a stuck machine” in Grainews (April 11). This was the third article on the tractor safety day held by School staff at Glenlea Research Station in January – https://www.grainews.ca/2017/04/11/safely-extricate-a-stuck-machine-2/
Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, was interviewed in the article “Tillage is tempting, but treacherous” in Grainews (April 11) – https://www.grainews.ca/2017/04/20/tillage-is-tempting-but-treacherous/
Rob Gulden, Plant Science, is qutoed in the article “Palmer amaranth continues spread north” in Grainews (April 11) – https://www.grainews.ca/2017/04/17/palmer-amaranth-continues-to-spread-north/
Getahun Legesse, Animal Science, was quoted in the Canadian Cattlemen (April 2017) article entitled “Water Fight” – http://www.beefresearch.ca/blog/water-fight/
PUBLICATIONS
Legesse G., Ominski K. H., Beauchemin K. A., Pfister S., Martel M., McGeough E. J., Hoekstra A. Y., Kroebel R., Cordeiro M. R. C. and McAllister T. A. 2017. Board-Invited Review: Quantifying water use in ruminant production. Journal of Animal Science. (https://dx.doi.org/10.2527/jas.2017.1439).
Sun YH, Xie LH, Zhuo X, Chen Q, Dalia Ghoneim D, Zhang B, Jagne J, YANG C, Li XZ. Domestic chickens activate a piRNA defense against avian leukosis virus. eLife, 2017, 6:e24695.
Lackeyram D, YoungD, Kim CJ, YANG C, Archbold TL, Mine Y and Fan MZ. Interleukin-10 is differentially expressed in the small intestine and the colon experiencing chronic inflammation and ulcerative colitis induced by dextran sodium sulfate in young pigs. Physiological Research, 2017, 66: 147-162.
GENERAL NEWS
Support Staff Recognition! There’s still time to get a nomination in for the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Support Staff Awards. The deadline is May 1 – details and nomination form is at http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/staff/supportstaffawards.html.
Becoming a Young Farmer Research Project – Researchers at the University of Manitoba are doing research in Canada, China, India and Indonesia to understand why and how young people opt for a livelihood in farming, the challenges they face, and the support available to them. Share your experiences with them by contacting Meghan at entzm3 [at] myumanitoba [dot] ca or call (204) 918-7675. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1666770770284873/
Changes to the travel and expense procedures took effect on April 11, 2017. The revised procedures are now posted on the policy and procedure website – http://umanitoba.ca/admin/governance/governing_documents/financial/travel_and_business_expense_claims.html.
The ICAN-WISE Scholarship is a scholarship aimed at facilitating women mentee-mentor academic research collaborations in natural sciences and engineering fields. Six scholarships valued at $6,000 each are available in 2017 (two for Manitoba). The funding is the student’s stipend while working with their mentor on a research project in the summer of 2017. For info, see: http://cwse-prairies.ca/pages/cwse_scholarships/scholarship_applications.php. Application Deadline: April 24, 2017.
Manitoba Open Farm Day – agriculture organizations and farms wishing to register for Manitoba Open Farm Day on Sunday September 17, 2017 may go to www.openfarmday.ca and click on Register Your Farm – Scroll down and click on “register your farm HERE.” The deadline for farms to register is April 28, 2017