AG e-news October 15, 2019
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, October 15 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Program Seminar will take place at 3:00 pm in Room 207 Human Ecology Building, with graduate student Chelsey Walchuk presenting a seminar entitled “Alterations in lipid metabolism and dietary fatty acid quality in the pathogenesis of benign prostatic hyperplasia”.
Wednesday, October 16 – The Soil Science Seminar Series will feature Dr. Henry Wilson, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Brandon, at 12:30 pm in Room 346 Ellis Building on the topic “Managing soil phosphorus to prevent loss with runoff”.
Wednesday, October 16 – To celebrate World Food Day at the University of Manitoba, the Food Systems Research Group, in collaboration with the Winnipeg Food Council, is organizing a campus food system transformation workshop from 1 pm to 4:30 pm in St. John’s College Cross Common Room. The event features a keynote address on “Seeding Food Citizenship through Campus Food System Transformation” by Dr. Hannah Wittman, Academic Director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, and Professor in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. There will be a guest presentation by Jeanette Sivilay, Coordinator of the Winnipeg Food Council, on “The Winnipeg Food Council: Exploring Campus-Community Engagement for Food Systems Change”. More details at https://news.umanitoba.ca/do-you-want-food-system-change-on-campus/
Friday, October 18 – Please join us for a special presentation by the Honourable Rob Black, Senator for Ontario on ““Leading Into the Future – Building Innovative Capacity in Leadership” 9:30 am – 10:20 am in E3-270 EITC (Engineering & Information Technology Complex). Senator Black will present a thought-provoking discussion about agricultural leadership, focused on innovation and transformation. There will be an opportunity to engage in a discussion following Senator Black’s presentation.
October 19 and November 2 – Manitoba Rural Women’s Day will be hosted by Manitoba Women’s Institute (MWI) Saturday October 19: Oak Bluff, Manitoba – Oak Bluff Recreation Club and Saturday November 2: Brandon, Manitoba – Sokol Hall. Join them to learn and share on the topic of “Women Showing Courage, Determination, Boldness”. Watch for more details on MWI Facebook and the MWI website – http://www.mbwi.ca.
Tuesday, October 22 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Program Seminar will take place at 3:00 pm in Room 207 Human Ecology Building, with graduate student Luis Cordeo-Monroy presenting a seminar entitled “Exploring the role of Lipotoxicity and its Influence on URI-1 Expression in Promoting Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease”.
Tuesday, October 22 – Join us for the for the 11th Annual Kraft Lecture, which will feature Dr. Michele Veeman, Professor Emerita of Agricultural and Resource Economics in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology of the University of Alberta on the topic “Trade Policy for Agriculture: How Politics is Trumping Economics” at 3:00 pm in the Richardson International Auditorium, Room 172 Agriculture Building. Refreshments available at 2:30 pm. The Daryl F. Kraft Lecture is arranged by the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, with the support of the Solomon Sinclair Farm Management Institute, and in cooperation with the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists. Everyone is welcome.
Thursday, October 24 – An Advanced Plant Science Seminar will be held in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building at 3:30 pm. Dr. Darshani Kumaragamage, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, University of Winnipeg, will present “Flooded Soils: A Potential Source of Phosphorus to Lake Winnipeg?”. All are welcome to attend. Coffee at 3:00 pm in the Atrium.
Saturday, October 26 – Dress up in your Halloween costume and join us at the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre for the Pumpkin Carving Party! Leave the mess to us while you carve up your best pumpkin! We provide pumpkins, carving tools and snacks. Pre-registration required at ffdc [at] umanitoba [dot] ca. Activities between 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, $5.00 + GST per person over 5 years old, $3.50 + GST per child 3-4 years old. For directions, visit www.ffdc.ca.
October 27-29 – The Advancing Women in Agriculture – East conference takes place at Niagara Falls, ON, and is aimed at everyone from the university student studying agriculture, to the producer, from the entrepreneur to the representative of a grower association or corporate agribusiness. For the program and general registration information visit https://www.advancingwomenconference.ca/2019east/.
Tuesday, October 29 – A Department of Entomology Seminar will be presented by Lavanya Ganesan, M. Sc. Student, Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba on “Survival of life stages of three species of flat grain beetles at cold temperatures”. Refreshments at 10:00 am, seminar begins at 10:10 am sharp in 220 Animal Science/Entomology Building. All are welcome.
Tuesday, October 29 – Keystone Agricultural Producers is hosting a Safe and Low Stress Beef Handling workshop at MBFI’s Brookdale Farm north of Brandon. Cost is $35 and includes lunch and coffee. Register at https://www.manitobafarmsafety.ca/training-events.
Thursday, October 31 – An Advanced Plant Science Seminar will be held in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building at 3:30 pm. Dr. Andriy Bilichak, Research Scientist, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Morden Research & Development Centre, will present “Modification of Plant Genomes: From Plant Transgenesis in Model Species to Genome Editing in Crops”. All are welcome to attend. Coffee at 3:00 pm in the Atrium.
Thursday, October 31 – The second seminar in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences 2019-2020 Seminar Series is a joint one with the I.H. Asper School of Business and will be held at 3:30 pm in the Richardson International Auditorium, 172 Agriculture Building. Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. Dalhousie University, will present “Growing Demand for Canadian Plant Protein in an Evolving Global Marketplace”. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 pm.
Friday, November 1 – Save the date! The 24rd Annual Fields on Wheels Conference is themed “Logistics and Valued-added Processing of Field Crops: The Veggie Burger Revolution ”. This one-day conference will take place at the Four Points South Hotel, Winnipeg. Featured keynote speaker is Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University. More details including complete speaker list, and online registration at https://ctrf.ca/?page_id=6198. Early bird registration ($295 plus GST) ends October 8, regular registration $345 plus GST.
Wednesday, November 20 – The third seminar in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Seminar Series will be presented by David Levin, Biosystems Engineering, at 3:30 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Theatre, Rm 130 Agriculture Building. Topic is TBA. Refreshments at 3:00 pm in the atrium.
December 3-5 – Glacier FarmMedia is hosting the Farm Forum Event in Saskatoon, SK. A number of faculty will be speakers including keynotes by Martin Entz, Plant Science, and David Lobb, Soil Science. Visit https://farmforumevent.com/attend/#Schedule to learn more about the agenda.
STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS
Natalie Riediger, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, organized a satellite conference together with Maureen Cooper, co-chair of NECO (Nutrition Education and Community Outreach) in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences. The Critical Dietetics Conference was hosted at Mount Saint Vincent University in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq, October 4-6. The theme of the conference was “Sharing, Learning, Transforming the future: Building Allyship with Indigenous Communities Through Dietetic Education, Practice, and Research”. Approximately 30 students, dietetic interns, and Registered Dietitians attended their satellite event in the Human Ecology Building. They learned about the nutrition experiments conducted in residential schools and how to apply social justice principles in their own work as educators, practitioners, and researchers. Thanks go to the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences for supporting this event.
Trust Beta, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, attended the Grainz2019 meeting held October 7-9 at RedBeard Historic Bakery, Trentham, Victoria, Australia. Discussions focused on heritage and perennial wheats, food sovereignty, grain diversity, conservation of biodiversity and sustainability of food systems.
Jitendra Paliwal, Associate Dean and Biosystems Engineering, presented “From Medical Imaging to Grain Bin Monitoring: How Electromagnetic Imaging Could Help Revolutionize Safety on Your Farm” at the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association’s annual conference in Québec City, October 8-10. Michele Rogalsky, Director of the School of Agriculture, serves on the CASA Board of Directors and also attended.
Neil Holliday, Professor Emeritus in Entomology, gave a lecture “Norman Criddle: Pioneer Naturalist of Manitoba” to the Charleswood Historical Society on October 7.
Several Faculty members presented at the Summit on Canadian Soil Health on October 1-2 held at Oak Hammock Marsh and hosted by the Soil Conservation Council of Canada. On October 1, Soil Science’s Mario Tenuta and David Lobb, and Plant Science’s Martin Entz and Yvonne Lawley as well as instructor Marla Reikman hosted and presented the field tour for the Summit, which made stops at FFDC and TGAS at Glenleas Research Station. Participants also toured the Ian N Morrison Research Farm where research associate Katherine Stanley took participants through the new “Next generation no-till study”. Also, Yvonne discussed cover cropping while Plant Science technician Wilson Fink demonstrated the Blade Roller as an alternative to glyphosate in vegetation management. On October 2, David, Mario and Martin presented “State of Canadian Soil Health in 2019: A Report Card”. Derek Brewin, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, participated in a panel discussion “Demands on soil”, and Marla presented “Information gaps to improving soil health”.
Martin Entz, Plant Science, was invited to present a paper entitled “The Glenlea long-term organic study illuminates the ecosystem health – crop productivity nexus in Canadian Prairie organic production” at the Agroscope conference “Comparing organic and conventional agricultural cropping systems” on October 8 in in Monte Verità, Switzerland. This week-long workshop included scientists from 20 countries focusing on long-term organic crop and soil management research. It also included a field visit to the DOK (Bio-Dynamic, Bio-Organic, Konventionell) trial near Basel, Switzerland.
Entomology’s Alejandro Costamagna, senior scholar Pat MacKay and adjunct professor Bob Lamb attended and presented at International Symposium Ecology of Aphidophaga in Montreal September 16-20.
The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre continues to be a busy place, hosting Manitoba Egg Farmers’ Eggstravaganza event on September 28, which drew 99 people. The Discovery Centre also hosted Global Biotech Week with 178 Grade 8-9 students and teachers attending.
A number of Faculty members attended the Manitoba Protein Summit September 19 including Martin Scanlon, Rotimi Aluko, Jim House, Annemieke Farenhorst, Christine Rawluk and Michael Janzen.
The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals was an exhibitor at the recent CIFST Supplier Expo.
IN THE NEWS
Mario Tenuta and David Lobb, Soil Science, and Martin Entz and Yvonne Lawley, Plant Science, were featured in the article “Soil is complicated… so are people” in the Manitoba Co-operator (October 11) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/farm-it-manitoba/soil-is-complicated-so-are-people/.
Jason Gibbs, Entomology, was quoted in the article “What’s the Difference Between a Hornet and a Wasp?” on the website HowStuffWorks (October 8) – https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/hornet.htm.
Kateryn Rochon, Entomology, was on Radio-Canada (Oct 7) for a nationally broadcast show titled “Moteur de recherche” (Search Engine) to answer the question: why can’t we get rid of head lice and bed bugs? – https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/moteur-de-recherche/segments/entrevue/137046/poux-societe-tete-parasites-bestioles-enfants-parents-traitement.
Doug Cattani, Plant Science, was featured in the article “Intermediate wheatgrass as a dual-use crop” in Top Crop Manager (October 2019) – see page 5 at http://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=618010.
Belay Ayele, Plant Science, was quoted in the article “Rise up, rise up” in Top Crop Manager (October 2019) – see page 34 at http://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=618010.
Joyce Slater, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, was featured in the article “Alumni name their fav UM profs” on UMToday (October 4) – https://news.umanitoba.ca/alumni-name-their-fav-um-profs/.
Nazim Cicek, Biosystems Engineering, wrote the CBC.ca (September 29) op-ed titled “Missing the forest for the trees: In climate change fight, simplest solutions might be the most obvious” – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/opinion-climate-change-trees-1.5301474
Harley Siemens (DipAgric/16) was featured in the Manitoba Co-operator (October 1) in the article “Young egg farmer an ambassador for agriculture” – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/livestock/young-egg-farmer-an-ambassador-for-ag/.
Don Flaten, Soil Science, was interviewed for the article “Getting phosphorus out of Lake Winnipeg and onto fields” in the Manitoba Co-operator (September 30) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/getting-phosphorus-out-of-lake-winnipeg-and-onto-fields/
Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, was quoted in the article “Soybean cyst nematode confirmation presents challenge for producers” in the Manitoba Co-operator (September 27) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/soybean-cyst-nematode-confirmation-presents-challenge-for-producers/.
PUBLICATIONS
Zhao, R., Khafipour, E., Sepehri, S., Huang, F., Beta, T., and Shen, G.X. (2019) The potential anti-diabetic effects of Saskatoon berry on experimental mouse models. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry 69: 130-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2019.03.023
GENERAL NEWS
The Department of Animal Science is hiring an Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) Physiology and Welfare. Position close date is October 17, 2019. Learn more at https://viprecprod.ad.umanitoba.ca/DEFAULT.ASPX?REQ_ID=08793
The 2019 Annual Undergraduate Student Research Poster Competition will take place Thursday, October 24. It’s a great opportunity for members of the university community and the general public to see the relevance, value, and outstanding caliber of research being conducted by young researchers at the University of Manitoba. Please encourage undergraduate students to participate in this event. Students may wish to present the results of an undergraduate honours thesis completed in the previous academic year; present the results of a summer 2019 research project; or present an original research/scholarly/creative works project that was completed in an undergraduate course. See http://umanitoba.ca/postercompetition/ for further details.
The University of Manitoba Curling Club, a mixed recreational league, (not to be confused with Aggie Row Curling) has some openings for regular weekly curlers as well as spares. University faculty, staff and their spouses/partners are invited to join the league. Curling takes place on Saturday mornings from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Deer Lodge Curling Club. Novice, as well as experienced, curlers are welcome. Individuals will be placed on teams based on their experience and desired curling position. Curling begins middle of October and runs until the end of March. The cost for the 20 game season is $175. The only equipment needed to play is a curling broom and curling shoes or clean runners with a slider. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Marie Speare by phone at 204-474-7063 or by email at Marie [dot] Speare [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.