Topic:  ”The Challenges of Sustaining Food Production in the 21st Century”

Ralph Martin grew up on a beef and hog farm in Wallenstein, ON. He learned what is essential about agriculture from his grandfather, before he died when Ralph was seven. After 4-H, his formal education includes a B.A. and an M.Sc. in Biology from Carleton University and a Ph.D. in Plant Science from McGill University.  His love of teaching grew unexpectedly when he began teaching at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, in 1990, and realized how students teach him too. In 2001, he founded the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada to coordinate
university research and education pertaining to organic systems, across Canada. In 2011, he was appointed as Professor and the Loblaw Chair in Sustainable Food Production at OAC, University of Guelph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Associate Professor – Landscape Architecture

School of Environmental Design and Rural Development

klandman@uoguelph.ca

Dr. Evan Fraser

 

Topic: “Addressing The Global Food Crisis: Learning From the Past to Prevent a Catastrophe in the Future”

 

Dr. Fraser has a specializations in food security under economic globalization and climate change; land use change;  integrated socio-economic / crop / climate modelling ; farmer behaviour.

His research interests involve investigating how over the next two generations, the globe faces an enormous human security challenge.  We must adapt to rapid economic and climate change by creating a food system that provides adequate and appropriate nutrition for 9 billion people in a way that does not compromise vital ecosystem services including biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration.  Within the broad area of “global food security in the 21st century,” I have spent my professional life developing an externally funded multi-disciplinary research programme on the links between food security, landuse, and global environmental/economic change.

He finds five distinct strands to my work.

• What can we learn from past food security crises in order to understand where we might be vulnerable today?
• What are the socio-economic forces that shape our food-producing landscapes today?
• What are the implications of different types of landscapes for both food security and other ecosystem services?
• What regions of the world are likely to be vulnerable in terms of food insecurity in the 21st century?
• Raising public debases about envrionmental change, food and sustainability

 

John Dunsmore

 

Topic: “Environmental Stewardship – an Ontario Cattleman’s point of view”

I have been a beef farmer for 48 years, spending the winters working in
our woodlots selling firewood and lots.  I also held a farmers trapping
license for a number of years.  I have been a volunteer weather observer
with Environment Canada for 38 years.

 

Dr. Mike Dixon

 

Topic: “Space Exploration and Technology Transfer to Canadian Agriculture”

Dr. Mike Dixon is a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences and Director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) and program, University of Guelph. He served as Chair of the Department of Environmental Biology from 2003-2008.  Dr. Dixon joined the University in 1985 as a NSERC University Research Fellow after earning his PhD from Edinburgh University in Scotland and holding a post-doctoral position at the University of Toronto. As project leader for the Canadian research team investigating the contributions of plants to life support in space, Dr. Dixon formed the Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture (SALSA) program at the University of Guelph.  This program currently represents Canada’s prime contribution to the international space science objectives in life support and the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) currently leads the world in technology developments and research dedicated to studying plant and microbial interactions in advanced life support systems. Dr. Dixon is also the project leader for the research team at Guelph investigating the biofiltration of indoor air as a method of alleviating what is commonly known as “sick building syndrome”.

Dr. Youbin Zheng

Topic: “Green Roof: Benefits and Research at the University of Guelph”

 

Dr. Zheng is the principle investigator (PI) and team leader of the Guelph Green Roof Research Program. He has more than 20 years experience in horticulture research, specifically in green roof technology, greenhouse and nursery plant production, and urban agriculture. Dr. Zheng’s research interests include soil science, growing substrates, irrigation technologies, irrigation water treatment, plant nutrition and fertilization, supplemental lighting, plant physiology, and plant-environment interactions.

For more information about Dr. Zheng’s research, please click:http://www.ces.uoguelph.ca/team-youbin.shtml

Chris Wong

 

Topic: “Introduction to Urban Farming: What is it? Why Practice it? How and where can I get started? What organizations are already doing urban agriculture? Urban Farming 101″

 

Chris Wong noticed a gap in Toronto’s landscaping businesses, specifically that food crops were excluded from gardening services. Out of this need, he started Young Urban Farmers, a service that sets-up vegetable gardens. After a year of positive feedback, he took urban food production one step further. The goal for Young Urban Farmers CSA, a registered non-profit, is to grow food secure communities through a backyard CSA program, informative weekly newsletters, and educational workshops. He is also a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council and the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, both of which work to shape policy around food issues in Toronto.

 Topic: ”Honey Bee Research, Teaching and Extension at the University of Guelph”

Paul Kelly

The University of Guelph,

Honey Bee Research Centre, Manager

 

Paul has managed the University of Guelph, Honey Bee Research Centre for the past twenty four years. His primary role at the centre is to maintain three hundred honeybee colonies for research and teaching purposes. He provides training for students and beekeepers, conducts facility tours for the general public and generally won’t stop talking about bees.

His beekeeping career started with a grade six science project and led him to work with bees in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Zealand before settling down in his home province of Ontario.

 

Dr. Ernesto Guzman

Dr. Ernesto Guzman is a Professor and Leader of the Honey Bee Research Centre in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph since 2004.  Dr. Guzman was born and raised in Mexico, where he started to keep bees in 1978.  He got a DVM degree in 1982 and obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Entomology from the University of California at Davis in 1989 and 1992, respectively.  Before accepting a position at the University of Guelph, he had worked for several institutions, including the University of California, Purdue University, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, and the National University of Mexico.  In 1994 he was appointed director of the National Apicultural Research Program for the Mexican Department of Agriculture.  Dr. Guzman has ample academic and research experience.  He has taught courses in Apiculture and Genetics and has conducted multiple research projects.  During the course of his career he has graduated more than 30 D.V.M., M.Sc. and Ph.D. students.  His research has been focused on the genetics, behaviour, and parasitic mites of honey bees.  His studies have contributed to the understanding of foraging behavior, defensive behavior, and the mechanisms that confer resistance to honey bees against parasitic mites, which is a critical area that addresses the most serious problem beekeepers face worldwide.  Dr. Guzman also developed selective breeding methodologies with which three strains of bees were developed.  These bees produce 25% more honey and are 50% less defensive than unselected strains of bees.  Ernesto Guzman is author and co-author of more than 200 publications, including scientific and trade journal articles, as well as books, book chapters and summaries in conference proceedings.  Dr. Guzman has received numerous honors and awards.

 

 

Christie Young

Topic: (Tentative) “How a new generation of ecological farmers will lead a resilient delicious future for agriculture” 

Christie is the Founder and Executive Director of FarmStart. She has extensive experience in program initiation and development, fund raising and coalition building. She also has experience and wide networks in both agriculture and the community food security sector. Christie has worked with farmers and farm leaders on and off farms in several countries. She worked for several years with FoodShare in Toronto, organizing the Field to Table Festival.  She was a founding Board member of Local Food Plus.

Christie continues to be inspired by all the passionate, hard working and dedicated new farmers who are making delicious change in their lives and our communities. And she is thrilled that FarmStart can be part of building a healthy sustainable agriculture for future generations.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Claudia Wagner-Riddle

 

Topic: ”The Carbon Footprint of Producing Food”.  

Claudia Wagner-Riddle is a Professor in Agricultural Meteorology at the School of Environmental Science, University of Guelph.  She obtained her B.Sc. (Agr.) and M.Sc. in Agrometeorology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and her Ph.D. in Agrometeorology from the University of Guelph in 1992.

Her research is in the area of quantification of trace gases (mostly greenhouse gases, GHG) from agricultural soils and animal manure, with emphasis on identification of management practices that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore decrease the environmental impact of agricultural activities.  Her research group has investigated long-term soil nitrous oxide emissions as affected by soil freeze/thaw, GHG emissions from manure storage and composting processes including in-vessel and curing phases, and nitrous oxide emissions following land application of animal manure.

Dr. Wagner-Riddle has extensive experience in the derivation of GHG emission factors and application of these in GHG inventories. She has contributed to the methodology used by Environment Canada and IPCC for green house gas emissions from animal manure. She is a member of Canada’s ‘Technical Committee GHG Inventory: Agriculture – Livestock’ that has been formed to address mehodology issues in the calculation of GHG emissions factors from the livestock sector.

 

 

Dr. Andrew M Gordon

 

 

Biography:  Andrew M. Gordon received his B.Sc.F. (Forest Environment) from the University of New Brunswick in1978 and a Ph.D. (Forest Soils/Ecology) from the University of Alaska in 1985.  Since 1984, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Biology (newly reformed as the School of Environmental Sciences), University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, where he currently holds the rank of full professor, and is Director of the Agroforestry Research and Development Program.  His research interests lie in the investigation of ecosystem-level processes in both agricultural and temperate/boreal forest systems.  He has spent considerable time developing and promoting agroforestry systems in temperate regions for their ameliorative and restorative properties.  He has also been involved in a number of rehabilitation initiatives, both locally and globally (e.g. Nepal, Ghana, Argentina, Bolivia, etc.) including the use of both intercropping and riparian systems to reduce nutrient loadings to streams and other water systems.  Dr. Gordon has a strong appreciation for the utilization of trees, forests and vegetation within the context of landscape level restoration of ecological processes.  He is a licensed professional forester in the province of Ontario and a member of numerous professional organizations.  He has also served as the Canadian representative to the International Energy Association (Short Rotation Biomass Fuels), is a former Theme Director of CRESTech’s (an Ontario Centre of Excellence) Controlled Environments Research program, currently in collaboration with NASA to develop biological plant systems for extended space missions, and a former co-director of C.A.A.R.N. (the Canadian Afforestation and Agroforestry Research Network), at one-time, an emerging BIOCAP network.   Dr. Gordon is the author and co-author of over 100 research publications in both refereed and non-refereed journals, book chapters, technical communications, etc.  He has advised over 50 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, and is particularly proud of the fact that 8 (6 female) of his former graduate students hold professorial appointments at North American universities.  He has served on numerous University of Guelph academic and administrative committees, and in 1997, won the ‘Best of the Web’ award for the best distance education course in North America.  Dr. Gordon has considerable international experience in research, development and curriculum development in many countries and currently directs a long-term CIDA Tier 1 project in Ghana entitled:  “Agroforestry practices to enhance resource-poor livelihoods in Ghana”.

 

 

Dan Carlow

 

 OMAFRA Environmental Specialist

Manager, Innovation, Engineering and Program Delivery – West