Photo: Cepagro
February 23, 2023
Developed at the CSFS, in collaboration with farmers and cluster members, LiteFarm is a free and open source web application aimed at managing diversified agricultural systems.
Since 2020, the platform has also been used by the Cepagro team and seven other organizations that promote Agroecology in Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico.
February 15, 2023
CSFS Associate Tara Ivanochko, Professor of Teaching in Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences was interviewed about salmon hatcheries.
“They’re a Band-Aid sort of targeted intervention when a stock is really depleted,” said Ivanochko. “But they shouldn’t be seen as the way that we proceed in the long term where we’re providing these hatched fish that will then go in and intermingle with the wild stocks.”
Illustration by DAQ, via UBC Magazine
February 15, 2023
The University of British Columbia magazine interviewed CSFS Associate Dr. Hannah Wittman on her research on food sovereignty, CSFS and UBC Farm research, and her roots in farming.
“We’re trying to take an integrated approach so that students are trained holistically in what it takes to support a sustainable food system. It’s not just about the latest technology, it’s not just about the way to grow food, it’s not just about a more efficient distribution system – you have to take all of those things together, and you have to teach it to the next generation.” says Wittman.
Diversified, small-scale and organic farming has the potential to support biodiversity on farmlands and increase farmer livelihoods.
But transitioning to these systems can be challenging, especially for the small-scale growers who could have the most to gain from the transition. So how can growers overcome obstacles like organic certification, food safety regulations and supply chain barriers that often hold them back?
Join us on March 23, for a virtual panel discussion and Q&A where our expert panelists will share firsthand experiences of the challenges farmers face. Learn more about the ecological and socioeconomic benefits of diversified agricultural systems and explore how policies and direct actions can make the transition to these systems easier.
This webinar was convened by Jenna Melanson, a PhD Candidate in UBC’s Working to Restore Connectivity and Sustainability Lab.
Lydia Ryall – Cropthorne Farm
Lydia Ryall is the owner of Cropthorne Farm, a 24 acre Certified Organic vegetable farm on the Fraser Delta. Lydia obtained her BSc in Agriculture out on the prairies and returned to her hometown in 2009 to start her own farm. She is also a mum of 2, partner to a wildlife biologist and has just taken up curling!
Kenzo Esquivel – UC Berkeley
Kenzo Esquivel (he/him) is a 4th year PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. He works in the Berkeley Agroecology Lab investigating the policy, supply chain, and economic constraints facing the adoption of diversified farming practices, and the impact that these practices have on soil health and function. He obtained his MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan, and BS in Environmental and Geophysical Science from the University of Chicago.
Kevin Cussen – LiteFarm
Kevin Cussen (he/him) has held an odd collection of roles throughout his career, from Peace Corps volunteer, to software engineer, to founder and CEO of a West African biogas-as-a-service company. For the last eight years, he’s worked in various product management roles at a mix of private, public, and nonprofit entities, including leading roles on two open source projects – OpenLMIS and LiteFarm. Kevin has an MBA from the University of Washington and a Bachelors in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas. In his spare time, Kevin likes spending time with his family, reading about history and economic theory, and long distance backpacking trips.
Kevin Norris – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Kevin Norris was the acting Director of the Environment Policy team within the Strategic Policy Branch at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) between 2019-2022. Since then, he has been the acting Director of the Resilient Agriculture Policy Division also within AAFC. During this time, his teams have advanced several agri-environmental policies related to natural climate solutions, agricultural clean technologies, water, biodiversity, adaptation and increasing on-farm adoption of beneficial management practices, including as part of Canada’s strengthened climate plan and the new Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Carly McGregor (Moderator) – UBC Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution (PIEE) Lab
Carly McGregor is a lab manager in the Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution (PIEE) lab at UBC, where she collaborates on projects investigating how farmland diversification practices can improve the sustainability of crop production through biodiversity conservation. Carly is a recent MSc graduate from the Working to Restore Connectivity and Sustainability (WoRCS) research lab at UBC. During her MSc, Carly assessed agricultural restoration projects, such as hedgerows and grassland set-asides, for their potential to support pollinators on farms in the Lower Mainland of BC.
The Food at the Tipping Point: Ways Forward from a Food System in Crisis series is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada. This 10-part speaker series addresses the urgent need for widespread, dramatic change and provides us inspiration and real solutions.
In this role, I have been lucky to have had a flavorful taste of different tasks throughout the seasons. In the fall, I spent time harvesting perennial herbs for Saturday markets, helping out with farm harvests and harvesting seed from crops. As well, throughout the fall I harvested many apple varieties. In late fall and early winter, I transitioned more of my work to processing harvested seed, which consisted of threshing, winnowing and sieving to clean the seed thoroughly.
In this position, I have learned how to work creatively with available tools to complete a necessary step in processing seed. I have developed a seasonal way of thinking about seed crops and the factors at play throughout different stages of the plants life that can influence their viability and optimality. I have also learnt the vastness of working with seed crops and how their development, ripening, shape, weight and texture of seeds can impact the way they are collected and cleaned.
This work is important because it is contributing to the self-sustainability of the UBC Farm by saving seed that has been grown on site so that it can be replanted next season. As well, this work contributes to the distribution of locally and organically-grown seed to the public in ways that they can engage with the UBC Farm, where their future plants came from.
It is okay not to have immediate answers on how to complete a certain task most efficiently. The UBC Farm is a place of learning always and it is okay to feel fresh and inexperienced in a certain type of work.
It is a space where team work is valued beautifully. Everyone that works on the farm is in constant communication with each other and always ready to drop their tools to go and help a fellow farmer with another task.
Scavenge the fields, greenhouses and hedgerows for rogue veg, cool beans or over-ripened black berries. Also, taste testing apple crops to make sure they are ready to harvest!
As a student in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, I have had several classes that have made visits to the farm as well as labs that have been hosted at the farm. In the past, I have also helped plant and harvest crops at the xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden, a beautiful and welcoming space.
I was a Saturday Farmers’ Market Worker! During the fall and summer, I worked with the sales team on Wednesdays to restock produce at the bookstore stand, the Field team to harvest veggies on Fridays, and helped facilitate the multivendor market on Saturdays. Some of my duties on Saturday involved setting up tents and tables, running the info booth, and doing a sign run into Westbrook. In the off season, I analyzed data from the previous year’s markets and compiled it into charts and infographics.
Through this position I learned so much! During the weeks, I had the opportunity to work with the staff that keep different facets of the farm running. On Wednesdays, I gained a broad understanding of the many varieties of produce we offered in addition to marketing and communication skills. Fridays allowed me to interact with the field team and observe how to efficiently operate a working farm. Saturdays taught me interpersonal skills as I fostered connections with vendors to better understand their positions in the food system. Lifting tents, tables, and crates of veggies every week I also became physically much stronger.
Saturday Market Workers serve as the link between the public, vendors, and farm staff. We work closely with all three, making connections and learning about the struggles each group faces. This allows the UBC farm to operate as a strong community, supporting new vendors by sharing knowledge, and improving sustainable small scale food systems for everyone.
Don’t be afraid to try new things and meet new people! Everyone on the farm is super knowledgeable and friendly. The best way to learn things is to chat with one of our amazing farm staff or practicum students! If there’s something you wanted to try or learn, just ask, even if it doesn’t relate to your position.
How much goes on in such a small space! Not only are we a working farm with market, wholesale, and CSA programs, but there are also many research, educational, and community programs operating out of the unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territory the farm occupies. The practicum program, children’s program, and Mayan garden are only a few of many!
My favourite thing to do is participate in the Friday harvests! I love getting my hands dirty and helping the field staff harvest the produce of the week. While harvesting it is always great to chat(and laugh) with the staff and practicum students. Rain or shine, its amazing to come home at the end of the day feeling tired after a good days work. If you’re lucky, you might even get to start the morning with a team stretch led by field leads!
This was my first time helping out at the farm, but I will be sure to be back again!
It has become clear that the conventional way of producing food has a huge toll on the environment. We can see examples around the world of the environmental degradation from conventional food production, whose practices prioritize minimal costs, uniformity and the biggest and fastest growing crops. Soils are becoming depleted of their nutrients, water is being polluted and drained from storage basins faster than it can replenish, whole ecosystems are being bulldozed to make room for monocultures, biodiversity is rapidly declining and food systems are becoming less and less resilient to disease and extreme weather.
So what can we do about it? Our panelists are seeking to identify strategies that evolve beyond our current food production, integrating more sustainable practices for the long-term health of both our food and environment. Join us as we explore what is possible and increasingly necessary for the health and survival of humans and our planet.
This webinar will feature a panel discussion followed by a 30-minute Q&A session. Registration is free. This webinar was convened by Sylvia Nyamaizi who is currently pursuing a PhD in Soil Science at UBC.
Isaac Newton Alou serves as a lecturer at Makerere University’s School of Agricultural Sciences in Uganda. Newton is a scholar in soil science with a bias in crop modelling. During his Ph.D. in soil science, he worked with a global team of modellers to guide future research on coping with climate change in African agriculture. Newton aspires to advance improvements in agricultural production and environmental quality through innovative technologies in water management and plant nutrition. He has a keen interest in developing adaptive tools to aid decisions of the average African farmer.
DeLisa Lewis – UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems
DeLisa Lewis is co-owner and operator of a diverse 40-acre farm in the Cowichan Valley, and part-time teaching and research faculty member in UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems. She has 25 years of experience as a certified vegetables organic farmer and 16 years of experience with soil health focused on farm research and field trials. DeLisa holds a PhD in Soils and Agroecology and collaborates with Dr. Sean Smukler and the Sustainable Agriculture Landscapes Lab at UBC to better understand soil health management practices in their regional contexts.
Morgan Hamilton – UBC – SoilRes3 Lab
Morgan Hamilton is a Masters student in the SoilRes3 lab at UBC exploring the role that biochar can potentially play in strengthening local agricultural landscapes in the face of climate change. Her research examines the effect of low biochar application rates on water and nutrient dynamics in coarse-textured soils. Morgan’s research interests are largely focused on equitable, reasonable, and responsible adaptation solutions to address climate change impacts in the food system. Morgan graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BSc in Global Resource Systems and a focus on Food Systems in North America.
Sylvia Nyamaizi (Moderator) – Ph.D. Candidate at the University of British Columbia
Sylvia Nyamaizi became interested in agricultural sciences while attending her internship training in organic agriculture with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU University Vienna, Austria in 2012. Her passion towards soil fertility management led her to pursue a B.Sc in Land Management with a major in Soil Science and M.Sc in Soil Science at Makerere University, Uganda. Currently, Sylvia is pursuing a Ph.D. in Soil Science at the University of British Columbia in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at the Agassiz Research and Development Centre (ARDC) under the supervision of Dr. Sean Smukler and Dr. Aimé J. Messiga.
The Food at the Tipping Point: Ways Forward from a Food System in Crisis series is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada. This 10-part speaker series addresses the urgent need for widespread, dramatic change and provides us inspiration and real solutions.
Lettuce in a bag, plastic wrapped mushrooms, yogurt containers, berries in plastic clamshells. Food production is tied to the use and disposal of single-use plastics, but could biomaterials be a sustainable alternative? How do we, as consumers, discern what is truly compostable from what could end up polluting our soils?
On Thursday, February 23 join experts Love-Ese Chile, the Owner and Managing Director at Regenerative Waste Labs, and Amanda Johnson, the UBC researcher behind Grasstic as they take a deep dive into the innovations and challenges around biomaterials — and the role that they might play in revolutionizing our food system.
This webinar will feature a speaker discussion followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. Registration is free.
Love-Ese Chile – Regenerative Waste Labs
Dr. Love-Ese Chile is Owner and Managing Director of the circular economy research consulting firm, Regenerative Waste Labs. She is a sustainable material researcher with eight years of experience developing circular bioeconomy-based solutions that recover value-added products from organic waste. In her work, Love-Ese advises businesses on circular product design, closed loop recovery strategies and how to communicate the value of circular products. She leads a technical team of researchers who develop novel waste management and circular recovery technologies.
Amanda Johnson – UBC Wood Science
Amanda Johnson is a nature-loving materials scientist working to create a plastic alternative from agricultural waste. She calls the product she developed, “Grasstic” – a biomaterial made from the residual stalks of grass crops like corn or wheat. Johnson spent many hours in the field as a soybean breeder before coming to the UBC Faculty of Forestry to do her PhD. She is a UBC Sustainability Scholar, a Public Scholar, and winner of the UBC Bioproducts Institute’s Rising Star Award. She hosted a show about food, farming, and sustainability on Vancouver Co-op Radio. When not in the lab, she enjoys adventuring with her partner and two young kids.
Anubhav Pratap-Singh (Moderator) – UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Dr. Pratap-Singh holds the BC Ministry of Agriculture Foods and Fisheries Endowed Professorship in Food and Beverage Innovation at the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, UBC Vancouver. With more than 100 publications in peer reviewed journals, Dr. Pratap-Singh is well known for cutting-edge application-oriented research on developing novel technologies for specific applications for non-thermal pasteurization, better delivery of food-derived bio active compounds, plant-based meat alternatives development, and sustainable packaging and upcycling of food products. Dr. Pratap-Singh is leading the academic planning behind the under-construction UBC Food and Beverage Innovation Center.
The Food at the Tipping Point: Ways Forward from a Food System in Crisis series is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada. This 10-part speaker series addresses the urgent need for widespread, dramatic change and provides us inspiration and real solutions.
February 10, 2023
Land and Food Systems professor emeritus and key supporter of the UBC Farm, Dr. Art Bomke, was interviewed about the Yard Garden Harvest project.
The project turns residential yards into vegetable gardens, and is playing a role as a community food security program.
In the second instalment of our speaker series, we are releasing two video interviews with Dr. Aija White, University of Northern British Columbia, and Dr. Solveig Hanson, formerly University of British Columbia, who share the key findings of their research projects and how they can be applied for a more sustainable and resilient future.
Dr. Aija White’s research looks at understanding pollinator biodiversity in agricultural areas of northern BC (Bulkley-Nechako and Fraser-Fort George), establishing a much-needed baseline for land management and pollination services.
Dr. Solveig Hanson’s research with the Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement (CANOVI) project aims to contribute to the resilience and growth of Canada’s organic vegetable sector by developing and identifying vegetable varieties that excel in Canada’s diverse climates.
For the pollinator fact sheet and full report visit the BC Climate Change Adaptation Program and for the full CANOVI trial results visit the BC Food Web.
Aija White – Ph.D., University of Northern British Columbia
Aija White is an ecologist with a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies from the University of Northern British Columbia, and an M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Western Ontario. Her current research with the BC Climate and Agriculture Initiative aims to inventory pollinator species in areas used for agricultural production in the Bulkley-Nechako and Fraser-Fort George Regional Districts, and to identify environmental factors promoting pollinator biodiversity in these areas.
Solveig Hanson – Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (2021-22)
Solveig Hanson was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (CANOVI) from 2021-22, during which time she led a participatory carrot breeding project and facilitated on-farm vegetable variety trials across Canada, in partnership with the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security. Solveig received a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked with flavour in table beet using genetic, genomic, and participatory breeding approaches. Currently, she coordinates a multi-institution Cover Crop Breeding Network as a Research Support Specialist in Dr. Virginia Moore’s forage and cover crop breeding lab at Cornell University.
Funding for Dr. Aija White’s project has been provided in part by the Northern Development Initiative Trust and in part by the governments of Canada and British Columbia under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. Additional project support was provided by the University of Northern British Columbia. The program is delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.
CANOVI is part of Organic Science Cluster 3, led by the Organic Federation of Canada in collaboration with the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Dalhousie University, supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Agricultural Partnership-AgriScience Program, The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, and the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the UBC Farm.
The Food at the Tipping Point: Ways Forward from a Food System in Crisis series is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada. This 10-part speaker series addresses the urgent need for widespread, dramatic change and provides us inspiration and real solutions.