University of Guelph to lead national network focused on agri-food innovation

The University of Guelph in Guelph, Ont., is shown on Friday, March 24, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hannah Yoon

The University of Guelph is leading the creation of a network meant to spur investment in Canadian agri-food innovation, including developing new technologies to address pressing issues like climate change.

The university received an almost $16.3 million government grant over five years to support the platform, called Sustainable Food Systems for Canada, or SF4C. The platform is designed to help agri-food entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

Canada’s agriculture industry is facing several major challenges, in particular climate change, said Rene Van Acker, interim president and vice-chancellor at the University of Guelph.

He says technology can help farmers face that challenge.

“Agriculture has always been an adapter of technology, whether that was mechanical or genetic or chemical, and now data,” he said.

He said anything that can accelerate that adaptation will help improve productivity in the sector while also making it more resilient to climate change.

Van Acker said the network aims to support agri-food startups working on technological solutions to some of the sector’s most pressing challenges.

The initiative brings together 13 post-secondary institutions from across the country, as well as a number of organizations including the Canadian Food Innovation Network, the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-food and the National Circle for Indigenous Agriculture.

The initiative will be made up of three programs: a training platform; a mentorship service; and activities, events and workshops.

The network is intended to connect the universities and colleges but also other organizations in the agriculture and food sector, Van Acker said.

“They don’t necessarily talk to each other, they don’t necessarily synergize, they don’t necessarily share or work together. So the network idea was an opportunity to have some funding to build connective tissue between these various actors,” he said.

“It’s not complicated, but it does have to happen. It has to be done, and it needs some money to get it off the ground.”

Much of the research that happens in the agri-food sector is at public institutions where new innovations are adopted to help farmers increase their productivity and expand their operations, said Van Acker.

He says the sector lacks a “culture of innovation that is more entrepreneurial, that is about starting new businesses, creating new businesses from innovation, and expanding the sector.”

“This network is a push, a big push in that vein,” he said.

Much of the cutting-edge technology being developed and adopted now in the sector revolves around collecting and using data, said Van Acker.

The platform will be co-chaired by Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, and Lenore Newman, director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C.

“Together, they will bring together experts from agriculture, veterinary medicine, Indigenous organizations and startups to support programs across Canada and form one of the world’s largest food system innovation training networks focused on agri-food,” the press release said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2025.