Features

It’s common practice for farmers to apply insecticides to their crops, but one University of Guelph research team wants to know if the substances they’re using are pollinator friendly. 

Sneha recently graduated with her BScAgr as part of the OAC Class of 2022. She came to Guelph in 2018 as an international student from Mauritius, and despite studying abroad at a particularly challenging time, she excelled. Sneha attributes part of her success to the OAC scholarships she received and the encouragement they inspired in her, including the Rosemont Scholarship in Food Sustainability and Class of '51 O.A.C. Leadership Prize she received at convocation.

It’s not exactly a varsity sport, but training and competing in the annual “weed Olympics” can be equally gruelling. 

The Northeastern Collegiate Weed Science Contest, an annual event that pits the finest plant science students against one another in tough but friendly competition, is set to return this week after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Continue reading, "Plant Science Students to Compete in International ‘Weed Olympics’" here. 

Ondose. In Ojibwe, it means “to walk from a certain place.”

Brad Howie, the former Anishnaabe environmental educator at the University of Guelph Arboretum, knows how the story of a journey is just as important as its culmination. In his case, the journey was his master’s degree in environmental science, which took place as U of G was welcoming its first students to the new bachelor of Indigenous environmental science and practice (BIESP) program.

Climate change profoundly affects Indigenous peoples in Canada and abroad, but their concerns continue to go unheard, according to a new University of Guelph study led by First Nations communities in Ontario.

Based on a landmark gathering of First Nations representatives from the Great Lakes region, the study urges decision makers to include Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in discussions about climate change impacts, said Dr. Ally Menzies, a post-doc in the School of Environmental Sciences (SES) within the Ontario Agricultural College, and first author of the paper.

For almost a year, the COVID-19 pandemic kept most researchers away from the Arctic, a region key to groundbreaking research on climate change and other pressing environmental concerns. Now, a $205,000 federal grant will enable University of Guelph researchers and their partners in Nunavut to begin an Inuit-led project to help strengthen multi-year science programs in the North.

Annet Laan is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Commerce, Food and Agriculture Business program. During her undergrad, she completed her co-op work terms with Farm Credit Canada (FCC) and was offered a full-time position after graduation where she now works as a loans analyst. We recently chatted with her to learn more about her role and experience at the University of Guelph.

Serena Viola’s research on accessing culturally significant foods in rural Ontario provides some food for thought.

As a capacity development and extension student, her research is looking at how to make rural communities more inclusive. She believes that food is a crucial starting point.

“When people make and prepare food, it really translates to culture and that is home,” says Serena. “Food can be viewed as an opportunity to build on the importance of cultural representation and inclusivity in rural communities.”

Food prices have been on the rise since last year, and U of G food and agricultural economists say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has only made the situation worse.

Drs. Mike von Massow and Alfons Weersink, both professors in the Ontario Agricultural College within the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, said the invasion will have short-term effects on the global food supply chain and possible long-term consequences, too. 

Food safety and mitigating foodborne illness is top priority for Brenda Zai, M.Sc. food science student. Her sense of curiosity, desire for critical thinking and inclination to be in a lab and research-based environment led her to pursue graduate studies at the University of Guelph (U of G).

“During my food science undergrad at U of G, I thoroughly enjoyed food microbiology, which is what I'm specializing in right now and it's really exciting,” says Brenda.