News

This week graduate students in Foundations of Capacity Building (CDE*6070) took the opportunity to visit the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) mobile global development exhibition entitled "TOGETHER" which was parked just outside the School. As a rapid "field trip" students examined the exhibit and its presentation on food security and sustainable rural development projects in Africa and Asia. The graduate students then participated in a collective learning exercise that identified and discussed knowledge sharing and learning tools used in the exhibit.

As a valuable member of the agriculture, food, and rural development community we like like to invite you to participate in an online survey. The purpose of the survey is to investigate how social media is being used in the agriculture, food, and rural development context. The survey will take no more than 30 minutes to complete. If you choose to participate you will be contributing to an important area of research with practical implications.

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Prof. Al Lauzon has been named the interim director of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) effective November 1, 2015. 

Lauzon will assume interim director duties as Prof. Wayne Caldwell serves as interim dean of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC).

Anissa McAlpine received the 2015 Gerald Carrothers Graduate Scholarship at the Ontario Professional Planners Institute AGM meeting on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 in Toronto. Anissa is a second year MSc student in Rural Planning and Development at the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph. Anissa's research at the graduate level focuses on farmland preservation in both the Ontario and British Columbia context.  She is also involved in research that is tracking Official Plan amendments as a means to measure current activity related to farmland loss.

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, one of Canada's distinguished landscape architects, was one of the first women to study at Harvard University's design school and became a leader in sustainable design will receive an honorary doctorate during the fall convocation ceremonies at the University of Guelph on October 17, 2015 at 2:00 pm at War Memorial Hall.  

When Hamilton's McQuesten Neighbourhood Association contacted OAC to help create an urban farm, Professor Karen Landman and the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) design studio responded by creating a visioning workshop for the project. City staff, residents and students worked together to generate ideas for a seven-acre 'food park' that includes community gardens, learning opportunities for schoolchildren, a community oven, an aboriginal garden, a market garden, a picnic area and a dedicated area for a full-time farmer.

Thanks to donations from the Libro Credit Union and OAC alumni George and Lorna Roberts and George and Geri Klosler a total of one million dollars has been raised in support of the Libro Professorship in Regional Economic Development for Southwestern Ontario. The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development looks forward to embarking upon a search to fill this position.

The Landscape Architecture Programs at the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development announce the annual Evidence Based Landscape Architecture Lecture for 2015.

Emily McCoy will speak on "Integrative Research at Andropogon Associates:  Practising Evidence-based Landscape Architecture" on Monday, October 5, 2015 at Lakeside Downtown Church, 75 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario.  Lecture will begin at 7:00 pm.  Free admission and all welcome to attend.