As a founding college of “Canada’s Food University”, we live animal agriculture. We know the value of the agri-food sector to our economy and to our nation’s food security. We pride ourselves on training veterinarians to support farming operations, and conducting important research and knowledge transfer in animal welfare and management, production limiting, zoonotic, and emerging diseases, genomics, food safety, and farm family well-being.
Within the Guelph agri-food cluster, our innovative approaches in supporting agri-food are appreciated, but the importance of this sector as an economic driver, employer and innovation engine has not always recognized by previous federal governments.
During the past few weeks, the attention paid to the agri-food sector by the federal government and its economic advisors has been unprecedented. Through the recently released federal budget, Minister Morneau indicates that investment in agriculture and agri-food innovation will be a major initiative underpinning their economic stimulation plan.
This is welcome news for the U of G and OVC, with our recognized strengths in research and discovery in all aspects of agriculture and food, along with strong relationships with industry and government. We are a vital source of highly qualified personnel for this growing sector, and we need to be ready to step up a level as these new public-private initiatives come on line. Graduates from all of our programs will be much in demand.
The budget makes a number of references to agri-food investment as an opportunity to accelerate economic growth, among them enhanced emphasis on innovation strategies and a proposed $70 million investment to support and advance agricultural discovery, science and innovation.
Perhaps the most exciting prospect is the announcement of $950 million for ‘superclusters’ where the government sees the greatest potential to accelerate economic growth and enhance Canada’s global competitiveness - areas they deem as highly innovative industries, including agri-food, clean technology, digital technology, clean resources and health and bio-sciences.
What is a supercluster? The government defines it as ‘dense areas of business activity that contain large and small companies, post-secondary institutions and specialized talent and infrastructure’, such as the Toronto-Waterloo corridor where we are located. They also highlight strong connections between business, post-secondary institutions and research institutions as important contributors to these clusters – again a strength for us.
It makes sense that UofG, with our private sector partners in the food sector, will make a pitch for Guelph as the hub of a new agri-food supercluster. Our province is responsible for 40 per cent of the agricultural production and consumption in Canada, and home to the largest players in the food and beverage industry, all experiencing fast growth. This emphasis on agriculture and agri-food can only be good news for us, and in conjunction with Food from Thought and other large initiatives, will bring deserved attention and new resources to support agri-food innovations.
As VP Malcolm Campbell has said, “watch this space”. At Guelph, we need to be nimble and prepared to respond as the nation looks to deliver on this vision of Canada as the world’s leader in agri-food innovation.
For more information, I encourage you to read the U of G’s news release on the recent budget (http://news.uoguelph.ca/2017/03/budget/) and listen to Malcolm Campebell, U of G’s vice president (research), comments in an interview with the Business News Network.