A Review of the 2025-2026 SAIFood Year

It hardly seems like the end of another academic year has arrived. It has obviously been a busy one for all of us at SAIFood as it only seems like it was a couple of months ago that the students were returning from their summer jobs full of enthusiasm and energy. Busy also relates to productive, and my team and I have certainly achieved this.

In the fall, we welcome Koal Sammons to our research team. Koal was in the final stages of his Masters’ degree and joined my research team full time to work as a research analyst. Koal has done a fantastic job in this capacity. He and I have completed one research article, with a second nearly completed. He has written some exceptional blogs on agricultural productivity in Canada and how Canada ranks against other commodity producing countries. The first two blogs in this series have been widely viewed and received positive comments.

SAIFood has also benefited from the fantastic leadership of Claire Williams who manages the SAIFood website, adding the graphics to all of the blogs and ensuring there are completed blogs for several weeks in advance of publication dates. Knowing that SAIFood is so well managed provides a great deal of peace of mind.

One year ago, my team welcomed a new post-doctoral fellow from Brazil, Luiza Favaratto. Luiza has been a great addition to the team. She and I have completed two research papers, with a third nearly complete. Luiza has also provided numerous science communication blogs, helping to provide easily readable blogs on how plant breeding is done. We were a bit unsure about how she would adjust to the -35C temperatures last winter, but she survived, enjoying most of it and is beginning to build a soldi career here.

Chelsea Sutherland has worked with me as a researcher for several years now and constantly amazes me as how productive she is, while also raising small children and farming with her family. I am never able to complain about being too busy as I’m always in the shadow of how busy Chelsea is. Chelsea and I wrapped up one paper, with her contributing to another that Koal concluded the work on. She also provided numerous blogs.

Savannah Gleim has been the steady hand that manages all of the activities occurring within my research program and SAIFood. As the number of funding partners and staff increases, Savannah’s contributions increase in importance. Whether it is receiving budget updates or discussing the next research survey design, I am always pleased by the leadership she brings to the team.

Without this amazing staff, SAIFood wouldn’t exist. I would like to thank all of them for their excellent work over the past year. Thank you also goes to the organizations and companies that fiscally support our research. Without these partners, our ability to gather data, write research articles and communicate the benefits of agriculture and food production would be greatly reduced.

My team and I will be taking a break from writing and publishing blogs over the summer months, but we will return in September with new content and an exciting announcement.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and relaxing summer!