It’s that season, Pumpkin Spice Latte is back which means SAIFood is back as well!
Okay, well we might not be PSL fans, but we sure got your attention there. We are happy to announce that we are back! It is exciting to say, after two falls of working from home, it is so nice to be starting the 2022 fall school term back on campus. Boy, we are lucky to be back to normal. Or should I say, we are lucky to be living in this new normal, where classes are in-person, we are eating amongst our colleagues, and we feel safe enough to live in a mask-free environment.
It feels like a lot has changed in the past few years, and yet, when I look at the topics we have been discussing on SAIFood, it seems like much of the issues and concerns we had pre-pandemic are still there. Sadly, during these past 30 months since our lives changed dramatically, many of the issues, concerns, policies and innovations we were hoping to see come to fruition, had to sit on the back burner as we dealt with other timely issues. Now, we are faced with the old set of concerns and policies, and hoping to see some innovations hit the market soon. Alongside with a new set of topics we need to address which include supply chain issues, inflation, food pricing, conflict in Ukraine, food shortages, and many more. We hope that this year we can shed some light on these new topics as they affect our food, innovations, and sustainable agriculture. All while also keeping with our ways, sharing blogs from students, addressing the concerns of GM and biotech policy, and highlighting the benefits of Canadian agriculture.
Our team is growing
We are also very happy to announce that our Dr. Smyth Research Team is growing, and hopefully so is our collaboration on SAIFood. This summer, we welcomed Chelsea Sutherland back from maternity leave, we are happy to have her back and can’t wait to share her work as it come available. We also welcomed Claire Williams, a former summer student of Stuart’s and a current M.Sc. candidate in the Dept. of Agricultural & Resource Economics. I am lucky enough to share an office with her, and after so long without an officemate, hopefully, she adjusts to my chatter and impromptu coffee breaks (I am just so happy to be in the office & share it with a person rather than my cat). Elisabeta Lika, a recent graduate of our master’s program has taken a term position with us, as she works on the data from our Crop Rotation Survey. We are very eager to see her analysis and be able to share with you her findings. Lastly, Judson Christopherson started his first term as an M.Sc. candidate under the supervision of Dr. Smyth. I am sure it won’t be long before we have twisted their arms to share their research, and perhaps a few blogs on topics that they are passionate about.
In the meantime, we want to say thank you for joining us for another fall of SAIFood posts, and we hope to keep you entertained and interested. If there is ever a topic you are interested in, let us know!
