Welcome to SAIFood

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural blog on sustainable agricultural innovations and food (SAIFood). I am an agricultural economist at the University of Saskatchewan and I hold the Industry Funded Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovation. The objective of establishing this blog is to be a conduit that communicates the knowledge generated in our ivory towers to those that ultimately fund this work. Academics have many ways of communicating, however, far too many of them are simply gathering dust on library book shelves. As society’s means of communicating changes from books and journals, so too must that of academics. By launching this blog, my goal is to be able to share some of the detailed, scientific information I see and receive, with a broader public. It is often said that academic research is a public good, yet it is hard to see how much good the public gets from academic research if they are unable to access it in an understandable way.

The four themes of this blog are captured in the title, that being sustainability, agriculture, innovation and food. All four themes are crucial for enhancing food security in the coming decades, but are also of keen interest to people of all walks of life. Sharing research that relates to these four themes will provide a reliable source of accurate information, for those interested in the subject, but also those seeking to learn more about the themes. The blogs will be factual and informational, national and international and occasionally, controversial. Future topics will include:

• the impacts of flax oil on breast cancer
• A&W Canada’s unwillingness to support the Canadian beef industry
• the benefits of genetically modified cotton in Burkina Faso

If you are one of those people that eats food, you will be interested in the blog. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this weekly blog, please click .

Thank you for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Stuart Smyth