News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Manitoba.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, March 14 – A Department of Entomology Seminar will be presented by Dr. Marla Spivak, Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota (DEGSA Invited Speaker, Endowment Fund Speaker Series) on “Socialized Medicine in Honey Bee Colonies”. Refreshments at 10:00 am, seminar begins at 10:10 am sharp in 220 Animal Science/Entomology Building.
Tuesday, March 14 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Graduate Seminar entitled “The effect of non-nutritive sweeteners on glucose metabolism and gut microbiome” will be presented by graduate student Samar Ahmad at 3:00 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building.
Tuesday, March 14 – A Department of Entomology Special Seminar will be presented by Dr. Krista Ryall, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, on “Emerald ash borer: Biology, impacts and research highlights”. This special seminar will be held in Room 219 Animal Science/Entomology Building at 7:00 pm.
Wednesday, March 15 – A Soil Science Seminar will take place at 12:30 pm in Room 346 Ellis Building. Dr. Timi Ojo, Agricultural Meteorology Specialist, Manitoba Agriculture, will present “Understanding Scale Issues in Soil Moisture Monitoring.”
Wednesday, March 15 – The eighth seminar in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Seminar Series will be held at 3:30 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, Room 130 Agriculture Building. Mr. Mitch Rezansoff, Integrated Solutions Manager, Enns Brothers Ltd., will present “The Rules of Agriculture are Changing”. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 pm in the Atrium. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Thursday, March 16 – An Animal Science Special Seminar will take place at 2:30 pm in the Senate Chamber, Room 262-EITC 3. Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Science, University of Guelph, will present “How I’m Learning to Be a Microbiome Mechanic”. All are welcome!
Thursday, March 16 – As part of March’s Nutrition Month, the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management’s Health, Leisure, and Human Performance Research Institute (HLHPRI) presents Body Talks: Chat with the Experts: “Take the Fight out of Food Stress”, an interactive session presented by Semone Myrie, Human Nutritional Sciences and Jorie Jansen, Director of Sport Dietetics, Canadian Sport Centre, from 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. in the Active Living Centre Agora. Admission is free! Do you ever get frustrated by food and nutrition? Maybe you can’t figure out why you feel bloated after eating certain foods, unsure about which foods are best for a particular health condition. These can be referred to as “food fights” – they represent times when you struggle with yourself or others about what to eat. “Take the Fight out of Food” – it’s exactly what we as dietitians do every day! Nutrition Month 2017’s campaign from Dietitians of Canada guides people through a three-step approach to improve their relationship with food, no matter what the struggle. Check out all of Nutrition Month activities planned at http://news.umanitoba.ca/march-is-nutrition-month-2/.
March 17-18 – It’s time once again for Discover Agriculture in the City, a free, two-day event featuring interactive displays and live presentations from key organizations in the agriculture industry that will take place downtown at the Forks Market. This event allows urban Canadians to explore and discover the important role agriculture plays in their lives. On Friday, come see the Food Fight at 11 am featuring our very own food product development students. For more information, visit http://aginthecity.ca/.
Monday, March 20 – There will be a Department of Soil Science M.Sc. Thesis Defense at 1:00 pm in Room 346 Ellis Building. Kamala Sapkota will present “Pesticide Residue in Groundwater and Soil of a Prairie Province in Canada”.
Tuesday, March 21 – March is Nutrition Month and the Nutrition Education and Community Outreach Community is helping you “Take the Fight Out of Food” this year by helping us improve our relationship with food. On March 21, they will have a booth in the Agriculture Building Atrium from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm where you can enter contests to win great prizes, like a FitBit, cookbooks and much more!
Tuesday, March 21 – A Department of Animal Science Seminar will be held on in Room 219 Animal Science Building at 11:30 am. Hooman Derakshani, Ph.D. student, will make the scientific presentation “Dynamics of bovine mammary gland microbiome and its association with health and disease”. All are welcome to attend.
Tuesday, March 21 – A Biosystems Engineering M.Sc. Thesis Defense will take place at 2:30 pm in E2-350 EITC Building. Krishna Phani Kaja will present “HYDRUS Modelling to Predict Field Trafficability under Different Drainage Design and Weather Conditions in Southern Manitoba”. All are welcome!
Tuesday, March 21 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Graduate Seminar entitled “Acute Effect of Hemp Protein on Post-prandial Glycemia, Insulin and Satiety Responses in Adults” will be presented by adjunct professor Rebecca Mollard at 3:00 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building.
Tuesday, March 21 – Home Economics Day is celebrated throughout the world annually on March 21st and the theme for 2017 is “Home Economics Literacy: Empowering for Healthy and Sustainable Lifestyles.” In honour of this year’s Home Economics Day, the Manitoba Association of Home Economists will be holding a dinner event in Winnipeg at Prairie 360 at 7 pm. For more details and to purchase a ticket, please visit https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/mahe-home-economics-day-dinner-winnipeg-tickets-32381948279.
Wednesday, March 22 – A Soil Science Seminar will take place at 12:30 pm in Room 346 Ellis Building. Professor Durodoluwa Oyedele, Soil Science Professor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, will present “Design and assessment of a capillary irrigation system for fertilizer micro-dosing in vegetable production”.
April 24-26 – The Agricultural Institute of Canada will be holding its 2017 conference in Winnipeg. The theme is “Agricultural Innovation in a Changing Environment”. The conference will foster important discussions among policy makers, industry stakeholders, entrepreneurs and the research community about agriculture’s impact on the environment in a changing climate. AIC 2017 will also showcase world-class innovative research taking place across Canada and explore how green growth in the sector can build on a strong scientific, evidence-based foundation. Visit http://www.aic.ca/conferences-and-events/aic2017/ to stay up to date.
Friday, May 5 – MCWESTT 2017, a local, one-day conference dedicated to connecting women in engineering, science, trades, and technology, and empowering them to Create, Foster, and Lead. Master of Ceremonies for the day will be Winnipeg based comedian Dana Smith, and keynote speakers include Susan Auch, Shari Graydon and Sarah Neville. Register before Friday, March 10th to receive the limited-time early bird pricing – https://apps.apegm.mb.ca/MCWESTT2017Registration.aspx. For the first time ever, MCWESTT 2017 is offering a full day pre-conference workshop on Thursday, May 4. The WinSETT Effective Communication workshop will be facilitated by Edna Dach with guest speakers Trish Jordan and Dawn Nedohin-Macek. Thanks to the generous partnership of the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering – Prairies, this workshop is available at a significantly discounted rate of only $75, exclusively for our conference participants. Be sure to register early as the workshop is limited to only 30 participants. http://hollettandsons.ca/winsett-leadership-program/.
May 10-11 – A National Microbiome Workshop on “Statistical Challenges and Opportunities for the Analysis of Microbiome Data” will take place in Winnipeg at the Apotex Building, 750 McDermot Ave, University of Manitoba. Co-organized by Ehsan Khafipour, Animal Science, the event will feature a number of national and international speakers who are leading the research in this field. The workshop is free of charge to accommodate attendance of researchers and highly qualified personnel but there is a registration deadline of May 1. For more information please visit http://chimb.ca/events/DSworkshop2017.
September 25-28 – The Agricultural Bioscience International Conference is coming to Winnipeg! Themed “Solutions Start Here”, ABIC 2017 is the premier global meeting which promotes innovation in bioscience to ensure sustainable food, feed, fibre and fuel security as the climate changes. Delegates from around the world will gather to promote the application of agricultural biotechnology. Program and keynotes can be explored at the conference webiste. Register today at http://www.abic.ca/abic2017.html.
STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS
A number of awards were presented at the 2017 Degree Grads Farewell held March 11. Dr. Michael Eskin, Human Nutritional Sciences, was named Professor of the Year, which is an honour voted on by the student body. Michael has been teaching at the University of Manitoba for 50 years, and has impacted thousands of students with his memorable teaching style . He has made the science of lipid chemistry more accessible to students through unique methods, notably rap videos. He is also an international leader in edible oils research and his book Biochemistry of Foods is considered a classic reference text around the world. Agribusiness student Carlene Dmytriw received the John Roth Memorial Award, presented to a student who has demonstrated leadership and community involvement, has promoted faculty spirit and encouraged student involvement in faculty events, and has demonstrated a commitment to Agriculture. Carlene exemplified all of these through her dedication to FASO, especially as charity rep where she helped raise over $20,000 for various causes, and to the agri-food community.
Michael Eskin, Human Nutritional Sciences, has been selected to receive the 2017 Herbert J. Dutton Award by the American Oil Chemists’ Society. The award is for significant contributions in the analysis of oils , fats and lipids and includes a plaque, $1,000 towards travel and a $1,000 honorarium. The award will be presented at the Analytical Division Luncheon at the Annual Meeting of the American Oil Chemists’ Society in Orlando in May. Michael is expected to give a talk at the luncheon.
Rotimi Aluko, Human Nutritional Sciences, has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). The IFT Fellow designation is an honor bestowed upon an IFT member by their peers; in a given year, no more than 0.3 percent of the professional membership is eligible, and even fewer than that will earn this honor. The nomination of a Fellow should include evidence for exemplary accomplishments in the areas of scholarly advancement, service to the food science and technology profession, inspiration of others to excel in the food science and technology field, primary responsibility for the success of a new food product, and improvement of the human condition via food science and technology. Rotimi will be formally recognized at IFT17 in Las Vegas in June.
Tee Boon Goh, Soil Science, was recently selected as Teacher of the Year by first year Diploma in Agriculture students. A plaque will be presented by the first year diploma class president.
Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, and his colleagues from the University of Guelph led by Claudia Wagner-Riddle, published their findings in Nature Geoscience this week (see Publications below). Their paper suggests that global greenhouse emission calculations have overlooked an aspect of the agriculture sector and emissions may in fact be about 17 to 28 per cent greater for cultivated soils frozen in winter than currently thought. Read more at http://news.umanitoba.ca/an-overlooked-contribution-to-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-soils/.
Dilantha Fernando, Plant Science was invited to give a seminar at the Oilseeds Crops Research Institute of the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Wuhan China. His presentation was titled, “Advancements made in host-pathogen interactions in oilseed rape in Canada in the last decade: a look through successes and challenges for the future”. Dilantha was invited as a visiting academic professor of the institute during his sabbatical leave.
Olena Kloss, Ph.D. student in Human Nutritional Sciences, has received the Emerging Leaders Award this year, and also Northern Scientific Training Program award (National) from Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. She is doing her Ph.D. in Miyoung Suh’s laboratory.
Peter Jones, Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutracueticals, presented “Nutrigenetics: What Does the Future Hold?” on March 10 at a Nutritional Fundamentals of Health luncheon in Phoenix, AZ.
IN THE NEWS
Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, was quoted in the article “Changing nitrogen use to avoid taxes” in Grainews (March 8) – https://www.grainews.ca/2017/03/08/changing-nitrogen-use-to-avoid-taxes/
Doug Cattani, Plant Science, was quoted in the article “Wheat research in the pipeline” in Grainews (March 7) – see page 26 at https://static.agcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GNN170307.pdf
Belay Ayele, Plant Science, was quoted in the article “Genes can control pre-harvest sprouting” in Grainews (March 7) – see page 28 at https://static.agcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GNN170307.pdf
Katherine Stanley, Plant Science, along with Iris Vaisman, Prairie Organic Grain Initiative, were quoted in the article “Initiative looks to boost organic quality, yields” in the Westernn Producer (March 2) – http://www.producer.com/2017/03/initiative-looks-to-boost-organic-quality-yields/
Doug Cattani, Plant Science and Karin Wittenberg, Dean, were quoted in the article “Who will breed the next generation?” in the Canadian Cattlemen (March 2017) – on page 38 at https://static.agcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CCT170306.pdf
Kim Ominski, Animal Science, was quoted in the article “‘Change’ is the watchword in a warming world, says researcher” in the Manitoba Co-operator (March 7) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/livestock/change-is-the-watchword-when-it-comes-to-climate-change/
Paul Bullock, Soil Science, was quoted in the Western Producer (March 9) in the article “Climate change implications complicated” – page 11 at http://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/20170309.pdf
Rob Duncan, Plant Science, was quoted in the article “Still sifting through genes, but…” in Country Guide (March 2) – https://www.country-guide.ca/2017/03/02/genetics-and-the-precise-past-paced-world-of-plant-breeding/
Rob was also quoted in in Grainews (February 27 the articles “The benefits of sex-free agriculture”) – https://www.grainews.ca/2017/02/27/the-benefits-of-sex-free-agriculture/ and “Apomixis 101” – https://www.grainews.ca/2017/02/27/apomixis-the-holy-grail-of-plant-breeding/
Rob was also interviewed for the article “Canola Remains Queen” in Germination magazine (March 2017) – http://germination.ca/canola-remains-queen/.
Ryan Cardwell, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was interviewed for the article “Food Policy for Thought” in the University of Winnipeg newspaper The Uniter (February 22) – http://uniter.ca/view/food-policy-for-thought
Martin Nyachoti, Animal Science, was interviewed by Farmscape for the articles “Higher than Previously Believed Canola Meal Inclusions Possible In Nursery Pig Diets” and “Higher Canola Meal Inclusions in Lactating Sow Diets Possible”. Read the transcripts at www.farmscape.ca.
PUBLICATIONS
Wagner-Riddle C., Congreves K.A., Abalos D., Berg A.A., Brown S.E., Ambadan J.T., Gao X., Tenuta M. 2017. Globally important nitrous oxide emissions from croplands induced by freeze–thaw cycles. Nature Geoscience, published online 6 March 2017, doi:10.1038/ngeo2907.
Giordano, D., Beta, T., Reyneri, A., and Blandino, M. 2017. Changes in the phenolic acid content and antioxidant activity during kernel development of corn (Zea mays L.) and relationship with mycotoxin contamination. Cereal Chemistry 94(2): 315-324.
Book: Aliani, M. and Eskin, M. N. A., Bitterness: Perception, Chemistry and Food Processing. Wiley Blackwell, IFT Press: Oxford, In Press. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118590295.html
Chathurika, J., Kumaragamage, D., Zvomuya, F., Akinremi, O.O., Flaten, D.N. Indraratne, S., Dandeniya, W. 2016. Woodchip biochar with or without synthetic fertilizers affects soil properties and available phosphorus in two alkaline, Chernozemic soils. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 96: 472 – 484.
Didier Brassard, Maude Tessier-Grenier, Janie Allaire, Ethendhar Rajendiran, Yongbo She, Vanu Ramprasath, Iris Gigleux, Denis Talbot, Emile Levy, Angelo Tremblay, Peter JH Jones, Patrick Couture, and Benoît Lamarche. 2017. Comparison of the impact of SFAs from cheese and butter on cardiometabolic risk factors: a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition ajcn150300; First published online March 1, 2017. doi:10.3945/ajcn.116.150300
Henderson, A*, Epp-Koop, S, Slater, J. 2017. Exploring food and healthy eating with newcomers in Winnipeg’s North End. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care. 13(1):1-14 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-06-2015-0022 (*Trainee)
GENERAL NEWS
Fiscal Year End – Our fiscal year end of March 31, 2017 is just around the corner. Visit our Year End at the University website (http://umanitoba.ca/admin/financial_services/comptrollers/yearend.htm) to review the Year End Guidelines & Schedule for 2016-17 which includes frequently asked questions, key deadline dates, checklists & your Financial Services contacts to help you through the process.
Food Quality Study Volunteers needed for tasting chili and muffins with lentils and peas. Criteria: no food allergies, 18 yrs and older. Commitment: one session, Approx. 30 min. Start date and time: weeks of March 14, 21 and 28 Tues Wed Thurs 11:30, 12:30 or 1:30. Where: Fourth Floor Human Ecology Building. Honorarium provided. Contact Donna at donna [dot] ryland [at] umanitoba [dot] ca or 204-474-8071 for more information and to sign up.
The Manitoba Schools Science Symposium is an annual provincial science fair for students in Grades 4 -12 with approximately 350 projects per year. They are currently recruiting judges for the 2017 fair. This year it will be held April 21 – 22 at the University of Manitoba Max Bell Centre. If you are interested in being a judge for the fair please register at http://www.msss.mb.ca/sfiab/user_new.php?type=judge. For further information please contact the Judging Chair at judging [at] msss [dot] mb [dot] ca.