THUNDER BAY — Global demand for food could outpace supply as the planet heats up if major food-producing countries like Canada don’t step up adoption of new production technologies, agriculture experts warned this week.
“Environmental factors, supply chain disruptions, limited resources and economic viability are all threatening our food systems,” University of Guelph plant-agriculture Prof. Rene Van Acker said in a university news release on Wednesday.
“It’s not a question of replacing the great things we do, but rather adding new technologies and new processes to build extra sustainability and resilience, and economic opportunity,” Van Acker added.
New food-production methods in need of expansion include growing fruit and vegetables year-round and the development of meat products directly from animal cells — known as cultured meat — rather than by raising farm animals.
Change in food-production approaches may not come easily.
A few years ago, a British scientist was vilified when he suggested that half of his country’s farmlands needed to be converted back to natural woodlands to help fight climate change and reduce flooding.
Some British livestock farmers were outraged over the prospect of significant reductions in cattle and sheep herds.
Meanwhile, experimentation with alternative crops that may thrive in the Thunder Bay farming belt continues.
“Winter wheat and winter rye have potential in Northwestern Ontario,” said Tarlok Singh Sahota, director of Lakehead University’s agricultural research facility just west of Thunder Bay.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
