Sustainable Agri-food Research Initiative

Interns will work with beef and crop producers to collect farm-level production data and provide basic training on the Cool Farm Tool sustainability calculator. The collected data will be used to calculate the farm’s relative sustainability metrics, such as greenhouse gas emissions and water usage.
The partner organizations (TrustBIX and Viresco) will benefit from the work conducted by the interns by using the research outcomes to:
• Identify common data gaps in the industry.
• Develop benchmarks for beef and crop production in the province, based on location, stage of production, size, operation type (grass-fed, organic, conventional).
• Train the next generation of producers and sector-experts in the merits and practicalities of data collection, sustainability, and corporate supply chain sustainability initiatives.
• Create sustainability metrics and protocols for the Canadian environment.
• Develop beneficial management practice scenarios and reanalysis of data to assess management impacts.
The abovementioned benefits will help Viresco and TrustBIX meet the deadlines of a larger, 5-year project called the ‘Sustainable Agri-Food Traceability (SAFT) Initiative’, that the two companies have undertaken with Lakeland College and FarmLead (SAFT grant application attached; Appendix 2). Upon commercialization of the SAFT platform, both organizations are positioned to benefit financially (disclosed in grant application).

Faculty Supervisor:

Obioha Durunna

Student:

Partner:

Viresco Solutions;TrustBIX Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Lakeland College

Program: