Learning to Coexist with Urban Wildlife
Feeding and taking pictures of wildlife can be extremely harmful for both animals and humans. Assistant Professor Kristen Walker shares how important it is to coexist with the urban wildlife.
Meet Peek-a-Moo, a Data Visualization Tool for Dairy Cattle
Meet Peek-a-Moo, the UBC Dairy Research Centre’s new data visualization tool. The new tool helps researchers spot trends in everything from how much cows eat and rest, to where they spend their time, and even who else in the herd they hang out with!
Nature’s Weapon Against Food-Borne Pathogens
Microscopic bacteria-eating viruses, known as bacteriophages or phages, are coming into favour as a way to combat food-borne pathogens. Found naturally in the environment, phages are a promising alternative to antimicrobials used in food products because of their ability to hone in and destroy targeted bacteria while leaving ‘good’ bacteria intact.
Edible Packaging is as Good For Your Food as it is For the Planet
A team of researchers is making improvements to edible packaging film as a way to reduce the use of plastic in the food industry.
Building a Resilient Food System Starts with the Soil
Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes (SAL) Lab published a paper this summer that measured soil organic carbon in the Fraser Valley from 1984 to 2018, reporting that 61% of the farms, soil organic carbon was in decline. Results proposes the next step of the research, which is to evaluate which specific methods are contributing this decline, and working with farmers to find solutions.
Getting into the Weeds
Jennifer Grenz (BSc Agroecology ’04, PhD Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems ‘20) wants her students take a closer look at the uninvited weeds in their gardens.
Larger farms benefit farmers but not consumers
In developing countries, increasing farm size may help individual farmers, but not the local food supply.
Monitoring Ecological Sustainability at the UBC Farm
The UBC Farm acts as a living lab for researchers working to improve sustainability in agricultural systems, and is now a key node in an international experimental network of diversified research farms. Read more about UBC Farm’s project on water sustainability and biodiversity monitoring.
Natural biodiversity protects rural farmers’ incomes from tropical weather shocks
The study found that farmers in areas with greater biodiversity took less of an income hit from droughts than their peers who farmed amid less biodiversity.
New Frontiers research funds to improve plant proteins, to study environmental impacts of urban migration
Two scientists funded for innovative projects.