A new program for UBC faculty and staff offers self-paced learning on topics related to Indigeneity and, more broadly, anti-oppression. The Cascades of Change program supports professional development while formally recognizing people for where they are in their commitment to EDI.I training.
A Lifelong Commitment to UBC, Leadership, and Student Mentorship
A Lifelong Commitment to UBC, Leadership, and Student Mentorship
About
| Name | David Kitts |
| Title | Dean pro tem |
| Company | Faculty of Land and Food Systems |
| Grad year | PhD 1981, MSc 1976, BSc 1974 |
| Program | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Agricultural Sciences (research) |
November 5, 2024 – We asked David Kitts, the new Dean pro tem and triple alum of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems about his role as a mentor. David has spent most of his career at UBC, starting in 1983 as UBC-NSERC Research Fellow (URF) in the Department of Food Science when LFS was called the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Most recently David was the Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Food, Nutrition and Health Program. He has volunteered his time to the LFS Mentorship Program for 5 years.
What motivates you to volunteer as an LFS Mentor?
I recognize the importance of being in the position to have an impact on someone’s academic career and future, by giving the necessary support, encouragement and valued suggestions that come from my own experience in particular from being an educator.
Are there ways that you feel you benefit by mentoring?
I feel lucky that I can help students to do better and from this comes a feeling of accomplishment and worth.
Have you had a mentor or someone you see as a mentor? How did they impact your student/career journey?
Yes, I’ve had mentors, and I would not be where I am today without those significant individuals who were there to support me and provide me with their encouragement and input on how to do better and be successful at it. What was instilled in me more than anything, was a desire to maintain my enthusiasm on what I was doing and to concentrate on the small details too. I have found that these two points were great ones to follow and have served me well.
Could you share with our LFS mentor community, your top-tip for on mentoring?
Take the time to connect with people whose career pathways you are interested in and learn from their experiences and journeys. Be respectful for each individual’s uniqueness and be clear in your messaging. Having clear, intended feedback and suggestions encourage us to do better and in turn achieve success.
What is something that you are proud of that you have accomplished in your career?
I am proud of being a respected scientist in my discipline of study and someone that people can feel comfortable and trust to approach, when they have important questions to ask on how to do well in academia.
And finally, what are you most looking forward to on this academic year’s LFS Mentorship Program?
Getting to know new students that I have not met before and to learn all about their goals in life, especially the professional ones.
Tagged with: 2024, Alumni, Food Science
Milestones and News & Notes
Milestones and News & Notes
Awards and Grants
Dana-Lyn Mackenzie won a UBC President’s Staff Award in the category Advancing Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence. She has a shared position with LFS, Applied Science and Forestry as Senior Manager, EDI and Indigeneity, and has been a co-lead on the Orange Shirt Day march at UBC for several years.
Dr. Risa Sargent leads a multi-institution research project that received $6.5 million from the NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative. This project will explore the wide range of benefits of perennial plantings in agricultural settings—from acting as important carbon sinks to providing ecological and socio-economic
benefits. UBC will partner with seven non-profit and governmental organizations, and with researchers across four Canadian universities.
Sabrina Yan celebrated her 40th work anniversary with UBC this fall. Sabrina has been with the LFS Development team since 2012, but has served at the university in various roles since 1984, including with the Institute of Asian Research and the International Liaison Office.
Catalyzing Research Clusters
Three LFS projects received a 2024-25 UBC Grant for Catalyzing Research Clusters, funding that brings together researchers from varied disciplines to address societal and cultural problems: Dr. Anubhav Pratap-Singh is leading the FuturePack Innovations Cluster that will look at new packaging materials; Dr. Eduardo Jovel leads a cluster titled the Indigenous Land-Based Health, Wellness, and Education Research Cluster; and, Drs. Simone Castellarin and Vivien Measday received funding for another year for Wine Production and Climate Change.
Organic Science Cluster
LFS researchers are involved in Organic Science Cluster 4. Organic Science Clusters are funded through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s AgriScience Program, with matching funding from industry gathered by the Organic Federation of Canada (OFC). One project led by Dr. Sean Smukler will investigate how the adoption of organic farming practices has the potential to help mitigate climate change. Another project led by Dr. Juli Carrillo with Zoology’s Dr. Claire Kremen will research how natural biological processes and ecosystem services can reduce the need for commercial inputs with an initial focus on perennial berry production.
News and Notes
Taking Research to The Molecular Level
The Analytical Core Facility (ACF) is a fee-for-service lab open to those working in industry and academia. The ACF has liquid and gas chromatography instruments to analyze a wide range of small molecules using detectors such as mass spectrometers and UV detectors. These provide both quantitative and qualitative data to help companies develop new products, support academic research, and provide hands-on training to student researchers. In the past year, the ACF has worked on many projects,
including:
- Quantifying sugars, acids, and phenolics in heat-stressed grapes to help understand adaptations to climate change and possible treatments
- Researching the biochemical diversity of the western red cedar to understand stress/climate change adaptations
- Identifying important flavour compounds in creating plant-based meat products
- Examining artifacts from the Museum of Anthropology at UBC to test for environmental contaminants
- Working on clean technology product development
If you are interested in working with the Analytical Core Facility, contact Eerik Piirtola at: eerik.piirtola@ubc.ca.
Dairy Centre Academic Director
Dr. Marina (Nina) von Keyserlingk, Professor of Animal Welfare, was appointed the Academic Director of the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre in Agassiz, B.C., in September 2023. She is the third Academic Director in the Centre’s history, following in the footsteps of Drs. Ronaldo Cerri (2019-2023) and James Thompson (1997-2019). The Dairy Centre is located on the grounds of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Experimental Station in Agassiz. This research facility houses a milking herd of approximately 245 lactating cattle, 40 dry cows, and related calves and heifers.
UBC Dairy Goes High Tech
The UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre is now one of North America’s largest
research facilities using automated milkers. This technology supports new data streams—such as when cows are milked, how many times they enter the milking unit, the duration of each each milking visit, and the volume of milk produced by each individual cow. The six automated milking systems (plus one training unit) capture all of the daily milk from the farm’s lactating cows.
New Faculty Profile: James McKendry
New Faculty Profile: James McKendry
Assistant Professor at LFS
Dr. James McKendry is a new Assistant Professor in the Faculty who will use innovative tools to understand how nutrition and exercise affect our health as we age.
Dr. McKendry comes to LFS having just completed his postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University. He worked under Dr. Stuart Phillips, a world leader in muscle metabolism and a Canada Research Chair in Skeletal Muscle Health. During his fellowship, Dr. McKendry focussed on understanding how protein quality can influence muscle building in older individuals (aged 60 and above).
“As we age, our bodies become less able to utilize the nutrients in our food,” Dr. McKendry says. “So, improving the quality of protein that older individuals consume may have important outcomes for muscle and health.”
In defining high-quality protein, Dr. McKendry emphasizes its digestibility and amino acid composition. Increasing the quantity of protein is one method of improving muscle outcomes, but focusing on improving the quality of whole-food protein sources can have a profound impact on muscle.
As ethical and sustainable food production concerns rise, the demand for plant-based alternatives has increased dramatically. Recent advancements in food science and protein extraction have created a wider variety of plant proteins to choose from: pea, potato, rice, and more.
With that in mind, Dr. McKendry compared the ability of different protein sources—plant- and animal-based—on muscle building in older adults. Dr. McKendry showed that plant-based (pea) was as effective as animal-based (whey) for building muscle during aging—and both were better than collagen protein.
Dr. McKendry completed his undergraduate, master’s, and PhD degrees at the University of Birmingham, UK, in Sports and Exercise sciences, analogous to Kinesiology in Canada. His undergraduate thesis project focussed on how intense exercise affects the brain’s response to images of food. He found that intense exercise repressed the reward regions of the brain to images of high-calorie food — making people less inclined to reach for highly processed foods.
However, his real passion was skeletal muscle. Like any aspiring sports scientist and ‘failed athlete’, Dr. McKendry says he wanted to understand how to make his own muscles bigger, so his master’s degree explored how changing the amount of rest taken between sets of resistance exercise influenced how quickly we build muscle.
Inspired by his mother’s work with older people in a hospital, Dr. McKendry then began studying the effects of aging on the muscles in high-performance older athletes during his PhD. By focusing on older athletes who had been highly active for many years, they isolated the effects of chronological aging and other lifestyle factors on muscle. To do this, they took muscle biopsy samples to look at the muscle fibres under a microscope, and used stable isotope tracers and mass spectrometers to measure how fast muscle was being built during the hours and days following resistance exercise.
At LFS, Dr. McKendry will establish the Muscle, Aging, (In) Activity, and Nutrition (MAIN) Lab. He’s excited to join a Faculty with a heavier focus on nutrition at a university with a dedicated centre for research focused on healthy aging (Edward S.H Leong Centre for Healthy Aging).
“I’m extremely excited and a little nervous about leading my own research group,” Dr. McKendry says. “It’s amazing to have a job at a world-leading institution where your career goal is to pursue scientific questions you find interesting and that benefits society. My research group aims to extend the health span and improve the quality of life that older individuals experience.”
Researching For Positive Change
Researching For Positive Change
Applied Economist & Doctor of Philosophy in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
Growing up in small-town Minnesota might seem like an unlikely backstory for a future of immersive fieldwork in Mexico, Uganda and beyond. But for applied economist Erin Litzow (PhD ISLFS 2024)—a recently appointed University of Texas at Dallas Assistant Professor of Sustainability—one factor focused her young mind on thinking deeply about the world far away from her Midwestern home.
“My parents had lived in the Sudan before I was born and they continually told me about it when I was a child, instilling an interest and excitement about other cultures,” she says. That interest sharpened and intensified over the years, eventually leading to a Georgetown University undergraduate thesis project that included a pivotal field trip studying fisheries management on Lake Victoria in Uganda.
“Looking back, I think that’s where the ideas I’m working with now really began to emerge,” says Litzow. “I was travelling alone, talking to people directly and learning what research involved and what it could achieve. That’s when I started to believe that I could really do this kind of work as a career.”
That career, she adds, has been fueled by an intense desire to effect positive change. “I’m a policy-relevant researcher who’s never wanted to be behind a desk all day,” she says. “Rather than concentrating on theory or history, I’m much more concerned about application. That’s what gets me out of bed— knowing my research could help change people’s lives for the better.”
In broad terms, Litzow divides her research into two areas. The first investigates and charts the impacts of environmental change on people’s lives, from health to gender to the labour market and beyond. This includes, for example, an ongoing study—first launched at UBC—into the effects of lead pollution on students in Mexico. The project, she says, has been complicated by the fact that very little relevant data exists.
But the second area—designing policies to effect positive change—comes with its own complications. This includes
a current project on traditional energy in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, where using open fires to prepare food is commonplace but replete with health and environmental downsides. “The Kenyan government aims to have 500,000 households cooking with electricity within three years. We’re examining the viability and efficiency of this plus the health and environmental benefits.”
Dealing with governments and other agencies, Litzow adds, is an area she was initially unprepared for. “One of the biggest challenges of my work is engaging with policymakers. It’s not something many academics are trained in and I am learning a lot about how to do it,” she says, noting that her ongoing collaboration with Environment for Development, a supportive network of 200 international environmental economists, has taught her much about navigating the choppy waters of real-world action.
She also credits her PhD program where she focused on Food and Resource Economics (FRE) as an essential driver in her burgeoning career. “LFS is a great school. And since the FRE group was quite small, we all received lots of extra focus and attention from the faculty,” she recalls. “The biggest issue I had was imposter syndrome and the idea that I wasn’t good enough. But my advisors as well as my family were so incredibly supportive all the time.”
UBC also equipped her in some unexpected ways. “I was constantly meeting people from different countries and different perspectives and learning how to connect and communicate with them. And even though it’s a big university, there were no barriers between departments and disciplines and everyone was so welcoming. I’m now working in a very interdisciplinary department at the University of Texas at Dallas and UBC really helped prepare me for that.”
While she also met her future husband at UBC—“That was another big plus of the program,” she says, laughing—Litzow predicts her career will continue to synthesize research, real-world action and international study visits. “I definitely need to be out in the field,” she says. “And I would like to keep working in the energy space. At the same time, the effects of climate change are becoming even bigger. But the bottom line is that I’m just genuinely curious about problems and trying to continually find ways to solve them.”
Interested in Food and Resource Economics (FRE) research? Check out the website here!
Cultivating Community, Food and Land on a Regenerative Farm
Cultivating Community, Food and Land on a Regenerative Farm
Managing Director of Athiana Farms
PHOTOS: NINA LAFLAMME PHOTOGRAPHY
For Simran Panatch, food is much more than just something we feed our bodies—it is also a vessel for connection. This love of food has been a driving force in her academic and career pursuits, leading to her current role as the Managing Director of Athiana Acres, a 12-hectare regenerative farm in Steveston, Richmond.
Panatch (BSc FNH 2019) completed her undergraduate degree in LFS, an experience she describes as transformative. During her studies, she spent semesters abroad at the University of Copenhagen and National University of Singapore, gaining an international perspective on food
and health.
“Getting to try different cuisines and learn about food sciences in a different area was really interesting—the contrast of Europe and Southeast Asia and also my experience at UBC,” recalls Panatch.
Following her undergraduate studies, Panatch decided to further her education with a Master of Business Analytics at Sauder. She knew that she wanted to work in the food industry, but was not sure if the traditional paths of dietetics or nutrition were the right fit. After completing her master’s, Panatch worked in the food and beverage industry as a data analyst, but her connection to her family’s farming roots was never far from her mind.
Athiana Acres is named after the Panatch family’s ancestral village, Aittiana, in the northern Indian province of Punjab. Farming has been in her family for generations, and while she did not initially plan on becoming a farmer, it became a natural extension of her passion for food and entrepreneurship, a common topic of conversation in her family.
The Panatch family purchased the Steveston farm site in 2014 and in 2022, Simran took the lead in making it a hub where diverse products thrive—vegetables, fruits, herbs and cut-flowers. However, what sets Athiana Acres apart is its dedication to regenerative agriculture. Daniel Garfinkel, Athiana Acres’ Farm Director, was instrumental in creating the vision for Athiana Acres, and oversees all aspects of the farm’s production with his extensive experience in regenerative and organic agriculture.
“Regenerative agriculture means a lot of care put into soil health and biodiversity. There’s a focus on building up the ecosystems and being as intentional with what we’re putting into the soil as we are with the crops that we’re getting back from it,” explains Panatch.
There are four main regenerative practices that the farm follows: cover cropping, crop rotation, promoting biodiversity, and minimizing disturbance. These methods result in heathier soils without relying on chemicals and petroleum- based products as inputs. For example, cover cropping involves planting crops not for harvesting, but for the purpose of naturally adding organic matter into the soil, while crop rotation utilizes the unique properties of different crops— such as adding more nitrogen into the soil—to improve the resiliency of the ecosystem.
“We have over 250 different varieties of food and flowers on the farm. This biodiversity leads to different pollinators and insects coming to the farm, which helps with natural pest control and creates a more balanced and resilient ecosystem,” explains Panatch.
For Panatch, Athiana Acres is more than just a farm—it’s a space for education and community engagement. Her vision extends beyond growing food and to reconnecting people with the origins of their food and how farming can integrate into everyday life.
Panatch believes that the stereotypical image of farming does not always resonate with city dwellers: “I think it’s hard for people to feel connected to farming if what we’re mostly used to seeing is a more rustic, white picket fence experience.”
Athiana Acres aims to change that by offering farm tours, workshops, and community events where guests can experience farming firsthand. Examples of workshops include flower growing and bouquet making, and an introduction to organic, regenerative farming. This past year, the farm hosted a Long Table Dinner with popular Vancouver restaurant Anh & Chi, and Feast of Fields, a local food celebration and fundraiser.
Panatch‘s work at Athiana Acres reflects her belief that farming is more than just growing food—it can be a space to foster connections with the community and the land. Through regenerative agriculture, she is ensuring that the farm remains sustainable and resilient, while also cultivating a deeper relationship between people, their food, and the land that sustains them.
Insect-Inspired Udon Noodles
Insect-Inspired Udon Noodles
For many university students, buying food that is healthy, eco-friendly, and easy on the wallet can be hard.
Three students in the Food, Nutrition and Health program designed a new product that would hit all three marks, plus one more—they wanted a new product that would also speak to their Asian heritage. After months of research and testing, Wyat Leung, Jasper Yuen, and Wesley To created a high protein cricket udon noodle, which they called Dan Dan Udon Noodle.
“We decided to create a product based on sustainable and cost-efficient insect protein,” said Leung. “But we know that cricket protein’s distinct flavour, coupled with some cultural aversion to insect consumption, hinders its acceptance. Inspired by flavours from our Asian roots and our love for convenient foods, we used the Dan Dan Udon to help overcome this aversion.”
They designed a product that would be inexpensive for students like themselves, innovative (beyond just using tofu), healthy (high in protein, 94% of cricket protein is bioavailable to the body), and good for the planet. They estimate the cost of each package of noodles would be less than $6.
“Currently, insect protein can be found in bars, protein powders, western pastas, snacks, and baking mixes, with little reach into Asian cuisine,” said Yuen, a Food and Nutritional Sciences Double Major.
“There is a wide-open opportunity for processed insect-based Asian cuisine foods to break into the insect-protein and high-protein market.”
Through their research, they discovered that cricket protein was incorporated into bread, which helped inspire their idea to create noodles. They later discovered research where cricket protein was used in rice noodles, with an acceptable (in terms of taste and texture) amount being 8% substitution of rice flour with cricket protein.
As students with a strong interest in food, they were already experienced with making their own chili oil, and they did sample testing with friends.
To explains the testing process: “We substituted wheat flour with cricket protein at 5%, 15%, and 25%, and prepared the udon in duplicates. We had samples evaluated by five of our friends and there was a consistent consensus of noticing distinct astringent earthy notes, plus an increase in sliminess and graininess, in samples with more than 15% cricket flour.”
In the end, they agreed that 15% of cricket protein was acceptable and maintained the stretchy texture of the noodles. Then, they investigated eliminating odors through lactic acid fermentation, dehydrating the cricket powder in the noodles to further remove unwanted flavours, and developing low-cost, sustainable packaging.
The students were motivated to tackle this intense research through FNH 303: Food Product Development, where they had learned about a competition at the 22nd World Congress of Food Science and Technology in Italy in September 2024. They knew that they would be invited to the congress if their product hit a high enough bar— and it did.
Leung and Yuen travelled to Italy to present their Dan Dan Udon Noodle in the Undergraduate Student Product Development competition, where it was tested for hedonic acceptance among food scientists from around the world. Their team name was Entomodachi, which combines entomophagy (eating insects) and tomodachi (Japanese term for friends).
Seeing how others worked through the process of food product development was eye-opening.
“I think that the competition has given us valuable insight into the operational scale of what a successful food product takes,” said Leung. “We don’t exactly have an undergraduate course here at UBC that puts everything together in a practical setting, so going to the competition, it was great to look at how other universities did food science and food product development.”
“I think that some of us might push the boundaries of what we’ve learned to create something even better in the future.”
Major New Study Study Targets Methane Emissions
Major New Study Targets Methane Emissions
Pointing the finger at methane-generating cattle as a key culprit in rising greenhouse gas emissions was a flavour-of- the-month headline news story a few years ago. But while mainstream media quickly moved on without delving too deeply, scientists throughout Canada continued asking the real questions and working on what might become crucial solutions.
LFS Professor & Canada Research Chair (Tier 1)
That includes LFS Professor Leluo Guan, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Animal Function Genomics and Microbiome. Dr. Guan was recently awarded $7.9 million in NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) funding to head a crucial and wide-ranging five-year study into cattle methane emissions.
The project, a multidisciplinary collaboration between major institutions and researchers throughout Canada, aims to understand the complexities of methane-generating processes in the rumen microbiome of beef and dairy cattle—while also developing novel technologies and management strategies to make these processes as efficient as possible at inhibiting emissions.
The issues, says Dr. Guan, are just as pressing as those news headlines suggested. “Methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2), but it has more than 28 times the global warming potential than CO2. Within all areas of methane production, agriculture is a quite high proportion. And within agriculture, ruminants are considered to be a major contributing factor due to their unique stomach properties.”
Understanding those properties has driven Dr. Guan’s research for many years. “We know that rumen microbial fermentation is essential to the growth and development of cattle and that methane formation is a necessary part of that process,” she says. “Rather than trying to stop these processes, we want to reduce the amount of methane they generate. In this study, that means looking at diet, nutrition, management and more.”
First, though, the project must chart how these processes work. “This is a data-driven investigation incorporating samples from 10,000 animals across Canada,” says Dr. Guan.
“Using metagenomic and machine learning analysis, we will study rumen microbes and their activity to identify the key microbes and hydrogen pathways that are used for methane synthesis and major fermentation products formation. By changing the hydrogen flow from being used for methane synthesis to short chain fatty acids production, we can provide more energy sources for cattle and lower the methane at the same time. By targeting the microbes involved in these pathways, we could ultimately to reach a ‘win-win’ situation.”
Exploring every angle, Dr. Guan has assembled a hugely diverse team for her study. From LFS, that includes animal welfare specialists Dr. Daniel Weary and Marina von Keyserlingk as well as reproduction expert Dr. Ronaldo Cerri, along with leading researchers from the University of Guelph, University of Alberta and University of Manitoba. In addition, there are key collaborators from the Semex Alliance and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
“We have scientists from all areas of ruminant microbiology and from different regions across Canada,” says Dr. Guan. “That’s important because each region has different cattle management techniques and different diets—grazing on pastures vs a grain-based concentrate diet for example—and our study needs to see how these different aspects impact methane formation.”
The project also includes a deep dive into cattle genetics, one of Dr. Guan’s personal specialties. “[In a previous study] we were the first to show that rumen microbes could be heritable in beef cattle,” she notes. “We want to build on that by showing that the right genetics are equally important in creating efficient rumen fermentation. That could include looking at calves’ genetics when they are born to determine whether they will become efficient and produce less methane.”
As the project unfolds, Dr. Guan anticipates many challenges. “The rumen microbiome is very complicated and the
factors affecting its function constantly change, as do the interrelationships between those factors. Another issue will be the vast amount of cross-Canada data the study must process. We’ll need to think very carefully about unifying the different formats for data collection in each part of the country.”
Those aren’t the only potential barriers to ultimately reducing cattle methane emissions in agriculture, she adds. “Farmers will need to be persuaded of the value before they are going to be interested in any new tools and approaches. Cost is a big issue, of course, and that means working on ways to help them transition viably and effectively.”
The time is ripe, though, for change. The country’s beef industry aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent by 2030, while dairy farmers are targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. Specifically reducing methane emissions is essential to meeting these goals—while also helping Canada attain its overall commitment of establishing a net-zero economy.
As her study gears up, Dr. Guan remains positive about the outcomes. “I am very excited to be working with such a great team of scientists from across Canada. I’m also looking forward to learning about their different perspectives and, together, developing real-world solutions,” she says. “I believe this project has huge potential for improving the sustainability and production efficiency of cattle—and ultimately changing things for the better.”
Launching the Next Generation of Food Innovators
Launching the Next Generation of Food Innovators
CEO of Dan-D Foods Ltd.
As a successful entrepreneur, Dan On, CEO of food manufacturer Dan-D Foods Ltd., is now at a place where he can empower other like-minded businesses.
While meeting with UBC scientists to discuss research collaborations, he became inspired by something else: an opportunity to fill a gap in the province by supporting producers, and food and beverage entrepreneurs who are brimming with new product ideas—people just like himself 35 years ago.
It didn’t take long for On to make a generous $7-million donation through the Dan On Foundation to launch the Dan On Food and Beverage Innovation Centre—set to open fully early next year—B.C.’s first innovation hub devoted to supporting agrifood entrepreneurs by providing access to state-of-the-art technologies and food science expertise. The centre will also facilitate research partnerships between industry, growers and government, and provide flexible training tailored to those working in the food industry.
On’s early meetings with Professor Anubhav Pratap-Singh centred around research and development, including new food packaging options for Dan-D Foods, before On was convinced he wanted to make the largest-ever donation to the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Dr. Pratap-Singh, who holds the Food and Beverage Innovation Professorship, is the inaugural director of the Dan On Food and Beverage Innovation Centre (FBIC).
“I’m so grateful, happy to connect with UBC,” said Mr. On. His gift will create opportunities for LFS students to be trained as the next generation of talent to work with local food companies. It will also attract top scientists from around the world to collaborate with our faculty members on innovative projects.
On says B.C. grows high quality produce. Sparked by the immense potential of turning this produce into new food, health and medicinal products, On would like to see more processing take place locally. “Farmers should have no need to ship their blueberries to the United States to make juice, and they don’t need to send cranberries to the U.S. to make cranberry sauce, and then bring the product back.”
On readily tells people that his success was earned through hard work from his humble beginnings, saying he was ‘hand to mouth’ when he started out.
He arrived from Vietnam at the age of 18 as a boat refugee and was adopted by Port Coquitlam’s Irene and George Kavanagh, who ran a food company. They helped him learn to speak English and adjust to Canadian life, but for Mr. On, settling into Canada took a few years: he was mostly homesick, often writing letters to his birth mother back in Vietnam.
He started from the ground up in the food business—including mopping floors as a janitor in his parent’s food company and driving delivery vans. Eventually, he started working in restaurants.
On says the Kavanaghs are two of his business mentors. George provided sound advice and reinforced that the two foundations for any business are service and honesty to its customers and employees. He encouraged On to launch his own company in 1989 after living in Canada for 10 years— Dan-D Foods Ltd. in Coquitlam—to supply small retailers with quality nuts and dried fruits. Ten years later, On moved Dan-D Foods to its current headquarters in Richmond.
Still headquartered in B.C. today, Dan-D Foods Ltd. now operates in six countries and has 800 employees worldwide. His company grows fruits and nuts in California and Asia, manufactures fruit, nut and grain products, and even makes its own packaging.
He says that relationships were important to his success. In addition to the Kavanaghs, he mentions others who supported him in the early days.
One person was Alex Campbell from Thrifty Foods. Campbell, who passed in 2011, co-founded Thrifty Foods on Vancouver Island in the late 1970s. He asked On to stock his stores on Vancouver Island with bulk nuts and dried fruits, and as Thrifty Foods expanded, so did Dan-D Foods’ market.
“Over the course of 25 years, we built together. He built 25 stores, 30 stores, and I became his strategic partner to grow his business and grow my business.”
“In my life I actually bumped into several good people, and they really helped me. Because of their integrity, it really inspired me.”
Today, On’s vision for the FBIC reflects these values: he believes that by supporting local businesses and nurturing new talent, B.C. can become a global leader in food innovation. He sees the FBIC as a place where entrepreneurs can access not just world-class technology, but mentorship, guidance, and the inspiration they need to succeed.
Dean’s Message
Dean’s Message
Welcome to the fall issue of ReachOut magazine! I’m confident you’ll find something of interest in this issue, particularly since our researchers are tackling global issues often seen in today’s headlines.
As Canadian dairy farmers aim to become carbon neutral by 2050, one of our researchers is supporting this mission: Dr. Leluo Guan is leading a new, multimillion project that targets the microbiome in cattle as a potential way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Another researcher, Dr. James McKendry, looks at healthy aging from the perspective of how particular foods can improve the aging process in our bodies.
Also in this issue, I invite you to learn more about food entrepreneur Mr. Dan On, who made the largest donation to LFS in its history. His incredible generosity and contribution to our Faculty will enable us to go forward with present and future ideas on food innovation, and to produce exciting products and technologies right across B.C. His gift shows his motivation to empower local food and beverage entrepreneurs to reach out and access our world-class technology, talent and guidance. We are grateful for his generous participation and commitment to LFS.
This is my first issue as Dean pro tem—and I’m excited to represent the Faculty of Land and Food Systems—a unique Faculty in the large UBC community.
My career at UBC started in 1983 when I joined what was then known as the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Since 2013, I’ve been Associate Dean of Research and I’m very proud of the quality of research and teaching taking place in LFS, especially the learning experiences we provide to our students, many of whom become thoughtful leaders and innovators in their fields.
I am looking forward to meeting many of our LFS alumni at future events, and especially interacting with those who partner with us by hiring our graduates, hosting student tours, and donating to the Faculty—all are valued investments in our Faculty and its Mission.
Warmly,
David Kitts,
Dean Pro Tem