The multi-cultural team that heads up the Viandes Lafrance meat packing plant in Quebec. Photo courtesy Viandes Lafrance

The great food summit adventure

Hart Attacks: Higher learning experience at the end of an escalator ride

Alberta Farmer columnist Lee Hart attended the Food Leadership Summit in Calgary, where about 400 ag industry players gathered for the new annual conference.

Brasathe Jenathan has developed a more sustainable version of a process used to extract protein from faba beans.

Faba bean research means high protein, less gas

The process of breaking down faba beans is an important sustainability tool, scientist says

[UPDATED: Mar. 5, 2024] Let’s get the obvious part out of the way. By separating “the good stuff” (protein, starch and dietary fibre) from faba beans, a University of Alberta researcher has improved on a process that minimizes human flatulence from eating them. That issue has long been a deterrent to mass acceptance of the


The long-closed Manitoba Sugar Company refinery in Winnipeg.

A return to Manitoba-grown sugar beets?

Alberta grower group says a national policy could reopen the door

Manitoba hasn’t been a sugar-producing province in over 20 years. There’s been nowhere to sell it. The sole Winnipeg refinery closed in early 1997. Owned by Rogers Sugar at the time of closing — the same company whose employees are currently on strike at its cane sugar plant in Vancouver — the Manitoba Sugar Company

Architectural rendering of the aerial view of the Marketlands project, the likely future site of Food & Beverage Manitoba’s proposed food-development centre.

Dreaming of a Winnipeg-based food development centre

The Food & Beverage Manitoba facility would target small and medium food processors looking to ramp up new products

The industry group representing agri-food processors in the province hopes to fill a hole they say has been limiting the ability for Manitoba-based food products to get on the shelves. Food & Beverage Manitoba (FaBMB) is working hard to establish a food-development centre to help small and medium-sized processing businesses bring their products to market.


The interior of Burcon’s Winnipeg Technical Centre.

Burcon adds processor scale-up services

Company says the move leverages its expertise and equipment to attract new business

Manitoba agri-food processors will soon be able to access Burcon’s protein processing equipment to help get their food products to market. Burcon NutraScience Corporation, which focuses on plant proteins and ingredients for the food and beverage sector, says it will offer start-to-finish product development services for processors. “We saw that gap in the industry and

A 2019 display in the Food Development Centre in Portage la Prairie highlights locally developed food products brought to market.

Funding for food processing comes at right time

S-CAP funding is good news for Manitoba’s food and beverage industry

Last month’s federal-provincial funding announcement for Manitoba food processors is critical for the industry, according to Food and Beverage Manitoba. “I would say those streams of funding are absolutely crucial for stimulating growth and supporting innovation in the sector,” said executive director Michael Mikulak. Why it matters: Access to funding could help food processing businesses ride


Amy Nikkel, who owns Adagio Acres with her family, speaks at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon on Jan. 18.

The good, bad and ugly of value-added

Farmer and miller Amy Nikkel shares considerations for on-farm food processing

Amy Nikkel and her family took up farming, food-processing and grain milling “kind of all together,” she said. The first year, they grew a crop of gluten-free organic oats, cleaned them and tested products. The next year a flood kept them from planting oats on their Interlake farm. The third year, they grew another crop,