New Plant Ag Chair in Food Security & Sustainable Farming
Overview:
Growing crops more efficiently to ensure food security while keeping soils healthy are key goals of a new faculty chair funded this year at the University of Guelph.
The Martin and Denise Pick Family Chair in Sustainable Cropping Systems will be supported by a $2-million gift to the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), along with funding from OAC and an anonymous bequest.
The chairholder is expected to be named in early 2023, said Dr. Eric Lyons, acting chair of the Department of Plant Agriculture.
Research and teaching under the new position is intended to focus on growing food crops in sustainable ways. “The goal is to produce more food on less space,” said Lyons.
That’s a critical challenge.
“We need to think innovatively about what we do in farming and its impact on the environment, soil, water, carbon,” he said.