By Scott Lingley

 The layer of fresh snow concealing the sod that was to be turned in a ceremony heralding the future site of the University of Alberta’s $24 million Agri-Food Discovery Place (AFDP) did little to dampen the enthusiasm of representatives from the provincial and federal governments, private industry and the University of Alberta's Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science.

AFDP will be home to world-class innovative research, training and technology transfer, with a focus on food safety and value-added processing of food and industrial products. The facility is slated to open in the fall of 2005.

“We see Agri-Food Discovery Place as the essential plank of innovation and discovery that’s going to drive a lot of new technologies, a lot of new research ideas on the crop side and on the meat safety side,” said Dr. John Kennelly, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics. “We’re not quite done with the fundraising, but it shows the commitment on the part of the university to this project that we’re prepared to go ahead at this stage of fundraising.”

Jim Fleury, acting assistant deputy minister (Alberta) for Western Economic Diversification -- one of AFDP’s major funders -- was optimistic about the opportunities and improvements to quality of life in the province and beyond that the new research facility would generate.

“Agri-Food Discovery Place will help us create new processes for enhancing food safety, and it will also help us develop new technology to meet industry and consumer demands,” Fleury said. “We will all benefit from industry-driven research and the enhanced working relationship between the U of A and local firms this project will help promote.”

Key research to be undertaken at AFDP includes:

• Advanced research into food-borne pathogens to improve the safety of the world’s food supply.
• Research into sustainable growth for Alberta’s food manufacturing industry.
• Development for alternative uses of secondary products from beef processing.
• Development of value-added food products.
• Research into how to use crops to create biofuels, bioplastics, building products, paper and fibres, supported by the planned $3.2-million Bunge Lipid Utilization Centre.

“With the advent of this state-of-the-art facility, we are positioned to be at the forefront of lipid utilization research in the world,” said U of A researcher Dr. Suresh Narine. “We now have the capacity to go beyond any research that’s been done.”

Alberta Agriculture minister Shirley McClellan said the province is investing in AFDP based on the conviction that the research will help Alberta maintain its position as a major centre of agri-business.

“I always remind people, although we are a small-population province, we are the second largest agricultural producer in this country, we are the second largest exporter of manufactured food in this country, and we didn’t get there by accident -- we got there through good research,” McClellan said. “This is a good investment for the people of Alberta and for the agricultural industry. This is real money, this is real investment and this is real progress being made, and that’s what the people of this province understand.”