Red Deerians have a chance to learn more about the future of agriculture next week.
Red Deer College and Olds College will team with Edmonton’s University of Alberta to host an event featuring a series of presentations at the Welikoklad Event Centre on Canada’s Agriculture Day Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
“While (the event) is a celebration of what we’ve accomplished as an industry, it’s really about the future before us in this sector,” said Stan Blade, University of Alberta dean of faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences.
Blade will speak at the event, along with RDC president Joel Ward, Olds College president Stuart Cullum, founder of The Agri-Trend Group of Companies Rob Saik and environmental-health risk governance analyst David Zaruk.
Speakers will discuss the latest technologies helping the agriculture industry, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities it faces.
“Canada continues to be a great supplier of food to the rest of the world. There are a lot of great things going on.
“All of the opportunities in front of us are creating some exciting times. People are thinking about the future of plant protein, they’re looking at all these interesting new ways of tracing food so … people understand the care that has been taken in its production,” said Blade.
One of the biggest challenges for the industry is short-term and long-term climate resilience, he added.
More than 200 are expected to attend the event, said Blade.
“Red Deer College and Olds College have been great at mobilizing their communities, so I think we’re going to have a great turnout,” he said.
Blade said he expects to see a diverse crowd on Tuesday.
“We’ll have a number of producers … wearing buttons saying, ‘I’m a farmer ask me a question,’” he said. “There will be people from urban backgrounds, maybe some without a family tradition of agriculture.
“It’s about celebrating and agriculture, as well as telling our stories.”
The U of A will hold another Agriculture Day event earlier in the day in Edmonton.
For more information or to RSVP visit uab.ca/agday.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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