21 minute read
inside
CAROLINA TROPINI
gut SOLVING THE issue
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BY JANA MANOLAKOS
At this very moment, squiggling and squirming inside your gut are millions upon millions of tiny strands of bacteria that scientists believe may hold the key to understanding inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and human health.
As a trailblazer in this unchartered territory, Dr. Carolina Tropini is helping unravel the mysterious world of bacterial communities in the intestines, leading her research team in a bid to seek a treatment, if not a cure, for IBD. A biophysicist and Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia, Tropini won this year’s Johnson & Johnson Women in Science, Technology, Math, Manufacturing and Design Scholars Award in the field of engineering, a prize that includes a grant of US$150,000 and mentorship support for the next three years. Six winners were selected from 541 nominees worldwide. As a member of a small but growing number of pioneering women of science, Tropini is the first Canadian to be honoured with the award since its launch in 2017.
A delicately balanced ecosystem
IBD afflicts 270,000 Canadians – a number that’s expected to rise to 400,000 (about one percent of the population) by 2030 – and costs the healthcare system over $1.2 billion annually.
Dr. Tropini notes, “There's this very interesting interplay between our lifestyle, the bacteria that we have in us, and our health.” Microbes in different parts of the bowel survive in delicately balanced ecosystems that can be disrupted severely by certain food and medicine, and other ailments like intestinal flu or colon cancer. These tiny critters live off nutrients passed through the bowel and in return, produce compounds that aid in digestion and guard against dangerous pathogens. Tropini believes there is even more to the story.
Her research team is studying the connection between the gut microbiota, the gut microenvironment and IBD. “Our goal is to further biological knowledge and to facilitate the development of methods that can predict disease state and drug effectiveness, as well as therapies for diseases that affect millions of people in the world,” Tropini explains.
Keeping gut microbes healthy protects against pathogens and prevents inflammation, but Tropini suggests current lifestyles are turning out to be detrimental to the microbiota. “Some of the things that have changed in our lifestyle is that not only do we have as much nutritional food for these bacteria, because we eat very processed foods, but we’re also losing them because we’re taking compounds like antibiotics and over-the-counter drugs that change the environment of the gut so strongly that we’re starting to lose a lot of these beneficial microbes,” she explains. “We’re really interested in understanding how changes in our gut environment affect the way that bacteria and viruses can survive.” She points out that viruses like COVID-19 are found in the digestive tract and that many patients show gastrointestinal symptoms even before they show the respiratory symptoms associated with the pandemic.
“I think that the impact of COVID-19 is going to be really important for a lot of different aspects of research. And one of the things that we know that's related to the microbiota is that it’s very strongly affected by viruses attacking the gastrointestinal tract.”
Not without its challenges
“We are also trying to modify the microbial communities,” Tropini continues, “so that they will act in the way that we want. We’re looking from the perspective of dietary compounds. We think that by feeding the bacteria different compounds, we can help ameliorate this environment, so that it’s more able to support the growth and stability of bacteria that we think are beneficial.”
Working mostly with mouse intestines, the study of biopsies is not without its challenges, especially given the finicky nature of the mucus lining of the intestines, which harbours microbial communities. Live tissue from mouse intestines can be mounted in perfusion chambers or as colonic explants, but buffers and hydrating reagents must be applied very carefully to retain the natural thickness of the mucus. With electron microscopes, this was impossible because processing changed the mucus viscosity, and ultimately the ecosystem balance, that was seen through the device so it became scientifically irrelevant.
Grappling with these complexities, Dr. Tropini and her team rely on an arsenal of cutting-edge experimental and computational methods, using technologies often engineered internally with support from other university departments. With the help of the three-year grant from the award, Dr. Tropini and her team
hope to begin in vitro experiments
“These are massive projects with a lot of different facets, so we work in very large, interdisciplinary teams,” she explains. “It requires interdisciplinary research, and I've been really lucky through my training to have been exposed to a lot of different types of techniques that come from very different fields like physics, all the way to microbiology, all the way to bioengineering.”
This includes using machine learning to integrate massive and diverse data sets to create predictive models and simulations. “For example, we will look at how a bacterium will respond to a change in the physical environment, or with the addition of a specific nutrient. And then we want to try to scale that understanding up to how it affects the
health of the host.” Tropini explains that measuring the host’s immunological response is altogether different because it looks at how different cells change or whether the mucus layer is being affected.
Making science better
With the help of the three-year grant from the award, Dr. Tropini and her team hope to begin in vitro experiments that will shed light on which bacteria are creating environments that may lead to inflammation, and which may be preventing it. “Over the three years, we’re really trying to move into a position so we understand the system well enough that we can start to scale it up, and try to see whether we can move into something that will be more translational,” she says.
Down the road, Tropini’s team hopes to collaborate on novel therapies for IBD. She believes that science will get to a point in which understanding someone’s unique microbiota will lead to improved treatment and better health outcomes. “Where I see this going is personalized medicine – a lot of these diseases are incredibly different from person to person. By understanding this diversity, I hope that we’ll be able to target each person individually, and devise effective individual treatments.”
For now, Dr. Tropini is grateful for receiving the award, which she says opens up doors for women. She concludes, “There really needs to be more diversity, and there needs to be more inclusion, and there needs to be more voices to be heard, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it makes science better.”
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Editor’s Note
I’ll never forget an after-work event, when a casual conversation somehow landed on the welfare system in Canada, to which one woman proclaimed: “With Canada’s social supports, nobody in this country has an excuse to be hungry – they have plenty of help!” I didn’t share the story of a pregnant woman who visited a Manitoba social assistance office for milk vouchers, only to be Popi Bowman MANAGING EDITOR turned away with nothing. That was me, more than 15 years (a lifetime) ago. This year, many of those who were already experiencing food insecurity were plunged into more treacherous conditions. We can’t underestimate the importance of efforts such as food banks and food industry donations that have worked to feed those in need. In this issue, we’ve featured some of the organizations that are answering the call to help hungry Canadians. We’re also celebrating some Canadian businesses that are growing despite times of economic contraction. As we (gladly) say goodbye to 2020, Canadian Food Business will continue putting our country’s success stories – and struggles – in the spotlight. We hope you’ll join us in 2021!
Canadian group recognized for taking action on food security
This year’s recipients of the 2020 Innovation Awards presented by Guelph University’s Arrell Food Institute were selected for their work in building community capacity through food, each walking away with $100,000. The three winning groups included Community Food Centres Canada and U.S.-based Appetite for Change, winners of the community engagement category, with Ohio University’s Dr. Rattan Lal receiving the research category.
“In a disruptive year, community organizations and innovative researchers have become more vital than ever in not just answering people’s immediate food needs, but using their insights to advocate for a system that will better serve everyone,” says Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute.
Community Food Centres Canada uses meals as a catalyst for greater change in the food system. Through 13 centres across Canada, they provide access to healthy meals, but the spaces are also used to teach food skills as well as provide culturally appropriate and safe respite for community members. Their affordable produce markets help more people access nutritious food. The organization uses its platform to generate awareness and encourage action around food security, through events like the Big Social taking place online this year.
“Eight years ago, we began developing Community Food Centres that use food as a tool to build health and belonging in low-income communities,” explains CEO Nick Saul. “We now work with hundreds of partners across the country to advocate for the right to food and progressive public policy, so that everyone has a dignified seat at the table. With this award, we’ll support BIPOC-led partner organizations to offer empowering programs that bring people together around food.”
He adds, “We are honoured to be recognized by the Arrell Food Institute alongside inspiring leaders such as Appetite for Change and Dr. Rattan Lal.”
Appetite for Change makes a difference in North Minneapolis, using food as a vehicle for building health and social justice in the community. The organization operates urban farm plots, workshops developing food skills, youth training and facilitates networking for activists. Appetite for Change uniquely focuses on helping community members generate wealth, and one of the ways they do this is by providing certified kitchen space for local food entrepreneurs to develop products.
Dr. Rattan Lal is a world-leading soil scientist whose body of published work, generated over a 50-year career, is used by students around the world. Dr. Rattan is currently a Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University. His awardwinning research focused on a soil-centric approach to agriculture sustainability and prosperity in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Communication company aims to digitally transform the global food system Global telecommunications giant Telus has set its sights on connecting the world’s food chain. The company recently launched a new business unit, Telus Agriculture, to digitize the entire food value chain, linking technologies together for the first time and using advanced data systems and artificial intelligence to streamline operations and improve traceability.
Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus, says, “By means of our technology innovation, we will help farmers and ranchers produce food for the world’s ever-expanding population more efficiently, safely and in a more environmentally friendly manner.”
The company’s efforts will focus on a secure exchange of information that allows farmers and ranchers, agri-business organizations, the agri-food industry, food retailers and consumers to make smarter decisions. A team of international experts has been assembled by the company to connect and build relationships with participants in the agriculture value chain, from seed manufacturers and farmers through to grocery stores and restaurants.
To build scale and bench strength, Telus Agriculture has acquired several companies in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., including:
B.C.’s Farm At Hand, a farm management software; Decisive Farming, a precision agronomy and farm management tech company based in Alberta; and, Alberta-based Feedlot Health Management Solutions. As part of Telus Agriculture, Farm At Hand’s simple approach to accessing key information will expand to include integrations with other leading-edge software and IoT devices, keeping track of everything in one central platform. With the customer support and solutions from Decisive Farming, farmers are empowered with accessible, safe and secure connectivity, data management and farm analytics. Feedlot Health Management Solutions is North America’s leading feedlot consulting service, working with feedlots and calf grower operations to optimize production efficiency and overall animal health.
They join U.S.-based AFS Technologies, Agrian, AgIntegrated and TKXS, as well as Muddy Boots out of the U.K., along with the company’s partner, Hummingbird. With these acquisitions and partnerships, Telus Agriculture has amassed a billion acres of historical acre data and 170 million acres of real-time data across the most diverse crop markets in the world that can be leveraged to build industry-leading AI and machine learning-based insights.
Telus Agriculture currently supports more than 100 million acres of agricultural land, backed by a team of more than 1,200 experts across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, the U.K., Slovakia, Armenia, Germany, China and Australia.
“We are striving to provide innovative solutions to advance the agriculture sector on a worldwide basis, while positioning Canada as a preferred global supplier of safe, sustainable food,” concludes Entwistle. $Three projects will boost finance and insurance products for Canadian growers Three new projects aiming to improve financial tools and insurance products for growers have received federal funding. The government’s AgriRisk
Initiatives program has tagged $123,269 for the
Canadian Horticultural Council for a risk assessment of Ontario’s horticulture sector in the development of a new insurance product. Ontario Greenhouse
Vegetable Growers received $225,000 to develop a risk management financial product for disease and insect infestations for greenhouses, and the Association des producteurs maraichers du Québec received $38,660 for a tool for growers to assess their vulnerability and increase their resilience to climate change.
Honey sold in Canada tested by food agency for fraud The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) published its honey authenticity surveillance results which tested domestic and imported honey sold in Canada between April 2019 and March 2020. Under Canadian law, honey cannot contain added sugars if sold as authentic honey. Testing found 87 percent of the targeted honey samples were authentic, compared to 78 percent the previous fiscal year. In addition to the targeted sampling by the CFIA, samples also were collected by an independent third party as part of the agency’s marketplace monitoring activity, and CFIA testing showed 98 percent of those to be authentic.
87%
of the targeted honey samples tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency were authentic.
New high-protein milk brand debuts Fairlife, a Chicago-based dairy beverage company owned by Coca Cola, recently introduced its premium, ultrafiltered milk to the Canadian market. Made by a local team in Peterborough, Ontario, the milk is fully supplied by Canadian dairy farmers. A patented cold-filtration process concentrates nutrients like protein, to about 50 percent more than other brands, while filtering out much of the natural sugars. The brand’s journey to become 100 percent Canadian began in 2018 with an $85 million investment for a new, state-of-art dairy facility in Peterborough, that’s fully operational and has created over 30 local jobs.
Trend report points to dramatic changes to food industry landscape
The global COVID-19 pandemic caused 10 years of change in 10 months, according to the authors of a newly released study, the 2021 Nourish Network Annual Trend Report for Food, Beverage, and Agriculture, which cites data from CCFI, Neilsen, Acosta, Ipsos, McKinsey Canada and a number of other resources.
“Our fifth annual report dives into a dozen key trends that will shape the food industry landscape in 2021 and beyond,” says Jo-Ann McArthur, president of Nourish Food Marketing.
According to the report, slightly more than half (51 percent) of Canadians, primarily in the hospitality, retail and construction industries – which saw heavy job losses – say they have less money to spend on food than they did before COVID-19.
Family mealtime also has made a comeback, with more people cooking at home during the pandemic. Cooking fatigue is emerging, however, as is the craving for new experiences. This has fuelled greater interest in meal kits and restaurantbranded products, as a convenient way to get the restaurant experience at home.
Awareness of social justice in Canada’s food supply – like wages, workers’ rights and living conditions for migrant workers – have taken centre stage in the media, helping drive consumer behaviour toward values-based eating.
Related to food social justice, consumers want to know how their groceries were produced, such as the treatment of farm workers, and if animal and environmental welfare were considered.
Interest in food with a reduced environmental impact has led companies to take a serious look at “regenerative agriculture,” which embraces soil health, above-ground diversity and economic resilience for farmers.
There’s a rise in food nationalism, with a recent study showing that four in five Canadians are willing to pay extra for locally grown produce, and six in 10 Canadians say they trust food produced here more than from elsewhere. The report also suggests that a growing number of consumers want food and beverages that support physical, mental and emotional health.
The COVID-19 lockdown kicked off an unplanned and unprecedented trial for online grocery; half of all Canadian households with internet access used it during the first six months of the pandemic. While online grocery purchases remain high, they are growing less frequent.
According to the report, the agricultural industry has become more receptive to government, especially in support of employment opportunities and in response to global challenges like the pandemic and trade wars with China and the U.S. Other trends suggest greater investment in soil health and accelerated integration of digital technology.
Food banks sound alarm as demand surges during pandemic COVID-19 has presented significant challenges to communities across Canada, and particularly for Canadians facing food insecurity. Study after study reveals that food banks are being hit hard with a surge in demand among food banks that were already stretched to capacity with 1.1 million visits per month across Canada before the pandemic.
A recent study by Food Banks Canada shows that larger urban areas were more likely to see increased demand due to COVID-19 related job losses. The report, Food Banks and COVID-19 – A National Snapshot, surveyed nearly 1,000 food banks across Canada and found that government supports such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and increases to the Canada Child Benefit helped manage demand but as the pandemic lingered, that changed.
“Despite new social policy initiatives, many food banks were left struggling with increased client need, especially in larger urban centres, at the same time as having to adapt operations to comply with fast-changing regulations,” explained Kirstin Beardsley, chief network services officer at Food Banks Canada. “Our biggest concern now is what will happen as we see more job losses in at-risk industries. These cities could be facing a ticking time bomb.”
Prior to the pandemic, food banks already reported the high cost of housing as one of the main reasons why people needed assistance. In 2019, 70 percent of all food bank clients lived in rental housing with fewer household assets to help buffer against sudden economic shocks, like job loss.
In each province before the pandemic, the lowest income group was paying well over 50 percent of their income for the cost of rent and utilities, leaving little for other basic needs such as food. A study by Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto found that the percentage of food bank clients facing deep housing unaffordability rose from 67 percent to 81 percent during the pandemic. Additionally, a recent report released by Feed Ontario found that one in two food bank clients are worried about facing eviction or defaulting on their mortgage in the next two to six months.
“Food banks are still grappling with the aftermath of the 2008–09 recession. Now, with the massive increase in food bank use during COVID-19, we are deeply concerned that we will be facing another decade of heightened food insecurity,” says Neil Hetherington, CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank. “The trends we were seeing before the pandemic – the high cost of housing, precarious employment and insufficient income supports – are what have made our communities most vulnerable to the impacts of this virus.”
Craft beer awards go global
The 2021 Craft Beer Marketing Awards have gone global this year, becoming the first international awards program to focus on retail beer marketing. Canada has over 1,025 craft breweries offering 8,517 beers, many made with homegrown ingredients; for comparison, the U.S. has over 7,450 craft breweries nationwide.
Two special categories reflecting recent events have been added to the awards this year: “Pandemic marketing” and “human rights” have been added to the list of over 30 categories to honour the industry’s best brands. Entries close January 29; information can be found at craftbeermarketingawards.com.
Plant-based chicken earns top spot
Sol Cuisine, a Canadian manufacturer of plant-based food products, earned the top spot for its plant-based Crispy Chik’n Bites in a recently published report by industry experts listing the “100 Best Vegan Products of All Time.” The chickenstyle bites also ranked top 10 in the entire meatless category and top 30 in the whole plant-based category including all foods, beverages and other alternatives. CEO John Flanagan remarked, “It’s hard to believe it’s not chicken! On top of the incredible taste, this product is also Kosher, non-GMO certified and comes with a deliciously paired BBQ sauce pack
in every bag.”
