UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems: Priority Projects Fundraising Case for Support (2012)

Faculty of Land and Food Systems

start an evolution UBC generates ideas that start evolutions. Ideas that change the way people think and the way the world works. We see this change as an evolution, one that improves upon what has come before and inspires the generations that follow.

Our start an evolution campaign has two ambitious goals—to raise $1.5 billion and to double the number of alumni engaged in the life of the University.

Why? To increase our capacity to change the world for the better, through student learning, research, and community engagement.

You can help start an evolution through involvement and investment.

This can be as simple as reconnecting with UBC or as generous as making a donation.

We invite you to get involved and combine your energy with ours.

Together with UBC, you can help create solutions for the issues you care about. This is your opportunity to make a contribution with long lasting effects. This is your chance to help start an evolution and support thinking that can change the world.

PhD student Alannah Young Leon and Associate Professor Eduardo Jovel at the UBC Farm. Photos (above and right) by Martin Dee.

Journey with me to a true commitment to our environment.

Journey with me to the serenity of leaving to our children a planet in equilibrium.

—Paul Tsongas

Dean’s Message You are not a gadget. You are not a green building, a solar panel, or an electric car.

Because you are the greatest natural resource the world has produced, the future of global sustainability needs you.

Each of us has more to offer than the incremental efforts of recycling, composting, and clever engineering. People drive the core of the sustainability movement, and within us grows the potential to connect the lives of those we love, to those we have yet to meet, back to the land and resources that nourish us all.

Whether through our work in nutrition, farming, animal welfare, dairy production, or wine, we at the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems know the core purpose of sustainable living is to nurture you—not only to live long, but to live well. We are the faculty for people. We want to work with you to sustain the land and water upon which all life depends.

Together, we can achieve a deeper understanding of the issues. We can create opportunities for new options to emerge.

We can transform our purpose and see ourselves both as local stewards and as living links in a global interdisciplinary network.

The following stories show how collaborative efforts inspire breakthroughs, provoke deeper understanding, and ignite practical solutions. We invite you to join us in this transformative process.

Your support of our people and projects— through your time, your talent, and your resources—will expand that quality of excellence, academic rigour, and depth of engagement which will ensure the resilience of our communities. By working together we can accomplish great things and build a future worthy of the generations that will come after us.

To do this, we need to come together and commit to this journey: To recognize our deep connection to one another, and to combine our imagination, talent, and passion to engage with the challenges of sustainability. We each have an important part to play. The success of global sustainability requires all of us combining our resources and working together.

Murray B. Isman Dean, Faculty of Land and Food Systems

UBC FARM CENTRE // Together, we can transform a farm and secure our future

Naty King (centre) with daughters Cristina (left) and Jamie (right; alumna BSc’03), Joy of Feeding, farm supporters.

The UBC Farm is the place where a great community of citizens, learners, and mentors come together to stretch their minds and get their hands dirty. By focusing on food production and the stewardship of our land and water, today’s Farm is a key part of UBC’s emergence as a global leader in sustainability.

The UBC Farm was created in 1999 by students studying in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (precursor to today’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems). They imagined a new purpose for the neglected field areas on UBC’s south campus. Could they create an integrated farm system and provide a practical complement to the sustainability theory taught in class? Students rallied faculty, staff, and community members to transform this vision into reality, bringing together fragmented fields into a single farm and forest ecosystem that delivered a number of programs across different disciplines.

By 2008, in the face of challenging economic pressures, there was growing concern that the UBC Farm would be replaced by market housing. Students initiated a campaign that called on the university to commit the 60-acre site to the Farm. Through a wellpublicized series of meetings, letter-writing campaigns, and public demonstrations, they successfully mobilized other students, faculty and staff, community members, and various levels of government.

Because of their work, this area has now been secured in perpetuity as green academic space for the Farm and the academic programs led by the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and its academic partners.

With your support, the Farm will continue to thrive and grow as a global centre for sustainable food systems, community health, and environmental literacy. It will become a destination for community investment and a magnet for attracting and retaining researchers, students, and community partners who seek to unlock our collective potential to steward our land and food systems.

With escalating attention and energy focusing on the Farm, now is the time to elevate those students’ initial vision into a world-class opportunity. By investing new resources, we can transform the Farm into a sophisticated living lab to serve the needs of growing communities who demand robust efforts to resolve the challenges of sustainability.

The catalyst for this transformational process will be the UBC Farm Centre — an unprecedented learning and research facility that will put people back into the sustainability equation. While concerns over climate change, energy conservation, and green buildings have been crucial elements in advancing the sustainability agenda, it is clear that creating a space where we can study and learn about developing safe and economically viable food systems is critical to our long-term survival. Capital cost of the Centre is projected at $20 million.

By focusing our efforts through the UBC Farm and moving forward its potential, we can honour the efforts of those students and community members over the past decade and ignite a transformative process that will build a sustainable future for generations to come.

Throughout the world there are more than six billion consumers of milk and milk products.

In 2011 the world’s dairy farms produced over 730 million tonnes of milk. Milk is an important food source with many nutrients which are especially important in nurturing the development of young children. It is also a key contributor to improving nutrition and food security, particularly in developing countries. By improving livestock and dairy technology, we offer significant promise of reducing poverty and malnutrition in the world.

The UBC Dairy Centre, located in Agassiz, BC, is recognized as a world-class facility for the development of best practices in the dairy industry. An international roster of dairy and agriculture researchers, professionals, and students come to this high-calibre dairy farm with a commitment to understanding how to help cows thrive and produce the best milk. The results of their work are critical to developing a sustainable and safe milk industry. We have an opportunity to advance the work of students and researchers by recognizing their need for safe and accessible accommodation.

Our researchers, interns, and students need to provide round-the-clock care for dairy cows involved in their research projects.

This requires living in the town of Agassiz, BC, hours away from our main campus in Vancouver. However, short-term, affordable housing in the area is limited.

We have designed a solution to recognize and strengthen the rich learning that only occurs when researchers and students share spaces with one another, are close to their research, and learn to depend on each other to build a greater sense of community.

We propose to establish The Dairy Connection Hostel, which will provide a short-term, residential environment for researchers and students who are doing innovative work of benefit to the dairy industry, increasing milk production through conscious attention to animal welfare.

With adequate housing, opportunities for collaborative research will increase and a stronger global network of dairy researchers will emerge.

The hostel will provide a collegial environment for researchers and students.

The overall cost of constructing this 10,800 square-foot complex is estimated at $2.5 million. We have earmarked matching funds to achieve this goal and look for partners to help us complete the capital required. We invite you to join us in this endeavour.

Alumna Kiyomi Ito (MSc’09, BSc’06) at the UBC Dairy Centre.

UBC DAIRY CENTRE CONNECTION HOSTEL // Together, we can help cows thrive and produce the best milk

UBC ANIMAL WELFARE PROGRAM // Together, we can become more human by protecting the wellbeing of animals

Animals nourish us. They partner with us so we may better understand our world.

By recognizing the vulnerability in animals, we also recognize the vulnerability in ourselves. By protecting their wellbeing and happiness, we acknowledge our connection to all of nature. In so doing, we deepen our own practice of empathy and caring for the world.

The UBC Program in Animal Welfare was established in 1997 and has become one of the world’s foremost research groups working on animal welfare. For example, dairy farmers use this research to improve the health and comfort of cattle, with significant, positive economic implications.

Animals also share our homes and become part of our families. With all that animals give us, is there a way to recognize the complexity of this relationship?

Alumna Cathy Schuppli (PhD’04) and Fergus.

By conservative estimates there are more than 175 million domestic cats and dogs in North American homes. Pet owners and caregivers demand solutions to the specific challenges that the welfare of companion animals presents. With our strong base in advancing deeper appreciation of the issues of animal welfare, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems is well positioned to advance science in the service of companion animals and their caregivers.

This work will be possible through the efforts of engaged donors who will help us build resources for a ten-year budget for this emerging focus. As caregivers and pet lovers, we believe this is worth doing for the welfare of animals that bring joy and comfort to our lives. We want to join with you in creating a more sustainable future for companion animals, who by being themselves, help us become more human.

UBC FOOD, HEALTH, AND NUTRITION LABS // Together, we can ensure we all eat safely and joyfully

Canadians benefit from rigorous regulations around food processing, the result of work by researchers and students in food science and nutrition laboratories.

This connection between discoveries in our laboratories and the safety and quality of our food supply is something for all of us to celebrate.

While researchers and students in the UBC Food, Nutrition, and Health Program dedicate themselves to discovering, understanding, and advancing the relationship between food and our physical and social wellbeing, they need new resources to raise their work to new levels.

The existing laboratories were built 35 years ago as small stand-alone labs when questions around food safety and nutrition used different tools and methodologies.

In the decades since, technologies and paradigms for conducting research on food science, safety, and processing have changed at exponential rates.

Assistant Professor Kevin Allen. Photo by Martin Dee.

To keep up with the demand for rigorous, advanced analysis, we need to transform our laboratories to meet the needs of people in the 21st century. To build cutting-edge labs, we have put aside half the funds needed for these renovations, and we seek partners to achieve the remaining $1.5 million.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food-borne illness is on the rise across America. The importance of laboratory-based testing of food’s safety was recently highlighted with the announcement that the Pew Charitable Trusts had provided Consumer Reports with a $2 million grant for a two-year study of the safety of meat, poultry, and other food items.

To ensure the quality and excellence of our own food supply in Canada, we need to provide our own researchers with the facilities and tools to do their best work.

This will ensure our food supply is nutritious and safe, so we can continue to enjoy the high quality of food that will enrich our lives for many generations to come.

Wine is a universal language with history, geography, science, culture, and politics in each bottle. It’s an icebreaker, a dealmaker, and a way to travel the globe from your armchair. Since ancient Greek and Roman times, wine has been a part of almost every culture.

Three years ago the UBC Wine Research Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary.

With support from partners such as the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the BC Knowledge Development Fund, and Western Economic Diversification, the Centre has established one of the most modern and best-equipped viticulture and oenology research facilities in the world. It has attracted leading researchers and graduate students globally, along with more than $17 million in research funding over the decade.

A key focus of the Centre has been to improve wine quality through research in the structure and function of wine yeasts, which are fundamental to the fermenting of grapes and producing the best wine. Researchers have successfully removed potentially harmful compounds in the fermentation process while improving flavour. Along with this work has been research into grapevine biology at the molecular and biochemical levels to produce the best grapes.

To better understand the aging qualities of good wine, the Centre established the UBC Wine Library which houses approximately 22,000 bottles of wine, donated by wineries and wine connoisseurs with a keen interest in advancing a deeper understanding of the characteristics and composition of excellent wines. By studying the characteristics of the world’s best wines, researchers at the Centre can apply this knowledge to improve the longevity and quality of local BC wines.

The Centre is uniquely positioned to draw on its research strength, expertise, and excellent facilities to take the production of outstanding wines in BC to the next level.

By creating, promoting, and applying new knowledge on wine yeasts, grape growing, and the qualities of fine wines, the Centre is able to help the BC and global wine industries flourish and thrive.

Our challenge in doing this is to retain and continue to attract the very best wine researchers from around the world. We have the facilities, we have the projects, and we have the fundamental scientific expertise.

What we need now is significant financial support to drive the research agenda over the next ten years.

Government support for the cutting-edge research done in the Centre helped us start.

Now is the time for wine lovers everywhere to partner with other individuals, industries, and foundations to push the work of the Centre to the next level.

Together, we can raise our glasses and put the UBC Wine Research Centre on the map as an international centre of excellence.

Professor Hennie van Vuuren, Director of the UBC Wine Research Centre. Photo by Martin Dee.

UBC WINE RESEARCH CENTRE // Together, we can uncork the powerful potential of wine

Throughout UBC’s history, students have made possible many of the opportunities we cherish today, not by knowing the right answers, but in learning how to ask insightful questions and put the solutions into practice.

In 1922 nearly 1200 students marched from downtown Vancouver to Point Grey and convinced the government to finish UBC’s flagship campus. In 2009 a new generation of students mobilized 2000 community members to save the UBC Farm.

Students call attention to the questions we need to answer if we are to live worthwhile and meaningful lives. They are leaders in training who help define not only what our communities are today, but what they can be tomorrow. To generate these insights, students need opportunities to learn and grow, and we need to support them.

Students in Land and Food Systems are at the forefront of uncharted methodologies and processes—from finding solutions that protect food safety and promote human health, to discovering new processes that enhance the wellbeing of animals and all living things.

Our students are among the most active participants in UBC’s community-based learning initiative, connecting their academic work with their concern for enhancing communities.

Through placements with non-profits, government agencies, and industry partners, students develop research projects and analyze data. They share their results and conclusions with organizations and agencies that make use of this information to generate more resilient, sustainable communities.

As pioneers in bridging formerly segregated modes of inquiry, our students need opportunities and resources to stimulate their curiosity, foster their courage to pursue potential solutions, and nurture their compassion and concern for the human condition.

Scholarships, teaching and research assistantships, and resources for student projects, conferences, and research travel are the kind of support which open up opportunities for students to evolve into the inspiring and resourceful leaders needed for tomorrow.

Your financial support for students now will help shape the future. We invite you to join us on this great journey of building a sustainable tomorrow for all.

To view videos of initiatives which your support makes possible, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/ubclandfood

Jared Singh, student with the UBC Farm Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture.

Photo by Martin Dee.

CULTIVATE STUDENT LEADERS // Together, we can give tomorrow’s leaders the tools they need today

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how can you get involved?

Murray B. Isman Larry Sproul Dean Director, Development Tel: Tel: 604.822.1219 604.827.5556 dean.landfood@ubc.ca E-mail: larry.sproul@ubc.ca Larry NancySproul Cardozo Development Director Associate Director, Development Tel: 604.827.5556 Tel: 604.822.1313 E-mail: E-mail: larry.sproul@ubc.ca nancy.cardozo@ubc.ca Niki RyanGlenning Smith Development OfficerDevelopment Associate Director, Tel: 604.822.8910 Tel: 604.822.4376 E-mail: niki.glenning@ubc.ca E-mail: ryan.smith@ubc.ca Jeffrey Hsu Laura Vaughan Writer, Strategy and Proposal Development Development Officer Tel: 604.822.8866 Tel: 604.822.0631 E-mail: jeffrey.hsu@ubc.ca E-mail: laura.vaughan@ubc.ca Sabrina Yan Jeffrey Hsu Development Coordinator Development Coordinator Tel: 604.822.0599 Tel: 604.822.9274 E-mail: sabrina.yan@ubc.ca E-mail: jeffrey.hsu@ubc.ca

Sabrina Yan Development Coordinator Tel: 604.822.2378 E-mail: sabrina.yan@ubc.ca

Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Cover photo: Sarah Race.