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U of G gets $20 Million to lead agri-food revolution

The University of Guelph (U of G) has received its single largest-ever gift, a $20-million donation from the Arrell Family Foundation to transform the global food economy and further strengthen U of G and Canada as agri-food leaders.

The donation will create the Arrell Food Institute at U of G. The University will provide matching funds of $20 million, for a total commitment of $40 million.

The Arrell Food Institute will bring together cutting-edge research, agricultural expertise, big data, environmental science, business and civil society, and build on the University’s strong connections with government, international partners, industry, and communities to help attract world-leading researchers, graduate students and experts.

Along with recent government and private funding – including a $77-million award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund for the Food From Thought project – this new gift brings the total investment in agri-food at U of G to more than $150 million in the past 12 months.

“This gift will help U of G and Canada to lead the agri-food revolution,” said Prof. Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security.

That revolution is based on widening uses of technology in agri-food, he said. “The same technologies that created the Internet and are transforming medicine are now being applied to farmers’ fields and to food processing factories — we can produce more food on less land using fewer inputs.”

March 30, 2017  By Top Crop Manager