Nourrir la planète : voilà, chers lecteurs et chères lectrices de La Terre de chez nous, le défi auquel vous travaillez sans relâche. Les chercheurs de la Faculté des sciences de l’agriculture et de l’environnement de l’Université McGill, que je représente, s’y dévouent chaque jour en proposant des pistes de solution aux obstacles que vous rencontrez sur le terrain.


On Sept. 14, McGill’s Morgan Arboretum forest reserve held its annual open house, giving students an opportunity to experience a unique part of the Macdonald campus. With activities including the monarch butterfly launch and a birds of prey flight show, visitors had the opportunity to learn more about the local flora and fauna found at the Arboretum.
GODAN NEWS RELEASE
Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), the UN, UK and US government supported initiative driving global efforts to tackle food security and to end world hunger by propagating open data polices in agriculture and nutrition across the world, announces the relocation of its headquarters from Oxford, in the United Kingdom to McGill University in Montréal, Canada effective of 24 of September 2019.
Congrats to Ebrahim Noroozi, Lab Manager (Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry) who was recognized for his excellence recently by both the Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (Individual Award) and the Iranian Food Science and Technology Association (Food Scientist of the Year-Academic Category).

With a swing of her axe, Stéphanie Bélanger-Naud, FMT’14, BSc(AgEnvSc)’17, regularly bites out large chunks from totem-like wooden poles, and, handling a single buck saw, slices through pine logs the size of sewer pipes. She's no slouch when it comes to a chain saw, either. A professional female timbersports athlete, or lumberjill, she excels at an axe event called the underhand chop. It involves hacking at a log she stands on, and breaking it in two, which she is capable of completing in 31 seconds.

McGill entomology researcher and PhD candidate Gail MacInnis presented her findings at the Apimondia International Apicultural Congress in Montreal earlier this week
McGill entomology researcher and PhD candidate Gail MacInnis says that when comparing pollination efficiency between wild bees native to Canada and the more numerous honey bees, there is no contest. Wild bees win, wings down.

Dalhousie University, Lethbridge College and McGill University are collaborating with Farm Credit Canada on a 2 year pilot project to bring Canadian post-secondary agriculture students together to create innovative solutions to Canadian agricultural challenges. Fifteen students will bring their diverse Canadian perspectives together in cross-institutional teams responding to a specific regional agricultural issue. The challenge tasks will take teams through a creative problem solving matrix as they meet with local producers to discover the full amplitude of the challenge question.

Professor Chandra Madramootoo is the recipient of the 2019 World Irrigation and Drainage Prize. During the Opening Ceremony of the World Irrigation Forum on September 02 in Bali, H.E. Minister Basuki Hadimulyono, Minister for Water Resources and Public Works of Indonesia, and H.E.

A team of Montreal researchers has devised a new set of criteria to better diagnose a disease that affects the elderly, sarcopenia, which causes loss of muscle mass.
The improved criteria raise hopes that physicians will be able to detect the disease in people earlier, and therefore, to recommend certain types of exercise and nutrition to stem the loss of muscle mass, say scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

FMT's Serge Lussier recently received the Mérite du Conseil interprofessionnel du Québec (CIQ) from the Ordre des Agronomes du Québec, awarded for exceptional work in supporting promoting agriculture and its professional aspects. He is the fourth Macdonald staff member, and 3rd FMT staff member, to receive this award since its inception in 1990.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) ensures Canada’s working landscapes remain biologically diverse, resilient, and adaptive
Urban agriculture is getting a $750,000 boost from the province and from Montreal to help develop the farming sector.
The goal is to spur innovation and growth in urban farming, agriculture and local greenhouses, ensuring the projects align with the needs in each part of town to add to the vitality of the area.
... These measures have been due for a long time, said McGill University Urban Agriculture Professor Mark Lefsrud.

Two McGill researchers developing solutions to clean marine oil spills in the Northwest Passage and in oceans surrounding Canada to receive $3.7 million in funding from the Multi-Partner Research Initiative (MPRI).

Rappelling down a 650-foot cliff to catch seabirds on a remote island just below the Arctic Circle was scary enough.
“The first time you look over and you rappel over, it’s certainly not for the faint of heart,” said Kyle Elliott, a research chair in Arctic ecology at McGill University in Canada.
But for Elliott and fellow researcher Emile Brisson Curadeau, it was the hungry polar bears (Ursus maritimus) — usually one a day walking near their cabin — that raised real concerns, and devoured their research subjects.

Improving the comfort and longevity of dairy cows can improve dairy farm sustainability and profitability. This is the premise of the Industrial Research Chair in the Sustainable Life of Dairy Cattle, launched in 2016 and led by Dr. Elsa Vasseur of McGill University. Preliminary results of multiple studies presented in May 2019 by the scientist and her team show promise for new and innovative approaches to cow comfort and longevity.