Rendering: The devil is in the details

A Sanimax animal rendering plant in Montreal's east end has drawn complaints from residents for years, largely centering on odors coming from the facility. Recently, an agreement reached between the company and the City of Montreal to address the issue by retrofitting the factory seems to have fallen apart.

In an article for La Presse, McGill agronomist and economist Pascal Thériault explains why the recovering of by-products through rendering, an often invisible part of the industry, is essential for environmental sustainability and cost efficiency in the agri-food sector.