I hope you enjoy this issue of ReachOut magazine, where we are introducing a refreshed look-and-feel to the edition.
I invite you to meet four new researchers and instructors who have joined LFS. Also, you may recognize some retiring faculty members who have just hung up their hats after long and illustrious careers at UBC.
This fall, we launched a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Animal Welfare Program. In this issue, you can read how the science of animal welfare evolved at UBC, becoming a robust, world-leading research program. I am proud of the impact our alumni and researchers have made on animal welfare standards in place around the world.
We have several faculty members working on different aspects of climate change adaptation. You can learn about two of them who are trying to predict how future climate conditions will impact our ecosystems by understanding the physiological reaction of plants in drought stress situations. Thorsten Knipfer is experimenting with precision irrigation approaches in hazelnuts using innovative technology. Simone Castellarin is looking at how water stress impacts wine grapes – in terms of growth, sugar production, and compounds that create a wine grape’s distinct aroma.
Alumnus Michael Wesley, who is part of the Gitanmaax Band, shares his motivation for entering the dietetics profession. He aims to make an impact in his community by addressing health and food insecurity, and fostering relationships across the province. A recent graduate, he is also helping to lay a foundation for future dietitians to begin understanding some of the complexities in Indigenous health.
Enjoy this issue and as always, I’d love to hear from you.
Evaluating Tarps to Terminate Cover Crops and Reduce Tillage
Dr. Sean Smukler and Emma Yates
In summer 2020, Emma Yates was one of the undergraduate students analyzing soils for the Long-Term Biodiversity Monitoring Project at the UBC Farm, when the students hit upon an interesting pattern.
Areas under agricultural production had significantly fewer earthworms than adjacent areas like grassy field margins and hedgerows. While most earthworms are non-native to B.C. soils, they are important indicators of soil health and could also reflect important differences in soil fauna – the critical animal life in soils that contribute to soil health and food production.
“There was just this huge discrepancy between earthworm abundance in the grass and other areas directly next to the crop production fields…I thought to myself, we’ve gotta be able to do something about this,” says Yates.
Yates completed a Directed Studies to further analyze the data she had collected, and couldn’t get the idea of soil fauna out of her head. “I decided to reach out to Sean [Smukler]. He told me we could create a study to kind of encapsulate my interests, the goals of his lab’s existing project, and the questions farmers were raising.”
Emma Yates is now a master’s student in Associate Professor Sean Smukler’s Sustainable Agriculture Lab in LFS. Her study “Evaluating Tarps to Terminate Cover Crops and Reduce Tillage” is part of the larger project “Too Much Water or Too Little? Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming,” which was launched in 2019 by Kira Borden and Raelani Kesler under the supervision of Smukler. The larger project is seeking to help farmers maintain soil health in a changing climate, as farmers grapple with more intense droughts and flooding events.
“As we have seen so obviously over the last year, farmers are facing increasingly unpredictable weather, making a hard job even harder,” says Smukler. “Our project was designed to help address questions farmers have raised about particular strategies to increase their farm’s resilience to weather events. We hope to provide some quantitative evidence to help farmers evaluate and manage alternatives, such as silage tarps and other soil management approaches. Importantly we are trying to do this keeping longer-term impacts in mind.”
Smukler’s Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming project was already investigating the use of silage tarps, a type of durable, UV-resistant tarp used in agriculture, to protect soil over the winter. Yates’ study looks at using these tarps to avoid tilling the soil.
Traditionally, farmers use tractors to till overwintering cover crops, essentially churning the soil in preparation for the summer growing season. Yates’ research is showing that tilling the soil negatively impacts the soil fauna, and this study is testing an alternative: reducing or even eliminating the need to till the soil, by terminating the cover crops with silage tarps.
For the study, Yates cultivated squash, analyzing the soil and also the yield by painstakingly measuring each squash for size and weight. The study compares a “business as usual” control plot, where the UBC Farm staff till the cover crop, while her research plot relies on tarps and avoids tillage entirely. Yates hopes to show that this leads to more soil fauna, a more productive soil, and greater squash yields.
One growing season alone isn’t enough to repopulate all soil fauna, says Yates, but the study will show a path forward. Once they have the data, the next key step is to communicate the findings with farmers.
McCarthy GC^, Morgan SC^, Martiniuk JT, Newman B, McCann S, Measday V, Durall DA. 2021. An indigenous Saccharomyces uvarum population with high genetic diversity dominates uninoculated Chardonnay fermentations at a Canadian winery. PLOS ONE 16(2): e0225615.
Cheng E^, Martiniuk JT^, Hamilton J, McCarthy GC, Castellarin SD, Measday V. 2020. Characterization of Sub-Regional Variation in Saccharomyces Populations and Grape Phenolic Composition in Pinot Noir Vineyards of a Canadian Wine Region. Front. Genet. Aug 31; 11:908.
Martiniuk JT, Pacheco B, Russell G, Tong S, Backstrom I, Measday V. 2016. Impact of commercial strain use on Saccharomyces cerevisiae population structure and dynamics in Pinot Noir vineyards and spontaneous fermentations at a Canadian winery. PLOS ONE 11(8): e0160259.
My favorite place to study at UBC was in the Riddington Room in the Library.
How did your time at UBC help you on your career path?
I learned from every aspect of UBC. I was very active on the executive of the Home Economics student society, planning events and also representing our faculty on the L.S.E. I played grass hockey for UBC and have my "Big Block". I sang with Mussoc, did make-up for their operettas, and belonged to both Phrateres and Alpha Delta Pi sorority. I loved all the dance events, especially Mardi Gras and the Engineers' Ball and was a member of the (noon hours) Dance Club. All of this on top of a 6 day week of classes from 8:30am- 4:00pm. I maintained a 2nd class average, and in my final year was inducted into the women's honorary society, Delta Sigma Pi.
I had a wonderful time! All of this helped my career as a teacher, a journalist, and especially as a mother of three allergic children, whom I know I couldn't have kept alive and healthy without my Home Economics nutrition training.
What was a highlight of your time at UBC?
Realizing the absence of any help in the community (this is 1966) for people trying to feed hypo- allergenic children, I founded "Allergies Unlimited" as a night school class in meal planning. This eventually morphed into the Toronto chapter of the Allergy Information Society, writing this for an article in "Chatelaine". This started my writing career. I returned to UBC for my master's degree in 1990 after I had started teaching at Capilano University, and it was great getting back on campus. I'm still writing today, at 91, and during the Covid pandemic, I published two memoirs of my parents' lives.
For Hilary’s commitment to community service, she was honoured to receive the Queen's Jubilee medal in 2012.
This recipe is great for the fall when the winter squashes are in season! It takes a spin on one of my all-time classic recipes, spaghetti bolognese while still offering a similar texture to a pasta dish. I love making this when I am in need of a quick dinner for myself or my family during the week!
Preheat the oven or set your airfryer to 400 degrees F
Split the squash in half and scrape out seeds with a spoon. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Season the squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place cut-side face down and roast for 30 to 40 minutes until the squash is soft. Take out the squash and let rest until cool enough to handle.
While the squash is cooling down, heat the marinara sauce in a pan.
Use a fork to scrape the strands of squash from the inside of the skin. Toss the spaghetti squash in the pan with the marinara sauce. Serve and enjoy.
Note: for extra protein, add your own ground meat to the sauce for a heartier taste. Also great to serve with fall veggies like roasted broccoli and sauteed kale!
Dr. Siyun Wang delves into what exactly a “best before” date means on RED FM
Dr. Siyun Wang
LFS Associate Professor, Siyun Wang, chats with Vanshika Sharma of RED RM about best before dates, and what they actually mean for your food.
If you have a carton of eggs past their best before dates, should you throw them out? How does that affect its freshness? Its nutrition? Click below to listen to the full segment.
In 2022, the theme for World Food Day is Leave NO ONE behind – building a sustainable world where everyone has access to nutritious food, a nod to UN Sustainable Development Goal #2 Zero Hunger.
Listen to a new World Food Day podcast, featuring Dean Rickey Yada who discusses the importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals globally and here at UBC. Dr. Yada was interviewed by RELX/Elsevier’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, to mark World Food Day 2022.
In the podcast, Dean Yada talks about hallmarks of sustainable agriculture – growing food to feed the nearby population, continuously, and without harm to the environment. Sustainable agriculture also includes ensuring food is safe, culturally relevant and affordable.
He also discusses the important role that ‘place’ has in food security research at UBC, and which countries are supporting food innovation.
A new lab at UBC’s Vancouver campus is looking for research participants—and not just anyone will do. The criteria? Must be furry and four-legged. Enjoy belly rubs and yummy treats? That’s a bonus, too.
Intergenerational March to Commemorate Orange Shirt Day
September 30, 2022
Image of the LSt’at’imc Grizzly Bear song from the 2021 march
On September 30th, members of the UBC STEM community came together to commemorate Orange Shirt Day with an Intergenerational March. Faculty, staff, students and community members joined the march to listen and learn from the UBC Indigenous community.
The march aimed to be educational and supportive to the Indigenous community on campus and beyond. Educational activities allowed younger participants to connect with the original inhabitants of the land and plant a seed to continue these conversations of a difficult era in Canadian history at home.
We are thankful to the people of this land for sharing their teachings with us. To read more about the history of Orange Shirt Day and the stories behind the “Every Child Matters” movement, click here.
A team of University of British Columbia researchers working on developing oral insulin tablets as a replacement for daily insulin injections have made a game-changing discovery.
