Lethbridge-based CAAIN Project pushing food traceability boundaries — has a Swift Current connection
The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) today unveiled the fourth story of an eight-part series highlighting results of the AgTech research & innovation projects it has funded through its 2022 Open Competition and its Beef & Pork Primary Processing Automation & Robotics Program.
CAAIN’s mandate from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is to fund technological responses to the most significant opportunities and challenges facing the nation’s agri-food producers and primary processors. That means supporting promising efforts with the potential to provide economic or environmental value. The featured stories demonstrate that CAAIN is doing just that, as does investing in 35 projects with a combined total value of approximately $100M.
“Today’s consumer is savvy,” explained Darrell Petras, CAAIN’s CEO. “Quickly passing are the days when we grabbed anything off the grocery store shelf without checking the label. Agri-food production is increasingly sophisticated, boasting advanced tracking systems that allow us to know in great deal the content and provenance of our consumables. That’s why this traceability project drew our attention. It’s all about accountability and consistency.”
The project whose story is being unveiled today is yet another example of the extraordinary value CAAIN brings to the Canadian taxpayer by investing in R&D that will revolutionize the agriculture and food sectors, in Canada and around the world. F3: Farm to Factory to Farm: Pea Protein Quality and Traceability is a $10M innovation that will receive $3M in CAAIN funding over the next three years. The brainchild of Lethbridge’s PIP International, a start-up that is rapidly assuming a leadership role in the vegetable protein market, this research initiative boasts a team that includes Calgary-based food-sector technology developer Provision Analytics, and Monette Farms, a crop and cattle enterprise that is headquartered in Swift Current, and operates tens of thousands of acres in Western Canada and the United States.
“This project is testament to the entrepreneurial spirit and vision of PIP founder and CEO, Christine Lewington. Her background in engineering and her extensive experience in agri-food project management provide her with unique expertise that helped convince us this major investment is one we had to support. The progress to date has been impressive, and we feel the eventual finished product will provide real value to farmers and processors, regardless of their crop. PIP’s success over its first three years will form a base on which to build the traceability work,” continued Petras. “What’s extraordinary is that until four years ago Christine had never worked in protein extraction or traceability. Now, here she is leading the charge in both areas, spearheading technological advancements that will benefit us significantly in numerous ways. She personifies the kind of innovation and business acumen CAAIN seeks to support.”
The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is a not-for-profit company launched in July 2019 with funding of $49.5-million from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, and assistance from Alberta Innovates in the form of significant in-kind contributions. CAAIN drives collaborative agri-food technology research and innovation from coast to coast.