| | Ron Pettitt
“The biggest environmental issues for the food processing industry are energy use and waste management – trying to be more efficient in energy use and cutting down on the waste going to the landfills or municipal waste treatment systems,” notes Ron Pettitt. On AESA Council, Pettitt represents the Processing Based Committee, the industry-government committee that guides AESA’s Processing Based Program.
The Processing Based Program provides cost-shared assistance to agri-food processors for developing and adopting environmentally friendly practices. Being environmentally friendly is “the right thing to do” and can save money too, says Pettitt. “For example, we’ve done projects with companies to recover the 5methane from their anaerobic lagoons and use it as a fuel source in their processing plants. That cuts their costs down and also eliminates the impact on the environment. And improving water use efficiency and reducing waste can cut down on municipal waste charges for large processors. It’s a win-win.”
Pettitt has many years of experience in the private and public sectors of Canada’s agri-food processing industry. He has also been active in a wide variety of industry associations like the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology and the Packaging Association of Canada.
For the past four years, Pettitt has been Director of the Processing Development Division of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. Prior to that he was the Head of the Food Processing Development Centre (FPDC), one of the four units in the Division. These units offer a range of services for innovative agri-food processors.
The FPDC, built in 1984 and expanded in 2002, is the main unit. Pettitt says, “Processors come to the Centre to develop new products and new processes. We are a federally registered facility, so the products that they develop here can be test marketed anywhere in Canada and internationally.”
The other units are the Food Science and Technology Centre, the Centre for Agri-Industrial Technology, and the Consumer Products Testing Centre. They provide various research and testing services for developing diverse products from agricultural commodities.
A fifth unit, the Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator, will open in 2006. It will provide new processing companies with services such as business planning and marketing as well as space to run their businesses. “There are no other food processing incubators in Canada – it will be the only one of its kind,” says Pettitt.
The Division’s expanding facilities and services are nourishing the entrepreneurial spirit of Alberta’s growing agri-food processing industry. The Processing Based Program can help processors ensure that this growth is sustainable.
Murray Klutz
Partnering is a common thread in many of Murray Klutz’s activities these days.
As an Industry and Government Liaison for Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), Klutz is involved in developing partnerships with the agriculture, forestry, and oil and gas industries, and with governments. These partnerships focus on extension programs, field projects and policy development.
DUC is a private, non-profit organization whose mandate, simply put, is “to conserve wetlands all across Canada,” says Klutz. Prairie farmers are key partners in that effort. The prairies are the primary nesting area for waterfowl on the continent. Since most of the prairie landscape is privately owned, partnering with farmers is vital.
Along with thriving partnerships, DUC’s success also comes from its sound science. “We base our decisions on the best science that we can get. So we have a very active research group, and we also partner with research organizations and universities across the country,” says Klutz.
Klutz has a strong agricultural background. He grew up on a mixed farm near Daysland. “We had annual crops, forages, a cow-calf operation, a small feedlot, and sometimes we even had some pigs and chickens. The neat thing about that was that I had a chance to be actively involved in virtually all parts of production agriculture.”
After graduating from the University of Alberta in Agriculture, Klutz worked for Alberta Agriculture, and then went to Dow AgroSciences for nine years. He joined DUC two and a half years ago.
As part of his work for DUC, Klutz serves on many boards and councils, including AESA Council. “My role on AESA Council is two-fold,” he explains. “Because of my agricultural background and training, I bring to Council biodiversity issues from the conservation and wildlife sector but in a manner that is understanding of the agriculture industry.”
And from Council, he brings back to DUC information on current trends in agriculture. “Because of the diversity in representation on AESA Council, whatever is new is shared pretty readily.” He also brings back “a greater understanding of the needs of the agriculture industry so that we can incorporate that into our programming and planning.”
Like DUC, AESA Council also emphasizes partnering and coordination. For example, Klutz is a member of Council’s Agro-Environmental Programming Subcommittee. Its task is to “search for ways to coordinate communication and look for synergies and ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness [among stewardship programs],” he explains.
For both DUC and AESA, partnerships are powerful forces for positive change. |
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