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Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR) has announced $110,291 towards CBS Bio Platforms’ development of enhanced, sustainable feed.

RDAR funding will drive research led by CBS Bio Platforms, a leading international feed technology company headquartered in Calgary, to develop processes that release previously inaccessible plant components and make them usable in poultry and swine diets.

The key to the project’s success, says RDAR, will be leveraging the expertise and resources of CBS Bio Platforms to uncover a new pathway to unlocking plant protein potential. The project builds on a wealth of previous CBS feed technology research, particularly with enzyme technology.

The research will broaden the toolbox of beneficial and affordable plant protein sources, diversify the options for alternatives to antimicrobial use, and help meet the new market legislation and consumer preferences for poultry and swine products.

“Innovation in animal feed represents a great area of opportunity for Alberta’s economy and to help our livestock producers maximize benefits and increase profitability,” says Nate Horner, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development. “This industry-directed investment from RDAR towards made-in-Alberta solutions will accelerate our progress to capture this potential — supporting a strong future that expands the boundaries of Alberta’s agriculture success.”

Positive research results will deliver producer benefits at the farm gate, by reducing feed cost and increasing quality. By improving feed’s overall economics and sustainability, this research will unlock hard-to-capture value in feed inputs, says RDAR.

“We’ve learned a lot about extracting more value and delivering unique advantages out of feed ingredients,” says Rob Patterson, CBS Bio Platforms technical director. “By using enzyme technology, CBS breaks down the plant’s fibrous structures and releases components traditionally more difficult to access. This new project will take this approach to a new level of precision and power by capturing the protein fraction as well as functional carbohydrate fractions to create new high-value product streams.”

The Canadian government has not yet decided how it will respond to an invitation to join a U.S.-led coalition of countries promoting “sustainable productivity growth” in agriculture.

The productivity-focused coalition championed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the UN Food System Summit in September is seen as countering the European Union’s Farm to Fork strategy, which Vilsack and others say will lead to a reduction in agricultural productivity.

“We initiated this coalition because it is clear that increasing agricultural productivity is essential to meet the needs of a growing global population and ensure that food is affordable to hundreds of millions of people around the world,” Vilsack said in October. “If we are going to end hunger, while minimizing environmental impacts, we must commit to developing and deploying new ways of doing things in agriculture.”

Joining the coalition would be a signal the Canadian government supports the U.S. approach.

The list of countries that have already signed on includes Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Honduras, Ireland, Israel, Philippines and Vietnam.

Speaking at a World Food Prize event in Iowa last month, the U.S. ag secretary noted Canada and Mexico have both been invited to join the coalition. The symposium featured a panel discussion where Vilsack was joined virtually by Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Marie-Claude Bibeau, and in-person by Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos, but neither addressed the United States’ invitation in their remarks.

Bibeau’s office forwarded RealAgriculture’s subsequent requests for comment on the topic to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s communications staff.

The Canadian government is “closely considering” the productivity coalition, as well as joining another U.S.-led group of countries focused on reducing food waste, says a spokesperson for AAFC.

“Each of those coalitions support Canadian policies and interests; however, decisions on joining them have not yet been taken,” the spokesperson says, in a Nov. 25 email.

Canada has agreed to join a third U.S.-led coalition: the coalition on Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate, also known as AIM4C.

“In addition to the U.S.-led coalitions, Canada has also expressed support for other coalitions that have come out of the UN Food System Summit: Achieving Zero Hunger, Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems, and Making Food Systems Work for Women and Girls,” notes the AAFC spokesperson.

Related: European lawmakers endorse Farm to Fork strategy, with steep pesticide & fertilizer restrictions