Advancing the Sector with Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence technology has the ability to change how Canada’s plant-based sector operates—making it more sustainable, more efficient and more innovative than ever. In September 2022, Protein Industries Canada launched a new program aimed at helping companies across the plant-based value chain prepare for and adopt AI technology: the Artificial Intelligence Program.
With a $30 million allotment from the Government of Canada’s Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy (PCAIS), the Artificial Intelligence Program co-invests in collaborative AI-focused projects. These projects are intended to develop and utilize novel AI technology in a way that benefits Canada’s plant-based food, feed and technology sector, helping it meet the goals set out in The Road to $25 Billion.
Protein Industries Canada received seven expressions of interest for the Artificial Intelligence Program throughout 2022-23. This began with timed calls throughout autumn and winter 2022, followed by the move to a continual intake model beginning in January 2023.
Projects are quickly making their way through the full application process. It is expected projects will be announced beginning in summer 2023. These projects will have significant positive impacts on the sector’s efficiency and sustainability, particularly as new companies realize the full potential of artificial intelligence in their work.
Artificial intelligence builds on past project success
Daniel McCann isn’t new to the field of artificial intelligence. As founder and CEO of Precision AI, McCann has focused his career on developing the technology, most recently for use in the agriculture and agrifood sector.
“Agriculture is a prime example of where AI can be beneficial. You have either huge volumes of land or huge volumes of data, and you’re looking for patterns,” McCann said. “So when you consider something like an entire field where there could be a million weeds on an acre, and you want to try to make per-plant-level decisions, there’s no other way to do it. You need artificial intelligence for that next level of farming.”
Since launching their first Protein Industries Canada project in August 2020—in partnership with Sure Growth Solutions Inc., Exceed Grain Marketing and the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS)—the team at Precision AI has developed its technology to the point where it can more accurately pinpoint weeds in a field. This allows farmers to spray only the weeds identified, cutting down on inputs such as water and herbicide, and reducing both costs and field passes.
This is a significant improvement over methods that didn’t use artificial intelligence, according to McCann. He explained that most other methods require farmers or agronomists to walk or drive through fields, identifying weeds by sight. Basing their herbicide decisions on the weeds they spotted could potentially mean over- or under-spraying, possibly leading to inefficient use of inputs.
As the team continues their work in artificial intelligence technology, they intend to continue working with other companies to fine-tune their technology. Their past partnerships, according to McCann, were instrumental in helping get their current technology to where it is today.
“Partnerships can accelerate what you’re doing by bringing on the experts that know how to solve your problems best,” he said. “When you’re trying to figure out how to create a solution that is scalable, you need to get much, much, much deeper levels of expertise. And for that, we want to partner and collaborate.”
Such a partnership, McCann added, could help a small company that may not know where to start with artificial intelligence formulate a plan—and he recommended any company not looking at incorporating artificial intelligence into its work to consider doing so as soon as possible.
Artificial intelligence technology, McCann said, is essential to the future success of small companies, large companies and Canada’s plant-based future as a whole. With other countries adopting the technology at a growing rate, our own sector can’t afford not to do the same, or we’ll lose our chance at a competitive advantage—one defined, in part, by our successful sustainability story.
“It’s an opportunity to define Canada’s crops and growing system as the most sustainable in the world. To know that if you’re buying Canadian, you’re buying something that’s planet-positive and planet-friendly. This vision is achievable through artificial intelligence.”
