The Atlantic Bioventure Centre was established in 2005 and forms part of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. The project is investigating further ways to derive value-added healthy foods and food ingredients out of primary resources in the country. The federal government has been doling out significant sums to similar projects as part of an overall effort to revitalize Canadian agriculture which has been hit by drought in the grain belt and over fishing in the Atlantic Provinces. Coming full circle, the government also describes this process as one of supporting healthy lifestyles of its citizens. "The Government of Canada through its investment in the Atlantic Bioventure Centre Project is showing its commitment to working with partners to develop innovative technologies that will help our farmers maintain their competitive edge, while providing healthy food for all Canadians," said Gerald Keddy, a member of the Canadian Parliament. "By helping our farmers take advantage of new value-added markets, we help the agricultural and agri-food sectors succeed." The project will develop and test a portable micro-factory designed to help small-scale Canadian producers get more value from their crops by extracting highly valued nutraceutical and bioactive ingredients and selling them on the global nutraceutical, bioactives and natural product market. The micro-factory will use residue from two well-established commercial crops in the Atlantic region - wild blueberries and cranberries - to recover bioactive compounds. "This novel idea has numerous potential benefits not only for these important horticultural crops, but also as a conceptual approach that supports local development of all types of agricultural bioresources," said Nova Scotia Agricultural College vice president academic, Leslie MacLaren.
