Pick family funds research chair

Martin and Denise Pick Family are giving $2 million to fund a research chair at Ontario Agriculture College, University of Guelph.

The research will focus on soil health and measures such as forage and cover crops.

The Picks are known for creating the Pickseed company.

There is also an anonymous donor to the research chair.

“We’ve been in the agriculture industry all of our lives and we’ve been fairly well rewarded by it, so giving back feels like the appropriate thing to do,” said Martin Pick. 

Eric Lyons, acting chair of the department of plant agriculture, said producing more food using less space is a critical challenge. 

“We need to think innovatively about what we do in farming and its impact on the environment, soil, water and carbon,” he said. “We can definitely improve our cropping systems to sequester more carbon, release less nitrogen into the atmosphere or through leaching into groundwater.”