On Friday, at the University of Manitoba's National Centre for Livestock and the Environment, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced over 15 million dollars in funding for research, traceability and product development initiatives aimed at boosting the competitive edge of the Canadian pork industry.

The package includes 9.5 million dollars to create a swine research cluster which will bring together industry, government and scientists to address the industry's research and development priorities.

Dr Karin Wittenberg, the acting dean of the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, says we have to think of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment and the research and training it does to bring sustainability to the hog industry.

Dr Karin Wittenberg-University of Manitoba

The work at the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment has really tried to develop solutions in several key areas.

We often think firstly and foremostly about improved economics around production but more importantly we're trying to address some of the needs of our public and the consumer.

The cluster funding that we're talking about today really addresses many of the things that we have an interest in, issues like good feed formulation and feed delivery so that we have efficient production but also so that we produce animals in a way that minimises any adverse impacts on the environment and that we produce animals that have a meat quality that meets the demands of our consumers whether we're talking about consumers locally in Canada or whether we're talking about the many consumers in the countries to which we export.

Dr Wittenberg says she is pleased the federal government chose NCLE as the location for its announcement and the National Centre is very happy to be part of the team that will be involved in the research.