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Rendering of the exterior of the Food Innovation Hub | Photo courtesy of UMass website<\/p>\nEditor\u2019s note: The headline and body of this story were corrected on Oct. 13 from its original Oct. 4 version for accuracy. The headline was changed from \u201c$120 million \u2018Future of Food\u2019 initiative seeks to improve food science department\u201d to \u201cUMass launches $120 million \u2018Future of Food\u2019 initiative.\u201d The fourth body paragraph initially stated that two buildings will be built, and was changed to reflect the plans to only construct one building.<\/p>\n
The University of Massachusetts\u2019 nationally No. 1 ranked food science and agricultural program will be seeing further improvements thanks to the historic $120 million \u201cFuture of Food\u201d initiative. The initiative, announced in mid-September, aims to broaden research efforts into production and sustainability methods of food systems campus-wide.<\/p>\n
Despite being ranked the best program in the country by the U.S. News & World Report, many of the building and facilities in the food science department are on the older side. Chenoweth Laboratory, the current food science building, was built in 1930, and while there have been additions made to it in the past, there are still limitations to the space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just haven\u2019t got room either for all the students we have and all the faculty we have, and we haven\u2019t got the ability to work side by side with other people in labs,\u201d said Fergus Clydesdale, a distinguished food science professor who served as the department head for 20 years.<\/p>\n
Using these funds, a new building, The Paul and Diane Manning Food Innovation Hub, will be built adjacent to Chenoweth Laboratory, and is expected to improve the hands-on aspects of food science. It will feature a new pilot plant and kitchen, as well as sensory, human clinical and food analysis laboratories. Additionally, this initiative supports a new research center, The Paul and Diane Manning Center for the Future of Food, which is an interdisciplinary research, education and public engagement branch of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences.<\/p>\n
Rendering of the exterior of the Food Innovation Hub | Photo courtesy of UMass website<\/p>\n
Maria Victoria Paola Acevedo Estupinan, a current PhD student, expressed her excitement for the new pilot plant, particularly in relation to product development contests, which are incredibly popular within the food science department. \u201cBut to do a new food product that judges are going to taste, you need a food safety pilot plant, and our plant is very, very, very old.\u201d<\/p>\n
These facilities will also help optimize the interdisciplinary aspects of food science. The project calls for collaboration between campus faculty, farmers in western Massachusetts and those working in sustainability regenerative agriculture, according to Clydesdale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be pulling all those people together,\u201d Clydesdale explained.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Departments of Nutrition, Health Promotion and Policy and Food Science and the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing are working together to study \u201cthe power of food to promote health and reduce chronic illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collective $120 million donation came from four sources, each pitching in $30 million: the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, UMass Amherst, the UMass Amherst Foundation and the Manning Family foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of donations over the years, but that\u2019s the biggest,\u201d said Clydesdale, in reference to Manning\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, former department head Professor Lili He showed a presentation to Paul B. Manning relating to how food connects with health, technology and innovation. This presentation piqued the interest of Manning, an entrepreneur who is interested in health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really grateful for his support,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n
While the food science department was formally founded in April 1918, research relating to food fell under the Department of Pomology. World War I exposed weaknesses in the national food supply, making the research and instruction of food science \u2014 especially food preservation \u2014 extremely timely.<\/p>\n
Today, as the world faces similar issues with food shortages due to overpopulation and climate change, the $120 million donation aims to assist UMass in aiding in these challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look around here in the department, most of the students are international students,\u201d Acevedo Estupinan said. \u201cThe investment and impact will be worldwide. That\u2019s why I think that it is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0 Following the publication of this article, Associate Vice Chancellor for News and Media Relations Emily Gest provided additional comment on the initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Future of Food Initiative is a multidisciplinary effort to address crucial challenges related to climate change and sustainability, food safety and a growing population expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050,\u201d Gest said in an email. \u201cThe initiative will include a new 36,000 square foot research facility, a multidisciplinary collaborative research center, an endowed chair in food science and three endowed faculty positions who will examine crucial questions about the future of our global food system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addie Tomaino can be reached at [email\u00a0protected].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor\u2019s note: The headline and body of this story were corrected on Oct. 13 from its original Oct. 4 version for accuracy. The headline was changed from \u201c$120 million \u2018Future of Food\u2019 initiative seeks to improve food science department\u201d to \u201cUMass launches $120 million \u2018Future of Food\u2019 initiative.\u201d The fourth body paragraph initially stated that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3335,3333,3331,3334,3332],"class_list":["post-53113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-massachusetts","tag-massachusetts","tag-massachusetts-dining","tag-massachusetts-food","tag-massachusetts-grocery-stores","tag-massachusetts-restaurant"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117446002834927536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}