Francis presenting at the 19th Annual International Student Symposium on Sustainable Agriculture in Tokyo, Japan
Francis Durnin-Vermette is a Canadian fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia. He is currently studying for a B.Sc. in Applied Biology, specializing in Food and the Environment, a program within the Faculty of Land and Food Systems.
Role on the Team
Three years ago, Francis started the Impact Analysis sub-team within Sustaingineering along with some friends also from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems.
Today, Francis is the Impact Analysis Team Lead and his team has expanded to other faculties with current members studying in the Faculties of Arts, Sciences, Land and Food Systems and Engineering—a testament to his commitment and skill as a team leader.
His main role has been forecasting the impact of the technical teams’ projects as they are gradually scaled up. Additionally, his team has played a major role in the Public Relations aspect of Sustaingineering. They have been in contact with sponsors and have presented their work at multiple conferences including the UBC Undergraduate Research Conference.
Tokyo Trip
Francis travelled all the way to Tokyo for the 19th Annual International Student Symposium on Sustainable Agriculture that took place from September 5th to 23rd, to represent the Sustaingineering team. Particularly, he presented Sustaingineering’s work on the solar water pump monitoring device. He went with one other UBC student presenting her own research, and an advisor— all from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems.
He spent the first two weeks of his trip attending a course on Japanese agriculture. This course involved various field trips to prefectures near Tokyo including Niigata, Chiba and Kanagawa. At each location he experienced the differences in their agricultural practices. On one of the trips, he had the opportunity to do some weeding on a rice paddy.
Further on, he participated in the student-run conference, hosted by Tokyo University of Agriculture. At this conference, students from across the world presented their research and learned about other delegates’ work as well. Thirty countries were represented at the conference and Francis says that he was able to make friends from Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines and more. He really enjoyed learning about everyone’s different perspectives on sustainable agriculture practices.
““The discussions that we have here (in Canada) are just not even close to the discussions had in other places, even just in the assumptions that we make.””
For instance, in Canada we recognize that farmers understand their own land very well and assume that they know more, in some cases, than researchers or government bodies. However, other delegates pointed out that this knowledge extension, from farmers to government, can become complicated as each party has its own needs, methods and expectations. He acknowledges that both ways of looking at these issues are valid but they are definitely very different.
Francis socializing at the conference
Sixty-four delegates participated in the conference. He presented the Impact Analysis Team’s work on the solar-powered water pump developed by Sustaingineering over the past year to this conference.
He said that the most interesting things he learned during the conference came from the interesting and innovative research the other students presented. He was particularly intrigued by a presentation made by a Taiwanese delegate. They spoke of creating a circular nutrient cycling system made up of black soldier flies and aquaponics, so fish and plants. They first explained how this concept could be implemented in a classroom setting and even described how their work could be scaled up to suit larger projects. An optional addition could be complementing the proposed system by using waste from the system to make compost, thereby feeding into yet another circular system.
His Passions and Plans
When it comes to his passions, Francis is especially interested in sustainable agriculture.
““I want to help build a world where everyone is supported in pursuing their dreams and living their lives without being oppressed by things like governments or multinational companies. In practice, I think this means demonstrating that it is better for everyone in a society when people are given the freedom to practice and celebrate their own cultures and traditions, even if these freedoms are not always ‘profit-maximizing’.””
After graduation, Francis hopes to focus on the international development of agriculture. In the long term, he is determined to make the global food system more sustainable. Although his goal is complex and difficult to achieve, he would love to help scale up sustainable agriculture movements such as agroecology.
