Sustainable Food Systems for Canada
Sustainable Food Systems for Canada
Climate change is creating significant challenges for Canada's wine industry, such as frost damage, drought, wildfire smoke exposure, extreme heat, and increasing weather variability. These pressures are driving the need for solutions, from vine to supply chain, to make a more resilient Canadian wine sector. In response, Sustainable Food Systems for Canada (SF4C) has launched the Wine Innovation Challenge, bringing together companies, startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to develop practical, scalable solutions that strengthen the resilience and long-term sustainability of the Canadian wine sector.
Through a structured mentorship and competition model, the program incentivizes applied innovation across viticulture, vinification, infrastructure, and supply chains that can bridge industry needs with emerging technologies, practices, and difficulties imposed by a changing climate.
The Wine Innovation Challenge was officially launched on May 13th at Grounded Innovation 3.0, the third annual Sustainable Food and Agriculture Summit, held at the UFV Chilliwack campus. This event brought together thinkers, practitioners, and decision-makers, and featured panel discussions and expert speakers. It explored how agriculture connects to community well-being, climate action, and economic resilience.
Wine expert Dr. Daniel Bender shared a captivating presentation on climate change and its impact on regional wine production and long-term resilience, which can be found below. Dan will also be on the Industry Expert Committee for the Wine Innovation Challenge. After learning from Dan’s perspective and expertise, Dr. Alesandros Glaros announced the exciting launch of the Wine Innovation Challenge, to begin Summer 2026.
The final stage of the Wine Innovation Challenge will be a pitch competition, where participating groups will pitch their innovative solutions to a panel of industry experts. This event will be open to the public, and be held in Winter 2026/27. Stay tuned for more information on this event to come!
Professor, Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Food and Culture
Daniel Bender is the Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Food and Culture and a professor of Food Studies. He is the author of many books and articles, including most recently: The Food Adventures: How Around-the-World Travel Changed the Way We Eat, The Animal Game: Searching for Wildness at the American Zoo, and (co-ed) Food Mobility: Making World Cuisines. He is the co-chair of the editorial collective of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food Studies and President of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS). He is a founding member of the Culinaria Research Centre. He completed his Win and Spirits Trust Diploma (DipWSET) in 2024, winning the Sanderman Port Prize. He is currently working on a book about the history and future of wine tasting in the era of climate change.
Executive Director, British Columbia Wine Grape Council
Kate Durisek has an extensive background in corporate administration, marketing communications and project management. In 2012, Kate co-founded Okanagan Epicurean Enterprises Inc. As CEO, Kate is principal liaison on key accounts including an ongoing administrative contract as the Executive Director to the BC Wine Grape Council and Program Director for Sustainable Winegrowing BC. Through her work with these associations, Kate leads all governance and project management work and has recently initiated the creation of the BC Wine Grape Industry Task Force. Kate’s work also extends to ownership and oversight of Okanagan Wine Lab which services over 150 beverage producers and creator of Howling Moon Craft Cider. Prior to starting her business, Kate was employed as a Business Strategy Advisor for BC Hydro Power Smart, Innovation & Technology. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), has her WSET Level 3 Certification and is a Red Seal Journeyman Chef.
President, Aligned Interests
Frank studied at the European Business School in London, and specialized in Finance. He started his career in information technology and worked for large international companies in senior marketing roles in Europe. 25 years ago he moved to Vancouver, BC where he worked for a variety of technology and manufacturing companies. He founded Crush Marketing, a boutique marketing agency to provide strategy and services to food and agriculture businesses. Over the past 15 years, he has been actively involved in the early-stage investor community with an angel fund and an angel network where he supported and invested in early-stage BC-based technology companies. Over the past 6 years, he has been mentoring companies in Agri Tech, Food Tech and Beverage Tech across Canada as an Executive in Residence with Foresight Canada and Bioenterprise and as a business advisor with Aligned Interests. Frank has a lifelong passion for wine and food. He was a founding member of the South World Wine Society, where they hosted monthly wine dinners. He completed his WSET level 3, studied wine technology and enjoys visiting the wine regions of the world. As a mentor and advisor to Agritech companies he continues to learn and support innovation across the agrifood value chain and in the wine industry.
CEO, BarrelWise Technologies
David Sommer is the CEO, former CTO, and co-founder of BarrelWise Technologies, a Vancouver-based agtech company dedicated to improving winemaking processes through technology. With a background in engineering spanning fluid dynamics, chemistry, and design, he helped launch the company out of the University of British Columbia (UBC) to tackle critical operational challenges in the wine industry. BarrelWise has developed data-driven sensing and monitoring tools that help commercial wineries push wine quality and operate more efficiently with greater visibility and control across their processes.
The Wine Innovation Challenge is an SF4C program led by the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. For more information on other SF4C programming, and to hear about upcoming opportunities similar to this innovation challenge, visit sf4c.ca, or fill out this form to join the network.
Wine Innovation Challenge Infographic
If you have questions about the Wine Innovation Challenge, please reach out to Alesandros.Glaros@ufv.ca.
