Fueling Canada’s Future: The Role of Innovation and Investment in Agri-Tech and Energy

Meaghan Seagrave of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) shares her insights on the critical connection between agriculture, energy, and investment, and how a unified approach can fuel Canada’s sustainable future.

By Tabitha Caswell

Canada’s agriculture sector is at a crossroads, facing mounting pressures to meet sustainability goals and growing demand for food production while simultaneously aiming to strengthen its domestic and international economic competitiveness. It is closely entangled with the energy sector, especially when it comes to sustainable practices, resource management, and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Meaghan Seagrave, Executive Director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) and self-proclaimed “bioeconomy crusader masking as a business operations specialist,” shares her perspective on the intersection of agriculture, energy, and economy. With extensive experience in fostering innovation and sustainability across various industries, she brings us to a higher elevation for a cross-sectoral, panoramic view.

Like agriculture, in the race to reach net zero, many of Canada’s sectors with significant environmental influence are often siloed. Yet, many industries that depend on these sectors converge and even overlap one another, so it’s important to consider these relationships when addressing inputs and outputs of concern. 

Meaghan says, “At BIC, we’re focused on green chemistry which spans agriculture, marine, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, defence and more. It might sound like we’re spreading the peanut butter pretty thin, but what we’re really doing is looking at the larger green chemistry value chain – the places where lower carbon inputs from our resource sectors can displace fossil inputs along those industry value chains. This includes fuels, primary chemicals, polymers, semifinished goods, processed goods, advanced manufacturing, and more.”