Feds announce that the Agricultural Clean Technology Program is now open

PENTICTON — On June 18, the MP for West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country, Patrick Weiler, announced that the new $165.7-million Agricultural Clean Technology Program is now open to applicants.

MP Weiler spoke during a virtual visit at Winecrush Technology Inc., an Okanagan-based agri-tech company. He also announced that Winecrush received up to $124,800 under the original Agricultural Clean Technology Program, which supported research and development for its Marlee project, a new biomechanical process to transform wine derivatives into natural food additives.

This new program provides farmers and agri-businesses with access to funding to help develop and adopt the latest clean technologies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance their competitiveness. It will prioritize projects in three areas including the bioeconomy, which employs technologies that use agricultural waste and by-products for energy and bio-product generation.

The new program has two funding streams:

The Adoption Stream will support the purchase and installation of proven clean technologies and solutions that show meaningful reductions in GHG emissions.

The Research and Innovation Stream will support pre-market innovation including research, development, demonstration and commercialization of agricultural clean technologies.

Applications will be accepted on a continuous basis until funding has been fully committed or otherwise announced by the program. For more information about eligibility and to apply, visit Agricultural Clean Technology Program: Research and Innovation Stream or Agricultural Clean Technology Program: Adoption Stream.

“Thanks to the program, we were able to quantify the problem we needed to solve, develop key on-farm technology and processes, and successfully launch our purée into the plant-protein market. We are finding tremendous response from food producers around the world who are validating our value proposition including sodium reduction and flavour enhancement,” says Bill Broddy, Founder and President, Winecrush Technology Inc.