The annual Fields on Wheels Conference was held Friday in Winnipeg.

The event, which focuses on transportation issues in the agriculture industry, has been running for 24 years. It is put on by the University of Manitoba's Transport Institute.

Dr. Barry Prentice is the organizer for the event.

"Twenty-four years ago, nobody was talking very much about processing anything," he said. "We've got a change in focus I think in terms of our agriculture and a change in focus in terms of creating more jobs and tax revenues to pay for everything else...One thing we do see that's constant is, the issues of logistics in transport never go away."

The focus this year was logistics and value-added processing of field crops: the veggie burger revolution.

"There's a lot of interest now in processing," added Prentice. "Certainly we've seen over the last 50 years the canola industry has emerged as a major processor on the Prairies and the real question is, 'can we replicate that with other crops?', specifically peas but also hemp and for that matter canola itself is maybe getting a different view on processing from what we've had just to reduce the oil and sell the meal as livestock feed."

(L-R) Dr. Barry Prentice (U of M), Marc van Burck (Hemp Production Services Inc), Barry Tomiski (Merit Functional Foods), and Steve Pratte (Canadian Canola Growers Association)