Vernon Douglas Burrows OC was a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and an international authority on oat breeding and utilization.
[8][9] After more than 15 years of intensive research and breeding, Burrows and his team developed and registered AC Gehl, the first truly hulless and hairless oat variety in the world.
[10] Earlier hulless varieties were still covered with tiny hairs called trichomes that blow off during threshing and handling, creating respiratory problems and skin irritation for workers.
[7] In addition to his accomplished research career, Burrows was also adjunct professor, McGill University, Montreal, where has served with distinction for many years on a variety of Canadian Expert Committees responsible for improving oats for food, animal feed, and industrial uses.
It was marketed as “Rice of the Prairies” by the company Wedge Farms Nutrition, Manitoba, (now Smart & Natural Foods) which commercially introduced the product in early 2009.
[10][3] This oat was featured at an AAFC Savour Canada event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and was served to world leaders at the G-20 Summit in Toronto in summer 2010.
On June 18, 2012, at a research centre in Baicheng, a city in the northern province of Jilin, China, a bronze statue of Burrows was unveiled to honour him for his oat science work.
[1] He was also active in the celiac community and contributed knowledge to the development of a system of field inspections and lab tests to ensure that growers can make uncontaminated, gluten-free oats using the AC Gehl variety.