By MARY BUHR
HEADOF
THE CLASS
Akey for all doors
Spring
2015
Grains
West
20
Life doesn’t endat the farmgate: it begins
I want more bright young
people in agricultural education programs.
Not because more bums in seats brings in
more tuition money, and not because high
numbers makes a university’s statistics
look better. I care about getting more
students because our graduates all get
jobs and because we get calls every week
from employers wondering how they can
encourage our students to come work for
their operation. I care because I believe
my country really needs people who un-
derstand the breadth and depth of agricul-
ture, who have the training to manage soil
nutrients and who think their way through
problems. We need people who know how
to evaluate corporate claims and public
reports trumpeted in media sources that
do not differentiate pseudo-expert opin-
ions from informed logical interpretation.
I care because the world my own children
are going to inhabit will have so many
greater challenges than today’s world
does—more people, an unpredictable
climate and an environment desperately in
need of thoughtful, informed stewardship.
My definition of agriculture includes
the living soil, the good air and the
water running over, in and through it all.
Agriculture includes plants from sin-
gle-celled organisms to complex forests,
as well as animals that we manage and
those that live independent of us but are
affected by our decisions and need us to
steward the world we share. My agricul-
ture includes the methods used to grow,
harvest, process and store food, fibre and
fabricated goods efficiently and sustain-
ably. My agriculture includes the public
and economic policies and trends that
promote sustainable, effective distribution
of goods, minimization of waste, and safe,
considerate disposal of those small bits we
cannot reuse.
I can unblushingly say that I believe ag-
riculture can save the world. Agriculture
can protect and improve the environment,
feed the growing population, and improve
and sustain a healthy, ecologically sound
environment. But I am not sure agricul-
ture will be allowed to do that. We need
an informed public to demand that we
actually do the work, and demand we bust
our butts to discover the ways to make
this succeed. We need an informed public
choosing to work in the various aspects
of agriculture to do the daily chores well,
and to make the discoveries and put that
knowledge in the hands of those doing the
work. And we need an informed public to
insist that our policy makers support the
education and the work to make it happen
in time.
And that is why I say that we need more
bright young people studying agricul-
ture. Although enrolment in agriculture
programs across the country is growing,
there are still more good corporate and
on-farm jobs than there are graduates,
whether they have diplomas, undergrad-
uate or graduate degrees. For enrolment
to meet this demand, we need to replace
the current public image of an ag grad—as
a dowdy guy with a piece of grass in his
mouth, wearing overalls and holding a
pitchfork—with the reality of ag grads as
independent entrepreneurs with multi-
million-dollar operations using the latest
GPS technology and “big data” analytical
systems. Today’s ag grads are also bank-
ers, pet food nutritionists, soil chemists,
remediators of abandoned gas stations and
oilfields, developers of healthy foods and
wines, international trade representatives
and smartphone app designers. We need
our young male and female ag grads to be
admired and respected by society, and lis-
tened to by their peers and our politicians.
We can all help this happen. We need to
talk proudly about the breadth and depth
of products of agriculture, and how very
much our neighbourhoods, our province,
our country and our world need these
skilled and competent professionals. We
need to publicly push our elected offi-
cials to support our ability to protect and
manage our environment, and to provide
higher education. We need to challenge
the myths and misrepresentations heard
on social media, in restaurants and on talk
shows so that the public has the informed
perspective to demand effective policies
and practices—ensuring we leave this
world a place where our children’s chil-
dren can thrive.
I want more bright young people in
agriculture education programs, so they
will be the informed citizens keeping our
country and our world flourishing and
healthy. Will you help?
Mary Buhr is dean of the College of Agri-
culture and Bioresources at the University
of Saskatchewan. Her studies at Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada and the universities
of Manitoba, Guelph and Saskatchewan
improve sperm fertility for domestic animals.
