Sustainable Solutions: Knowledge for Action with Dr. Rene Van Acker

The University of Guelph is the leading agriculture university in Canada. In this episode of Sustainable Solutions: From Guelph to Gainesville, Dr. Rene Van Acker, the interim Vice President of Research at the University of Guelph, joined Kyleigh Hilburn, UF AEC doctoral student, to discuss the research mission of the University of Guelph, the pillars of the Ontario Agriculture College, and the impact of science communication. Dr. Van Acker also gave an overview of some of the research underway at the University of Guelph. Listen to learn how the University of Guelph turns knowledge into action.  

Transcript

Kyleigh: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to Streaming Science. My name is Kyleigh 

Kyleigh: Hilburn and I am a first year doctoral student at the University of Florida in the Agriculture Education and Communication Department. You are currently listening to our student led podcast series called Sustainable Solutions from Guelph to Gainesville, which is connecting you with researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Kyleigh: During this interview, I spoke with the University of Guelph's Interim Vice President of Research, Dr. Van Acker. We talked about the University of Guelph, the Ontario College of Agriculture, various sectors of agriculture, and the role of science communication in this industry. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Sustainable Solutions from Guelph to Gainesville.

Kyleigh: Welcome back

Kyleigh: to streaming science. My name is Kyleigh Hilburn. And I am a first year PhD student at the University of Florida within the Agriculture, Education, and Communication Department. [00:01:00]And today I have a great guest with me. I'm so excited to talk with Dr. Van Acker. So Dr. Van Acker, can you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Dr. Van Acker: Well, hi, Kyleigh, and thank you for this opportunity. My name is Rene Van Acker, and I'm, uh, I'm currently the interim vice president research for the University of Guelph in, uh, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, just west of Toronto. And, um, I'm also a professor in the department of plant agriculture. And my background is, uh, field crop agronomy, but specifically I'm a weed scientist, somebody who studies managing weeds, not the other kind of weed.

Dr. Van Acker: And, um, yeah, and I've been, I've been doing that for, for many, many years. Um, but most of my career, uh, has been in one form or another of university administration, but always in an agricultural. Vein 

Kyleigh: That is amazing and it sounds like you wear a lot of different hats and I'm so excited to talk with you about all of them.

Kyleigh: Um, but you said that you are also a professor [00:02:00] and studying weed control. Um, how did you get started in that? Like, have you always been involved in ag? was this a wilm Well, how did it get started? 

Dr. Van Acker: Yeah, I mean, you won't be surprised that I, I grew up on a farm. And so that's, you know, there is a start of interest in agriculture there.

Dr. Van Acker: Um, interestingly, maybe interestingly to listeners, I grew up on a tobacco farm. People might not know that tobacco is grown in Ontario, in Canada. But, uh, and, and that, that experience growing, growing up on a farm really sparked my interest in agriculture. But I, I was not interested in farming. I was very interested in agriculture, but not interested in farming, and so, you know, as I completed or near completion of high school, I thought about what I might want to study, post secondary, college, or university, and it had to be agriculture for me.

Dr. Van Acker: Don't know why exactly, but that was my interest. And so, in Canada, the best ag school is the University of Guelph. And luckily, I didn't live far from the University of Guelph. And so, I [00:03:00] applied and did an undergraduate degree here at the University of Guelph in crop science. In my, uh, in my last year, second last year of university, I, I became interested in the possibility of research.

Dr. Van Acker: I had some summer jobs, uh, doing research for, uh, some crop protection companies. And so I pursued an undergraduate research project in my final year, and that sealed it for me, and so I knew I needed to pursue a research master's, which I did also here at Guelph, and really enjoyed that, and then was enjoying it so much that I thought, well, I should pursue a 

Dr. Van Acker: pursue a PhD. And so, um, my, my partner at the time, just now my, my wife, uh, wanted to travel and wanted specifically to go to the, to the UK. And she said, well, if you want to do a PhD, maybe you should figure out how to do that in the UK, if you want to stay with me. And so that's, I did. And, uh, and so I, I threw my effort into finding out ways, uh, for me to, to garner the funds to do a PhD in the [00:04:00] UK.

Dr. Van Acker: Um, Luckily, in Canada, we have a Commonwealth Scholarship Program. I applied for that and was successful. Spent three and a half years, uh, in England. Uh, my degree, my PhD comes from the University of Reading, but it was based at a research station just north of London called Rothamsted. It's an old research station.

Dr. Van Acker: Did work on crop weed, uh, ecology. Uh, really enjoyed that process, learned a lot. And, um, And as I was finishing my PhD, uh, needed to get a job and wanted to come back to Canada if possible. Uh, luckily a position opened up at the University of Manitoba in Western Canada in Winnipeg. I was successful in achieving that position, uh, so I moved to Winnipeg.

Dr. Van Acker: And, uh, was the weed scientist there for a little over a decade. Loved working there. There was lots of work to do. Lots of acres. Lots of weed problems. And, uh, built a research program. Got involved in, uh, training graduate students. Taught at diploma, undergraduate, and graduate level. Really enjoyed my time there.

Dr. Van Acker: After a decade, um, you know, I started to, to look at what my department [00:05:00]chair did, uh, what the administrators did in the university, and I thought that might be interesting, and so a position came up, uh, back here at the University of Guelph to be a department chair, my old home department, in fact, plant agriculture, and, uh, and so I, I achieved that position, came back to Guelph, was a department chair for A number of years, uh, an associate dean position opened up.

Dr. Van Acker: It was a new kind of position for, for external partnerships and fundraising. So I went into that role. Learned a lot about fundraising, knew nothing about it at the time. Um, also, uh, was an opportunity to learn how the dean's office worked. Uh, learned quite a bit about how budget worked and um, and then when our, uh, when the dean who was my boss at the time moved to another position, he's, uh, he's now a university president actually.

Dr. Van Acker: That position opened up and I, I applied and became dean of the Ontario Agricultural College here at Guelph. Uh, About almost eight years ago, a job I deeply, deeply love. And then last [00:06:00] summer, our, our VP research stepped out of the role. And, uh, the president leaned on me heavily and said, Hey, guess what you're doing for the next year?

Dr. Van Acker: So she seconded me out of my job. Dean Roland said you have to be VP research, uh, um, while we get a, you know, get a search going and whatnot. So I'm, I'm currently in that role, but, but my heart is in, uh, agriculture, uh, always has been, as you can tell from my long backstory. Yeah. And I'm very passionate about it.

Kyleigh: That's amazing. And I think your story. Um, is such a cool and interesting one. You said that you'd never, I don't know if you said never, I might be putting words into your mouth, but you really weren't interested in going back to the farm. Um, and like, we had talked before and I told you that I kind of had the same experience.

Kyleigh: Did you ever, um, was there a time where you were like, Ah, maybe I have to go back? Like, how did you work through being like, Actually, No, I can still be an ad just in a different spot and not exactly on the farm. 

Dr. Van Acker: Yeah. And, and, and I was interested when, when, when you had said that, you know, you had a similar [00:07:00] experience.

Dr. Van Acker: Uh, I think it's really important for listeners to hear that because there, there are notions of, you know, we're insiders, we're agriculture insiders, you and I, but there are notions, uh, from those who don't really know the sector that Really, the only job in agriculture is farming, and that is a great job.

Dr. Van Acker: I mean, farming is a great job, but the sector is massive and, uh, and there are all kinds of jobs in the sector, like just, in fact, one of the problems we have in recruiting students to, uh, programs that then lead to jobs in the sector. Is that there's such a broad range of jobs that you, you can't do a really, uh, focused recruitment, uh, or marketing plan, right?

Dr. Van Acker: Like if a student says, well, what can I do in the ag sector? The answer is, uh, anything, you know, if your interest is accounting, if your interest is chemistry, if your interest is physics, if you're interested is engineering, if your interest is plant biology or [00:08:00] animal biology, whatever, uh, the answer is, uh, do I have a place in agriculture?

Dr. Van Acker: Yes, you, you, you do. And so I, I personally think that's extremely exciting, but it. It drives our recruitment and marketing folks nuts. And it is a problem for us. I mean, it's a paradox, maybe a happy paradox, but, but certainly there's lots of opportunity. And so for, for young people who are maybe interested in concepts around agriculture and food, who maybe want to make a difference in the world, in the environment, in having, you know, the whole world fed.

Dr. Van Acker: Uh, but don't see themselves farming or have no link to that. There is room for them, lots of room for them in this sector and uh, you know, I, I'm one of those examples. Um, uh, I, I really wanted to participate, but I, farming was not what I was interested in doing. And I've had a great career in agriculture.

Dr. Van Acker: Um, I wouldn't mind owning farmland. Don't get me wrong, [00:09:00] it's a great asset. I wish I owned some farmland, but, um, but no, it's, it's extremely rewarding to be part of, part of the sector. 

Kyleigh: Yeah. And like, I love everything that you just said. Um, and I've been with, uh, talking with a lot of different people of like, Oh, you're doing podcasts and that's still within like agriculture.

Kyleigh: Like, yeah, yeah, we are. Um, and so. You hit it right on the nail. There's so many different sectors. There's so many different things that is encompassed within the words agriculture or agriculture and natural resources. Um, and so, and a lot of those things you can figure out in like doing research, um, which again, you just said that you are the VP of research.

Kyleigh: Currently, um, at the University of Guelph. And so can you kind of talk through, um, what the research mission is at the University of Guelph and what you're doing up there to really like showcase all the different sectors of agriculture? 

Dr. Van Acker: Yeah, I mean, the history of, of this university is, uh, is really rooted in, um, agriculture, food and veterinary medicine.

Dr. Van Acker: I mean, those, [00:10:00] those are the founding colleges, uh, for this university. The university has grown since then. I mean, the founding colleges are, well, our college is 150 years old this year, the veterinary college is a little bit older than that. But there has been an evolution, in part driven by the extra disciplinary needs relevant to agriculture, food, veterinary medicine over the years.

Dr. Van Acker: To the extent that we have seven colleges now, we're a comprehensive university, we have all kinds of programs. And so our research mission A lot of the work we do is still very much food, agriculture, veterinary medicine, just because we have so much momentum and capacity in that regard. But if we think about our research mission for the comprehensive university, it's really about being a research intensive university.

Dr. Van Acker: And what that means is that we, we run a very highly professional research office. We can facilitate research agreements and contracts of any stripe and any scale. Uh, we have a tremendous infrastructure. Uh, we [00:11:00] have lots of supports for thesis based graduate students, both master's and PhD. We have an international reach.

Dr. Van Acker: We work on developing international partnerships. We want mobility for our graduate students, especially that they are in the world and around the world. We participate in, uh, uh, continuing to modernize our, our research infrastructure. Um, a lot of that is focused on agriculture, food, and veterinary medicine, but we have an ethic of, uh, of research in all we do, uh, and that includes undergraduates.

Dr. Van Acker: So we have a lot of undergraduate research projects that then build possibilities for master's projects, then build possibilities for, uh, PhD projects. We're increasingly interested in partnering Ph. D. programs around the world. And then we recruit globally, especially for Ph. D. students. We've had a long tradition of about a third of our Ph.

Dr. Van Acker: D. students at the University of Guelph being international. And we'd like to keep that sort of level. It's really important to us that for, uh, Our faculty, uh, [00:12:00] the world is their pool for PhD students, and we also maintain a, an international PhD student, uh, tuition waiver program, uh, as well. So, so our research mission is around being research intensive, but we tend to have a focus around agriculture, uh, food and veterinary medicine.

Kyleigh: So you're part of a, um, right now with the streaming science with the University of Florida and the University of Guelph. So I'm going to have some classmates talk with those international students, some of them anyways, about their research and what they have going on. And we're so excited for that here.

Kyleigh: Um, and so you talk about the Ontario Agriculture College or the OAC, if we want to put that in an acronym. Um, and so, really, what are, like, the main goals or the main missions or the main pillars of that college and how are we trying to help, um, this big sector of agriculture? 

Dr. Van Acker: Yeah, the, um, the pillars of OAC in terms of our endeavors, both [00:13:00] education programs and research, are food, agriculture, communities, and the environment.

Dr. Van Acker: The last one may be a surprise to some people, uh, but in fact, um, the environment, uh, and considerations around the environment have always been essential to agriculture. And for the vast majority of people, uh, in North America, for example, in Canada and the, in the United States, uh, they live in watersheds that are farmed.

Dr. Van Acker: Uh, so, you know, we always joke in Canada that we don't in fact live in the land of moose and beaver. We live in the lands, uh, land of chickens, pigs, and cows. That's the land we actually live in, including all urban Canadians. Um, so agriculture and the environment is absolutely vital and essential to having a quality environment for us to live in.

Dr. Van Acker: So agriculture's, uh, impact on the environment, agriculture's role in being a solution to having a, uh, a [00:14:00] clean environment, uh, is, is really vital. Thank you. Communities is, uh, is really for us a focus on, uh, our long tradition in having, um, expertise in rural development. And, uh, and also our long tradition in having expertise in capacity development around the world.

Dr. Van Acker: And so, uh, we have a significant focus on the global south and, uh, capacity development, uh, working with small holder farmers, uh, looking at food systems, uh, in, uh, developing economies, for example. Uh, so that's a big part of our focus, uh, which would be very, um, familiar to, uh, uh, I would say all land grant universities in the United States, for example.

Dr. Van Acker: Um, and then I don't think food and agriculture need much explanation. They're part and parcel of what we do, except to say that on the food side, um, typical for agricultural colleges, a lot of that is, is around food science. [00:15:00] And so, uh, um, expertise in food safety, for example, Uh, expertise in, uh, supply chain elements, uh, and food science, and then expertise in food science with respect to, uh, food preservation, uh, food processing, uh, ingredient strategies, uh, applications of technology in that space.

Dr. Van Acker: Um, yeah, so that's, that's, that's what we do. We, um, We work to maintain our capacity in all of those regards. One of the challenges, one of the, I guess it's another positive paradox or positive conundrum, uh, with agricultural, uh, schools is that, um, we find, and I think we all find, that the societal expectations for this sector expand and those expectations don't trade off, they accumulate.

Dr. Van Acker: And so at the same time that everybody wants, you know, A basic supply of food. They [00:16:00] also want the tremendously expanding skews in the grocery store and everything under the planet. And they want agriculture to supply a clean environment and clean water and they want us to provide economic development and economic growth and, uh, et cetera, et cetera, which is great because we want society to value us.

Dr. Van Acker: Uh, but it's, it's challenging because it means we have an accumulation of disciplinary capacity needs, uh, in, in the college and, um, and so we're always, uh, needing to expand our, our faculty. 

Kyleigh: Yeah. And you make some great points there as you were talking and I was listening, um, you said some things and it really like was reminding me that the, the work that we're doing even at the University of Florida or at the University of Guelph.

Kyleigh: We're looking to make advances within agriculture, but we're also hoping to, like, help the consumers on the other end of the thing. So when you were talking about food safety, when you were talking about all of those things in terms of food safety, and it's really so that we, we know what we're doing on this end and being able to [00:17:00] produce great things, um, so that our consumers can consume wonderful, safe things.

Kyleigh: And so. When we talked beforehand and when I had the pleasure of talking with some others, um, professors at the University of Guelph, you guys have this idea of One Health. Um, and so a lot of the things that you just said that reminded me of One Health. And so can you give us a little bit of a breakdown of what One Health is or what that mission at the University of Guelph is trying to accomplish?

Dr. Van Acker: Yes, One Health is certainly a concept that we promote and champion here. And, uh, the basic tenets of One Health are, are that there are three elements to healthy people. That is the health of people and, and, uh, you know, maybe more acute consideration in that regard. Uh, but that is also inextricably linked to, uh, the health of animals and the health of the environment.

Dr. Van Acker: And some people might wonder what health of animals, what does that mean? Um, the best example is [00:18:00] zoonoses, right? COVID was a zoonoses. .... And, um, and so there, there are issues around, for example, transfer of diseases from animals to, to people. Uh, so the One Health concept is important in terms of understanding that, understanding the epidemiology of that, the mechanisms, how that can happen.

Dr. Van Acker: Uh, we need healthy animals, uh, as well because they are a vital part of our food supply. We need healthy animals because, uh, they're important, uh, in terms of the health of our environment and ecosystems, both, uh, agricultural ecosystems, peri agricultural, and full wild ecosystems, the health of the planet as a whole, and of course, a healthy environment is essential to our, uh, not only our animal health, but our human health.

Dr. Van Acker: And, um, examples of that include clean water. Pretty key example, you know, we had a good example of that, uh, this past summer where Canada experienced probably its worst ever, uh, forest fire season of results of changing climate, um, and that forest fire season, uh, really reduced the air quality, [00:19:00] not only in many places in Canada, but a lot of that.

Dr. Van Acker: Drifted into significant portions of the U. S. as well and, uh, and it was really serious air quality, uh, problem. So the planet is fully interconnected, you know, that we, we can't escape the environment. We are, we are the environment, we are in the environment. So the One Health concept is really important in terms of us understanding those connections.

Dr. Van Acker: It's also a different take on health versus the traditional take you would see, which is more. You know, acute care, surgical, pharmacological around, you know, personal human health, which obviously is super important. Um, but it forgets a lot of, um, what is essentially public health. And, um, so we're, we're a promoter of that.

Dr. Van Acker: Uh, and, and we're trying to, to take leadership, uh, in Canada and promoting that, um, and, and elsewhere around the world. 

Kyleigh: That is great. And I, Um, I just, I, I nerd out on research so bad. So like, as you're talking, you're like, Oh, this connects and this connects and this connects and this connects. [00:20:00] And it's wonderful to see, um, that at the University of Guelph, you have this idea of One Health.

Kyleigh: Uh, okay. The people need to be healthy. The environment needs to be healthy. The animals need to be healthy. And then you're like, okay, in the college, what can we do to like help all of these? And learn to like, how can we keep these as healthy as possible? And then it goes back to the whole university of, you said, agriculture, food systems, veterinary medicine, all of these things, and they're connecting, even though they're different things.

Kyleigh: And I think that that's so amazing to see at an institution as the university of Guelph um, and so as you're seeing research, um, in these things, what is something, um, like some pieces of research that's being done within the OAC at the moment, um, that's really, um, either helping these things or like helping One Health, helping, um, the research mission and what are you excited for that's coming out?

Dr. Van Acker: That's a great question. I mean, um, you know, part of me, uh, has a tough time with that question because there's just so many, there's just so [00:21:00] many things happening. And so to land on one or two things is, is challenging. I mean, one thing I would say, just thinking about One Health is, um, you know, another example is, is we've had a tremendous focus on antimicrobial resistance.

Dr. Van Acker: And, uh, and we know that that is a, a problem. a problem in the human health system. There's tremendous concern around that. We also know that the problem can be exacerbated by practices in agriculture. We know that in animal agriculture, there's a tremendous use of antimicrobial products. Antibiotics and, um, and so the efforts to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture are really important to ongoing use of antibiotics in human medicine.

Dr. Van Acker: There's a good One Health link and we do an awful lot of research on, uh, that topic, for example. The other one more, more broadly, I would say, and it goes back to my theme of, of accumulating expectations or, or. Or what I like to call a this and that strategy. Agriculture, and I [00:22:00] think, you know, other than insiders like us, most people don't.

Dr. Van Acker: I don't think about the fact that agriculture has always been a massive adopter of technology, whether that was mechanical technology way back, or whether that was genetic technology or chemical technology. And now I would say data technology is, you know, that next wave. What's really interesting to us.

Dr. Van Acker: Is, again, there's no trade offs, there's accumulation, and so it's the intersection of the application of all of these technologies in the agriculture and food system that is the essence of so much of what we do. And, uh, we're excited about what those intersections will result in. And, uh, one of the things we're doing here at Guelph, and I know the same is happening at the University of Florida and other land grant universities, is, uh, we're increasing increasingly with with the latest technology revolution, which is data AI.

Dr. Van Acker: We're drawing in [00:23:00] more and more collaboration within our own university from, uh, faculty in the School of Engineering and our School of Computer Science. I don't know everybody's doing that. And then we're drawing in other institutions that have strong expertise in those realms. And it's fascinating.

Dr. Van Acker: It's so much fun to watch and, uh, and most of it's self selection. You know, faculty in the School of Engineering, especially here at Guelph, they come here to Guelph and they're like, Oh, what's going on here? Oh, food and agriculture. You know, maybe I'll get involved in that. Or the same is true of faculty in our, um, uh, School of Computer Science.

Dr. Van Acker: And so, for example, we're, um, We're running a, a, a dairy hackathon at the end of April, um, because the issues of cybersecurity are bleeding into, uh, the massive amount of data collection that's happening in places like dairy barns. Um, you know, the dairy operations with robots, those robots collect huge amounts of data and, uh, and there are vulnerabilities there.

Dr. Van Acker: Um. You know, so many of our feeding systems are automated [00:24:00] feeding, feeding systems. Um, you know, cybersecurity breaches could, could mean that we can't feed our animals, for example, or we can't milk our animals. I mean, if dairy cattle can't be milked, that's a problem. Um, so I mean, that's an example of.

Dr. Van Acker: Maybe an unexpected example of applications of cybersecurity in the agricultural sector, but it's a, it's an example of those, those intersections and what new can happen, what research will reveal and will be new that can happen in that respect. The other thing I would say is, um, And in agriculture, there's a long tradition of this, is always being interested in the application.

Dr. Van Acker: And so, as the University of Florida does, as we do, we hire faculty who are excellent in their academic field, and have all of the credibility and curiosity, ability for curiosity driven research, but they also have Uh, a desire and an inbred inclination to want to see applications of their [00:25:00]disciplinary expertise in agriculture.

Dr. Van Acker: And so we want to, we always want to be crossing the full spectrum from basic research to application. And, uh, and we have a kind of an unwritten mantra here at the University of Guelph that we want to see knowledge in action. So, yeah, knowledge is nice. But we want to see it in action. 

Kyleigh: And I think that that's such a great point.

Kyleigh: As you were talking and as you were saying all these things, I kind of set you up for failure. Um, but I want to tell all of our listeners that if you want to know more, um, on particular scientists or particular projects going on at the University of Guelph, Oh, do I have, not me personally, but my class that I'm in the streaming science will have a lot more, um, of these podcasts with different scientists.

Kyleigh: Um, so I did kind of set Dr. Van Acker up for failure there, but I wanted, I wanted to give you your best shot. Um, and so it's great to hear all of the different things that are going on at the University of Guelph with the research and all of that. And when you said the Dairy Hackathon, like I was like, Oh my gosh, that's like so innovative.

Kyleigh: And I would never have thought about something like that. Um, [00:26:00] so I grew up on a beef cattle operation. Um, so when you were talking feeders, I was like, yeah, and then when you were talking like milkers, I was like, Oh, that's something I didn't think about. You're so right. Um, and so integrating that AI or that data technology in here, but also kind of being cognizant of like, Hey, there could be, there could be a downfall of this.

Kyleigh: Like, how do we, yeah. How do we get in front of this? How do we really get this technology to do what we need it to do? Um, and so I think that that's such a great, I, I'm like, can you send me that paper or can you send me whatever you all have on that because I want to read it. 

Dr. Van Acker: Yeah, well, I'm, I'm sure we'll have a report coming out of that, uh, that event.

Dr. Van Acker: We have a lot of interest. There's a tremendous amount of interest, um, and, and the dairy farmers, uh, in this province, dairy farmers of Ontario are, uh, are supporting, uh, one of the strong supporters of that, that event. 

Kyleigh: Well, that's amazing. And like, again, like intersecting different people or different colleges within the university, but also intersecting and bringing in people of the community.

Kyleigh: And I think that that speaks a lot to like, what agriculture is, um, and what we're doing. Another intersection that's [00:27:00] happening right now is, um, the University of Guelph and the University of Florida. Florida. I've said it a couple of times. Um, but what are your, how are you thinking about, you know, you're up in Canada, um, and we're down here in as far south of the United States as you can go and kind of what, how are you excited about this, um, intersection and what we're going to build here?

Dr. Van Acker: I am very excited about it. And, and what, you know, the, the, the first thing that excites, excites me is that the University of Florida has tremendous expertise that we don't have. And, uh, and so when, when there was a reach out, uh, we weren't sure what, what that partnership would look like or how that would start or, you know, but we did know that, um, the University of Florida has something, uh, in this capacity, in this program, for example, that we don't have and so we wanted to learn by partnering with you, uh, and that's what we're doing and, and you've done a tremendous job of reaching out to us, of, uh, of showing us what's possible, um, You know, the fact that there's a PhD [00:28:00] program, uh, in that area is, is also new to us.

Dr. Van Acker: You know, we hadn't really considered what that means. I don't think we can build up the same capacity you have, like it's, we're envious of it, but I think through partnership, uh, we can, um, we can have a synergy. Right. We can have a synergy of what we can do together. I'm also so keen to learn from you because the, um, you know, the issues around communication are, are endless.

Dr. Van Acker: And, and as we all know, uh, you know, the, the world of communicating is, it's nothing like it was. Yesterday, it's nothing like it was 30 years ago, but it's so dynamic, uh, and it's hard to, it's really hard to keep up. And yet perception is everything and, and in agriculture, you know, we understand full well how we can be subject to perception.

Dr. Van Acker: And so, so understanding, uh, communication, uh, [00:29:00] much better, uh, is vital for, for everybody in this sector. So, I, I really, I really, really appreciate it. What the University of Florida has done and what your program is doing to, uh, to help us to build this relationship with us. 

Kyleigh: Definitely. And when I, um, took this class, if you can't tell, I really like to talk.

Kyleigh: So I was like a podcasting class. Yes, this is right up my alley, getting my PhD in agriculture communications up my alley, you know? Um, and then Dr. Loizzo and Maddi Dyment were talking and they were like, we're reaching out with the University of Guelph. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this So exciting where, 'cause it's nice to see kind of what you're doing for one in a different environment, a different country, a lot of different things going on, but we're all within the same sector.

Kyleigh: And so one of the things, um, you mentioned was like communication and how that's ever changing. Um, and so for my PhD I'm focusing on science communication and how do we take what we are doing. Within agriculture and we communicate it in a way to the people outside of agriculture or to our consumers or to our Stakeholders in a [00:30:00] way that like says what we need it to say and that's in a nice in a nice Put a bow on it and it's all pretty um and so where do you really think that science communication fits within this industry because it's not like we're Trying to save the environment.

Kyleigh: We're not really trying to keep animals healthy. Where do you, where do you see science communication fitting within agriculture and natural resources? 

Dr. Van Acker: I would disagree with those last statements. Uh, you are part of keeping animals healthy. You are part of, um, you know, healthy crops and, and, uh, farming systems.

Dr. Van Acker: You are part of protecting the environment because communications is an important part of all of that. What intrigues me about what you do is it, it helps those of us who don't think about this every day and are not experts to realize that it's, So much of it is about drilling down to the whys, you know.

Dr. Van Acker: So why am I communicating to this person? To what end? And maybe why [00:31:00]aren't they hearing what I think I'm communicating and how is that working or not working and, and, and. What do we want to achieve anyways, and who is the audience and why? Um, so that, that's extremely helpful because, um, you know, we're learning through this partnership through your expertise to consider this much more deeply.

Dr. Van Acker: I think there's always a risk that, um, that people can, can take communication very superficially. But in fact, it is extremely complicated and extremely challenging to get your message across and to have success through your message. Very, very difficult, especially in a disintegrated media. an ecosystem, right?

Dr. Van Acker: I mean, no longer do you have the nightly news at six o'clock that everybody listened to. Does anybody listen to the nightly news at six o'clock? I don't know. I don't anymore. I'm a radio junkie. I get a lot of my [00:32:00] news by radio. That ages me, but, you know, my, my kids who are on their twenties, they never listened to the radio.

Dr. Van Acker: I mean, that, I don't think they even have radios. I never watch TV anymore, uh, network TV. I watch zero network TV. Uh, so, you know, how, how do those messages, messages get heard? Uh, how, you know, where is the conglomeration? How can people be aligned? Uh, and then of course, politics plays on all of this because at the end of the day, so much is, is about politics because so much is about resources.

Dr. Van Acker: Um, and when you're part of public institutions, you know, it is very much about politics because it's about resources. But even, you know, even in the marketplace, it's about communications because it's about marketing. Anyways, I'm, I'm going on, but I think, I think it proves a point that no one should underestimate at all how difficult it is what you [00:33:00] are doing.

Dr. Van Acker: It's very difficult, but also it's absolutely vitally important because perception is everything, and especially in politics, perception is absolutely everything. I have deep respect for what you're doing. 

Kyleigh: Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Um, and thank you for. Um, saying that like sometimes like talking from like a communications standpoint, sometimes it feels like I'm not, I'm just taking what I'm being given and like kind of being this middleman between the industry and the consumers.

Kyleigh: And so, but you're like, actually like it has to get this way so that we can help the environment. It has to get this way so we can help the animals. And it was just, I very, I appreciate you so much for saying that. And I think back to what you said earlier in this interview. of, like, knowledge for action, um, and thinking, like, science communication is really, like, the researchers in the universities have this knowledge, and then how are we going to, like, put it into action?

Kyleigh: And that's kind of where I see science communication really falling. Um, and so as you were talking, I was [00:34:00] like, oh, oh, oh. 

Dr. Van Acker: That's a great point. You know, I hadn't even thought of that, but extension is communication. Yeah, what we used to call extension, we're now supposed to call it knowledge translation and transfer.

Dr. Van Acker: I think KTT or knowledge mobilization is anyways, I still call it extension, but it's, it's communication and, and great extensionists are great communicators. 

Kyleigh: And so as we are kind of wrapping up this conversation, I'm so thankful for you. And the conversation and the knowledge that you are instilling upon us.

Kyleigh: Um, but I always kind of like to end my interview with like a silly question, but kind of a deep question. And if you could give one piece of advice to a young person or a young professional, um, about. ANR, Agricultural Natural Resources, or Science Communication. What would it be? 

Dr. Van Acker: Yeah, you know, there, there's, um, I remember, uh, being involved in some professional development years ago, um, [00:35:00] and, uh, and it was a program that was run out of the U.

Dr. Van Acker: S. actually. It was a great program. And, um, there were many things in that program that, that really landed for me and, and still stay with me. But one of the most important. Pieces that still sticks with me is in that program. They made very clear the world for anyone and everyone is how it occurs to them.

Dr. Van Acker: And keeping that in mind is really important in terms of making your way forward in any respect, because so much of what we all do is about getting others on board, influencing others. Um, but if you don't think about. their world, your chances of getting them aligned or getting them on board or influencing them are, are pretty low.

Dr. Van Acker: Because, you know, if you're not speaking their language, if you're not presenting in a way that, that resonates with their world in their [00:36:00] world, why would they care? Why would they listen or why would they be able to take it in at all that they, they wouldn't, they won't. And so that really sticks with me and it's hard to practice that because, you know, we are wired to be extremely selfish beings, but that would be my advice is to think about that every day in, in your, in your world, in your, uh, in your professional world, in your personal world, hard to do, but if you can achieve it, It can be a keystone in success.

Kyleigh: I don't know if I have ever heard that and I really, really enjoy and love what you just said. Um, and I think that that is great, um, to kind of wrap things up. And so, Dr. Van Acker, I am so thankful for your time and for this conversation. Um, it has been a blast, um, and so thank you for coming to Streaming Science.

Dr. Van Acker: Thank you so much, Kyleigh. It's been my pleasure to, to be here for sure, and, and, uh, thank you for, for reaching out and, and, uh, providing this opportunity. 

Kyleigh: Thank you for [00:37:00] listening to Sustainable Solutions from Guelph to Gainesville with Dr. Van Acker. This series can be found on Streaming Science. Please check out our website and social media accounts for more.

Kyleigh: I'm your host, Kyleigh Hilburn. Thanks for learning Sustainable Solutions with me.