PIC Update – November 2012

A couple of months ago I commented on the federal government’s reduction in funding for research in agriculture and the paramount importance of working together to ensure that we in the poultry industry get our fair share of federal and provincial research dollars and retain, as far as is possible, our research infrastructure.

In September, the Provost at the University of Guelph (U of G) released a statement that talked of the University undertaking “a Program Prioritization Process (PPP),” which “is part of the assessment component of the University’s Integrated Plan. Its purpose is to help the university ensure its limited resources are directed toward services and programs that are “mission-critical,” said Maureen Mancuso, provost and vice-president (academic).

“We are living and working in an era of scarce resources and significant financial difficulties,” said Mancuso. “We face the challenge of continuing to maintain and enhance quality with limited revenues, so we must make decisions that are evidence-based.”

What this suggests is that the university is taking a hard look at where it makes money and where it does not. Does anyone think that the provost’s gaze will not rest on the cost of maintaining agricultural programs, faculty positions and researchers, costs that include expensive research facilities and equipment?
Indeed not.

People Needed

We need highly skilled workers moving out of high-quality agricultural educational institutions, but our industry cannot compete with the huge volume of students being churned through the cash-cow “edu-dollar rich” degree offerings that are taught online to hundreds of students at a time. We need people, and good ones at that, but educating them does not come cheap and neither does the research that is vital to the future of our agricultural industries.

Collaboration is key, and the advent of the Livestock Research Innovation Corporation (LRIC) could not have come at a more critical time. Designed to bring the combined weight of all of Ontario’s livestock and poultry research dollars and organizations in behind one entity, the LRIC has a mandate to negotiate with the province and university on key issues relating to research priorities, faculty appointments, research infrastructure and equipment purchases.

The last time the knife came out at the University of Guelph, the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) copped more than its fair share of the cuts. Despite all of that, and mainly thanks to the efforts of the then-new Dean Gordon, the OAC managed to haul itself up by its bootstraps and survive.

Sustainable Funding

We sincerely hope that, combined, our livestock and poultry industries create agricultural careers for those educated at Guelph, and the funds that flow from our sectors into research and faculty positions – coupled with the cash flow from the province through the OMAFRA U of G agreement – will be enough to encourage the provost to look beyond short-term edu-dollar revenue to the very sustainable long-term funding (albeit not as lucrative) that agriculture undergraduate education provides.

Our message to the provost is to remind her that agrifood is the number 1 economic driver and employer in this province and is likely to remain so for some time. People will always need to eat; thus, farming and the revenue it creates for the province are permanent fixtures. Agriculture is “mission critical” to the economy of the province and agriculture needs well-educated employees.

Our Message

According to the mission of the university, it feels the same way: “it recognizes agriculture and veterinary medicine as areas of special responsibility.” Our message to the provost when considering the options is to honour the university’s special responsibility to agriculture and keep the delivery of agriculture to undergraduates in the “mission-critical” envelope. And secondly, we ask that the provost never to lose sight of the fact that the significant provincial tax revenues from agrifood support the funds the university receives for the delivery of the more lucrative undergraduate online education delivery, ironically making agrifood an invisible benefactor of those courses.

Finally, we would like to offer one last thing for the provost to consider: Think sustainable funding. Think of, and believe in, agriculture.