National Ag Week: A Q&A with UF/IFAS Faculty Jennifer Clark

By Teresa Suits, agricultural education and communication master’s student (BS ’17)

During 2019, National Ag Week occurs March 10-16. The week recognizes and celebrates the producers, associations, corporations, universities, governments agencies and others across the nation who contribute to the abundance provided by agriculture.

Jennifer Clark is a senior lecturer in the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department (FRE) at the University of Florida. With a 100% teaching appointment since 2007 in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Ms. Clark’s passion for Florida agriculture and industry experience is channeled into a teaching philosophy focused on developing her students’ critical thinking and decision-making skills. We interviewed Ms. Clark about her economic perspective on why agriculture is vital to our society. Enjoy our question and answer discussion below.

Q: Why is agriculture important and what does it mean to you?

A: Agriculture, in general, occupies a unique position in the economy. First, the importance of agriculture is that it feeds the world. Food is one of the few needs that is common to every person on the planet. Having access to a healthy food supply is one issue that I think everyone on the planet can agree on. Now, the more difficult food-related economic issues are: “What” food should we produce? “How” should we produce it? “For whom” should the food be produced?

It’s these kinds of scarce-resource decisions that are associated with “economic thinking” and agricultural economists, like myself, use different types of decision tools in our economic toolbox to help inform decision-makers about the real costs and benefits of answering these questions.

Q: Why is it important to communicate about agriculture?

A: It’s important for us to communicate effectively about agriculture and science-based scarce-resource issues. Uninformed communication based on erroneous information is problematic because this is where emotional misunderstandings, spread of misinformation and general distrust of agricultural systems evolves.

Communicating about agricultural benefits to society extends beyond the commercial economic value that agriculture provides. There are direct health benefits we receive from consuming fresh fruits and vegetables as well as other protein sources (including cattle, poultry, pork and eggs) as a product of agriculture activities.

There are also other indirect benefits of agriculture, like enjoying rural open-spaces in the country, participating in agri-tourism activities or u-pick farming operations, the environmental benefits of enjoying horticulture products that provide beauty and enjoyment in and around our home, as well as conservation resource easements that support wildlife diversity and watershed storage. The complex activities and benefits of agriculture must be communicated as a benefit to us all.

Q: How does the agricultural industry play a larger role in the economy?

A: In Florida, agriculture represents one of the largest contributions to our economy in terms of food-related agricultural products and services produced. Construction, tourism, and other research and service-related industries are also economic engines in the state, but agricultural products provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for them all!

However, while Florida’s agricultural products are consumed and enjoyed locally, this industry plays a much larger role in the economy as products produced here are distributed regionally, nationally and internationally. The jobs created by the agricultural industry include opportunities for all levels of skilled and unskilled workers within the food-supply chain including in the fields and greenhouses, at packing houses, driving distribution routes, shipping and export logistics, wholesale and retail sales (for home consumption), and food service suppliers (for away from home consumption).

We could even speak about the multiplier effect on local community business that benefit from agricultural industry indirect spending due to jobs, support services and other small-business enterprises which thrive from the stable economic activity associated with food production.

Q: Why is conserving the environment important?

A: Conserving the environment is a complex question because our planet is defined within the laws of physics. We can measure the size, shape and mass of our arable space. And many of the resources available for us to produce a healthy food supply for society are limited, non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels used for energy, arable land for production, and available human capital to engage within the system to produce, distribute, and provide food products and services for consumption at and away from home.

If we don’t have a healthy environment to produce food, we won’t have healthy food to nourish our members of society. Physical, environmental and human resources are the inputs that drive an agricultural economy. Farmers have a vested interest in preserving factors of production used to produce food that earns them a living.

I believe that farmers are the ultimate stewards of the environment; to believe otherwise, that farmers waste expensive scarce resources and don’t care about the environment doesn’t follow logical decision-making principles. While science-based technological discoveries may identify new and better ways to conserve our agricultural lands and environment, I don’t believe you would find even one farmer who would disagree that conserving the environment is very important.

Q: Why should people who aren’t involved in the industry care about agriculture?

A: As I mentioned earlier, we all need to eat. Increasingly, consumers are demanding more transparency about where their food comes from. The terrific news is that Florida farmers are happy to tell their side of the story; where food comes from, how it is produced and shared concerns about the environment. All we need to do is ask them!

You can learn more about Ms. Clark and the classes she teaches on her faculty webpage.

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Posted: March 15, 2019


Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, UF/IFAS Teaching
Tags: Agribusiness, CALS, CALS Classes, College Of Agricultural And Life Sciences, Conservation, Economics, Food And Resource Economics, Women In Ag


Comments:

Jonathan
December 15, 2021

Amazing job my friend! Your perseverance and success is inspiring.

Andrea Gallik
December 15, 2021

So very amazed by you Jason! You have made your family and UF so proud. Your story lights a path for others. May you continue leading the way with your perseverance and integrity!

Michele Dysna leconte
December 15, 2021

Congratulations!!! Very inspiring story, May continue to be a beacon of hope for other young men dealing with similar issues

Matt Parker
December 15, 2021

Congratulations Mr. Coby. 11 straight ‘A’s eh? Way to go. Now go forth and fix the environment. Your girls look good with the current graduate. Nicely done. Beautiful fam.

Mimi
December 15, 2021

Thank you for helping my nephew Jason I know he wasn’t a quicker but is this song I know if it’s Roman it will make it I’m proud of him and I look I love you and we always be there to support you we love you we love you aunt to Mimi

Anne Menard
September 14, 2021

You can post my comments.

Anne Menard
September 14, 2021

What a wonderful learning opportunity for the college students & it helps with their future education & career planning. Thank you Tall Timbers.

Robert
December 22, 2020

Dear sir, Thank you for your post. I Love group study.

Samuel Sam
December 10, 2020

Dear sir, Thank you for your post. Group study is the main for all students life and we learn a lot of things

Susan Weller
November 1, 2020

Congratulations for rewards well earned. Keep up this very important research. We are dependent on the honey bees. Your work is helping educate us all. The use of DDT was stopped due to scientist like you. Please continue to develop more earth friendly solutions for the good of mankind.

Georgene
August 7, 2020

Congrats-well-deserved!

suba suba
June 11, 2020

Really appreciate you sharing this article.Really looking forward to read more. Keep writing.

Mohammed Mahmood Mohammed
May 12, 2020

Congratulations you earned that degree

AHMED
May 7, 2020

Congrats Dr. Kawther. With your efforts you make what is difficult, been easy to get. Keep going don’t give up. Always the beginning is difficult but with the patience will be easy.

Pialang Indo
March 29, 2020

Very true this virus is very contagious, serious and potentially deadly virus hopes we can do what we can to reduce the spread of this virus and find the best solution to eradicate it. I was very scared until now and just stayed at home all day. Thank you for the information.

Pam Humphrey
December 19, 2019

Lindsey is an amazing, competent and caring young woman. She will be an asset to any company forward-looking enough to hire her.

Naomi Rose
December 19, 2019

Wow! I am so proud of her. Nana

Dagang Valas
December 14, 2019

Congratulation Rivas, hopefully the knowledge gained can be useful in the future and can help the community. Merry Christmas and happy new year too.

Ginny Reiss
October 1, 2019

So proud of you Adrian!!!

R. William (Bill) Henderson
June 21, 2019

Father figures are needed in all parts of education and in all of life. I teach GED to inmates in a local jail and many of the problems these inmates have stems from their many drop out fathers both male and female.

Amy Vasquez
June 20, 2019

Three perfect examples of men with integrity.

Bjørn
April 26, 2019

Way to go, Kendra!

Mehran
April 1, 2019

Indeed everyone need to eat, and many also complain about the food source quality. I think we all should, at least, do farming in our homes. If the lack of space is a problem, then we should use vertical farming methods. This will not only clean our environment but also reduce the peoples depression (as looking at green reduces depression and is good for mental health).

Linda Nolan
March 16, 2019

Great information! Thank you Dana for sharing Ms. Clark’s enthusiasm about Florida’s agricultural importance.

Myrna
March 22, 2018

I am sooo proud of Gallagher n the example given to her by these wonderful women encouraging others to jump in n make a difference. I say take your places with men n unite making the difference side by side. WELL DONE!!!

Edelyn Tidholm
March 17, 2018

Great article!

Karen Webster
February 21, 2018

We are very proud of you and your dedication to make agriculture better.

DARLENE
February 21, 2018

Enjoyed reading your article. It was well written and I could tell that you had put a lot of thought into what you wanted to say. Wishing you a great deal of success as you work toward your dream of becoming a lawyer. May God bless and watch over you as you embark on this journey.

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