By Rob Gilbert
The Science of Sustainability
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) provides the science of sustainability. For specialty crop growers, sustainability must mean profitability. Our innovations have to make economic sense.
My predecessors as University of Florida senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources have held this view for generations. I’m honored by the opportunity to implement my vision of it now as leader of the research and discovery arm of Florida agriculture.
Growing Profits
I’ve worked toward the goal of producer sustainability in the specialty crop industry since my days as a researcher in Belle Glade at the UF/IFAS Everglades Research and Education Center. Since then, as a research center director, department chair and research dean, I have been focused on changing both sides of the profitability equation — reducing inputs while increasing yield.
Innovation, though, can be a risky business. Your profession is already risky enough. I see UF/IFAS’s job as taking on some of that risk for you. We spend years investigating management techniques, technologies and genetics so that we can continue to deliver you trusted advice on what to expect when you try something new.
Sometimes our greatest service will be we’ve found what does not work. The premise of the emerging enterprises initiative I launched as research dean, in which we try to identify roadblocks to the emergence of profitable new Florida commodities, is that we’ll be able to help you select crops with the most economic potential. But our research can also provide cautionary advice about those crops and commodities for which we can’t find an immediate path to profitability.
Education Focused
Having come up through the research ranks, I am excited about now having the chance to work more closely with Extension to ensure we continue delivering this advice to specialty crop growers.
I’m also enthused about contributing to the future of farming by educating the next generation of professionals you’ll need to sustain the industry.
This isn’t just a job to me. I’m no farmer, but because I’m married to a Master Gardener, I’ve enjoyed citrus, lettuce, nectarines and tomatoes grown right on my property. That increases my appreciation of how much work it takes and strengthens my resolve to help you feed Florida.
Seeking Feedback
As an administrator now, I don’t do the research. I secure and direct the resources to provide the science of sustainability. To do my job well, I ask experts for advice.
You’re among the experts. I need your feedback and observations from the field to help keep UF/IFAS relevant and responsive to your needs.
I’ll be traveling throughout Florida to visit with you. Please invite me to your farms, greenhouses and groves. Let’s talk about the science of sustainability, whether sustainability means staying in business through the next harvest or the next generation.
My predecessors decades ago did not have a Florida blueberry industry to speak of. But the innovation they fostered contributed to the emergence of one of the great specialty crop success stories. I hope to help write new chapters of that story for my successors.
Rob Gilbert is the University of Florida’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of UF/IFAS.