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IFAS Matters: A Message from Jack Payne, IFAS SVP
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Dear Friends,

Our stakeholders’ beliefs about our messages depends on their beliefs about our messengers. Once folks in the communities we serve know our first names, they’ll look at the letters after our last names.
 
That’s why it’s so important that UF/IFAS has messengers on a first-name basis with the people of every county. These messengers are, of course, Extension agents.
 
Agents establish credibility during the good times at the farmers’ markets, the soccer games, and the community festivals. They also establish it during tough times when everyone’s mettle is tested.
 
Long after the winds of Hurricane Michael died down, agents are still there in the worst-affected communities. Just a month ago, Ethan Carter finally moved back into his home that was ravaged by Michael. Ethan didn’t ask clients to hold off on their demands while he rebuilt.
 
The Bay County Extension team just moved back into its office after being displaced by Michael. Kalyn Waters is still running Holmes County Extension from a 4-H livestock barn. Her 4-H agent works at the public library. Her Family and Consumer Sciences agent is working out of a neighboring county.
 
Extension agents also face manmade obstacles. Because of the volatility of funding from non-UF/IFAS sources, Pamela Bradford’s job as a nutrition educator disappeared out from under her twice in the past decade. She kept teaching Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program classes as a program assistant until she got restored as an EFNEP Extension agent in Hillsborough County this year.
 
Science deniers and confusers tell us probability means uncertainty. We combat this with trustworthy messengers. When agents show a community what they’re made of, they establish a credibility that does more than help UF/IFAS. It furthers the cause of science itself.


-Jack
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To access the featured stories below, click the images on the left. 

Highlights

Industrial hemp growing in Florida for first time in decades: University of Florida pilot project plants seeds for new Florida crop


 
21 UF/IFAS Faculty, Graduate Students Earn Teaching Awards at National Conference
UF/IFAS Faculty Member and Alumna to Lead National Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals





 
Beneath the Earth, the ‘Black Box’ of Soil Holds a Key to Crop Growth





 
New Website Simplifies Connection to UF/IFAS Experts in Plant Health
Five to Be Inducted into Florida 4-H Hall of Fame
UF’s Field & Fork Program, Gator Dining Services Introduce Aeroponic Tower Gardens® to Student Learning Experience





 
Study: Improved Genetics Have Made Florida Panthers Healthier, More Abundant
 


 
UF/IFAS Scientist: Florida Crop Surveillance Network Offers State-Level Example of Proposed Global System





 
Study Aims to Use Orange Peels for Something Useful: Better Heart Health





 
UF/IFAS Extension Nature Coast Master Gardeners Project Receives International Recognition

 

 
UF/IFAS Expert in Taste Perception Honored for Distinguished Scientific Contributions


 
UF/IFAS Offers Online Gardening Class; Includes Gardening Kits and a 24/7 GardenCam





 
Lisa House, UF/IFAS Alumna, Named Chair of Food and Resource Economics Department





 
UF/IFAS Researchers Use AI to Take the Guesswork out of Fruit Pricing




 
Climate Change Will Mean Mass Movement of Wildlife — How Scientists Say We Can Prepare





 

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