Smart Agriculture Career Development with Dr. Adrienne Levay

Beef and Forage Roundup

Adrienne Levay graduated with a PhD in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems in 2018. She is a two-time Canadian Institutes of Health Research Awardee and was a 4-Year Fellow at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests have included gender and food insecurity in the global south, government school nutrition policy, health ethics, ethics of technology and innovation, developing data-enabled innovations, data literacy and realist methodologies. Currently, she is an Instructor & Researcher at Lakeland College in Alberta, Canada, creating and delivering curriculum for the new Bachelor of Agriculture Technology Degree and is the Lakeland College lead for implementation of the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network’s research activities.

Adrienne starts this episode by sharing information on what “Smart Agriculture” is, and how Lakeland College is a working Smart Farm. From there, we move into an in-depth discussion on the new Bachelor of Agriculture Technology that is being offered at Lakeland College as a two year degree program. This program is preparing students for careers in agriculture, involving skills that set students up for success in the rapidly evolving agriculture sector.

Adrienne shares an overview of what the program looks like and how courses are balanced across grain crop and livestock production and gives us a closer look at some of the courses that are included in the program. Included in this program is a large project that incorporates both the first and second year students, “Farm 4.0 - The Future of Agriculture’ at Lakeland College.”

Further this, she shares some of the career opportunities that students will be qualified for at the end of this program and options to further their education.

We wrap up with a conversation about the collaborative project Adrienne is involved in, “Improving data literacy among producers through continuing education modules and extension.” This project includes online modules that will be available to producers to assist with data collection, organization and more!

References and Links:

Lakeland College Main Page:

https://www.lakelandcollege.ca/index.aspx

Lakeland College Bachelor of Agriculture Technology Program:

https://www.lakelandcollege.ca/programs-and-courses/agricultural-sciences/bachelor-of-agriculture-technology.aspx?utm_term=&utm_campaign=20230118_AgSc_BachAgTech_WebTrffc-PMax&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=6838733874&hsa_cam=19586684360&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjt-oBhDKARIsABVRB0w1UK9qnAPSiFBDrpm_9fozYszBoSEgQ76CM3FS3YvAfVYMkZUSt4saAr8zEALw_wcB

Farmer 4.0: How the Coming Skills Revolution Can Transform Agriculture https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/farmer-4-0-how-the-coming-skills-revolution-can-transform-agriculture/

The research programs and daily operations at MBFI would not be possible without the funding from the Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada, and Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, as well as the partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).

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