ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of academics in providing science-based research. Academics are incredibly critical to any dialogue, not just in food and agriculture. Science, the quest for knowledge of our physical or material world gained through objective observation and experimentation, is the steadying force in this unsteady world. Agricultural academics in specific are a diverse lot, and it's difficult to lump them together. First of all, the range of areas an academic in agriculture studies varies dramatically - from the many uses of fiber in hemp to the economic potential of second-generation biofuels. Generally speaking, agricultural academia is broken down into three parts: research, teaching, and outreach. The outreach element came later and is tied to the Smith - Lever Act of 1914. This act created what is now known as Agricultural Extension. For those agricultural academics who live in states without strong Extension services, outreach is a much greater challenge.
