A tide of farm hats and Aggie jackets will fill the Ontario Veterinary College Lifetime Learning Centre in Guelph tonight from 7 to 8 p.m., for a special - and free -- presentation on how students and professionals are working together to fill the agricultural communications gap.

I'm one of the presenters, by virtue of proudly being named this year's professional agrologist in residence at the University of Guelph's Ontario Agricultural College.

But the real story is the students and how they've stepped up to take an exemplary role in communications and leadership. Their role makes me feel optimistic about farming's future in the face of some really tough times.

The annual agrologist in residence program is sponsored by the Ontario Institute of Agrologists and executed at the University by the Student Federation of the Ontario Agricultural College. The federation's vice-president (internal) lines up speaking opportunities for the agrologist in residence to introduce as many agricultural students as possible to agrology.

The institute defines agrology as the development or acquisition of scientific knowledge derived through experimentation and research. It offers further definitions on oia.on.ca, but you get the picture -- it's about being in the business of giving professional advice in agriculture. In Ontario, becoming and remaining a professional agrologist is a structured procedure.

You must have an agricultural degree to be eligible to enter the program, which accounts for the institute's interest in Guelph's agricultural students, then you article for two years like you would as a lawyer or engineer, with a mentor.

Once you get the designation, you follow through annually with a scheduled set of professional development activities to keep yourself current.

This year, for the first time, the professional agrologist in residence has a partner. Because the emphasis of the 2006 program is agricultural communications, and seeing the way Guelph students have embraced the discipline, the institute suggested an articling agrologist in residence also be named.

The nod went to Guelph's Sarah Brown, a 2004 Ontario Agricultural College graduate who has started her communications career with a Mississauga-based marketing and public relations company that specializes in the agri-food sector, Adculture. Brown, whom I'm mentoring as an articling agrologist, exemplifies the way students fill the agricultural communications gap, both inside and outside the agri-food sector.

While she was a student, she achieved high marks in agricultural communications course work and got involved in extracurricular activities such as Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (CanACT), the students' agricultural communication club. She also took part in Guelph's popular Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge program, which provides a plethora of agri-food research stories to the farm media and general media.

Those stories are one strategy among many to help farmers understand the latest on research at Guelph, and help consumers understand how that research affects their daily lives through the likes of better nutrition and environmental stewardship. Surveys by the Ontario Farm Animal Council show people want more information about agriculture, and this kind of communication helps bridge that gap.

After graduation, Brown was featured in a Town and Country Ontario video produced by agricultural communication students, about why she chose to become an articling agrologist. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, which produces the overall show and supports Guelph's agricultural communication students with significant airtime, webstreams these videos.

Student-based comm unications flourish on campus.

With the 2006-2007 academic year nicely underway, CanACT held its inaugural meeting last week with special guest Paul Mistele, the vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

He spoke about the need for sustainability in agricultural education and communications, and about how high-profile awareness programs such as the Farmers Feed Cities campaign need to be augmented with other activities in the classroom, at all levels. The challenge in communications, he said, is sustainability in the messaging.

That's where students come in. By learning the ins and out of agricultural communication during their four years at Guelph, and by taking part in practical skill development programs that simultaneously build up their portfolio and serve the industry, they're bridging the knowledge gap and equipping themselves for their career.

No matter if they're on or off the farm, they'll need communication skills to explain the agri-food sector to others.

Students are the sector's best ambassadors. It's comforting knowing the future of agriculture rests with them.

Say hello to some of them tonight.

Owen Roberts teaches agricultural communications at the University of Guelph.

GUELPH MERCURY, OWEN ROBERTS, (Oct 2, 2006)