In view of world fish stock depletion, this sector is rapidly gaining in popularity, and engineers with training in agriculture food, and biology should be in big demand in years to come. The next issue of Perspectives will spotlight this relatively new arm of our profession along with some interesting profiles of some of the people who make a difference among us. Ernie Barber on the Society's Future I have been privileged to spend what has now been a 25-year career as an agricultural engineer.
Agriculture is no longer our exclusive domain.
We will, however, be the preferred discipline for certain kinds of issues in agriculture, those that require an understanding of biological systems. And we will apply that same kind of understanding to industries other than agriculture where biological systems are important. A recent document by the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers named Chemical and Mechanical Engineering as the most likely disciplines to lead engineering developments in biotechnology. Given our lack of solidarity in this country behind a common name for our evolved discipline, it is perhaps forgiveable that a national organization of our colleagues would have failed to recognize Biosystems Engineering as the most appropriate discipline related to biotechnology. We should spend little or no time worrying about membership numbers or trying to recruit new members until we have done a good job of defining what we want to do and until we have put in place the programs to achieve those goals.