We can argue about what causes climate change and what percentage of it is, cause is man caused versus natural, but the reality is on the ground is it's occurring and we have to find new strategies to be able to cope with it. Climate change is creating a challenge that is unlike any that we've seen in the past. To be a successful farmer they often have to change the way they operate their farms in order to deal with these constantly fluctuating conditions. So what really is needed is a better understanding of the opportunities and risks going forward, but these are really complex. We need a wide range of expertise. My research background is in primarily crop production, working with green and forage production systems, whether it's plant physiology or plant breeding. The projects that I'm working on is looking at how can we make a ranching more resilient in the face of climate change? How can we make the animals more resilient? Insects and diseases are inherently linked to their external environment. So as the climate changes, for example, as temperatures fluctuate or things like humidity change, we would expect that to impact the pest life cycles and we certainly expect to see new invasive pests coming into some regions where they weren't previously seen. We try to tackle that by studying these pests, studying different management tools and providing that information to the farmers. Several of the projects that I have going are related to climate change adaptation, but probably the most obvious one involves studying how new irrigation practices affect soil biology. My area of research is policy evaluation. So I work with government at all levels to see how well they protect their agricultural land base. Since 1950s, Canada has lost a significant amount of its agricultural land base, but in the face of climate change with a changing climate and increasing risks to the global food system, that makes protecting our agricultural land base that much more important. Because the situation is so complex, we really need to have collaboration to provide guidance to farmers, policymakers, consumers. We need to understand the interactions of various components of the very complex food system and its interactions with the climate and who I envision sitting at a table during this process would be scientists from different disciplines, but then of course the farmers, the farmers need to be involved in the development of the research questions and to ensure that the research is producing results that are actually useful. And then we need the consumers involved and then we need the policymakers. As an economist, I understand something about the economic incentives that impact on people's behaviors, but the kind of changes we want to see that both depends on what the producers want and understanding their situation and their needs and understanding what the science of the situation is and understanding the broader social dimensions of it that go beyond economics. Each group that I work with whether it's a producer or another researcher, government agent or not-for-profit organization, each person brings their own knowledge into the project that we collaborate on, and so by having a team approach, we can accomplish so much more. I kind of start at the grassroots, so instead of coming to the producers, they are often coming to us with their ideas, so it allows me to be a conduit between someone who might consider themselves more peer research and the producer and linking that information. It's essential this role of connecting people and disparate groups of people so that we can all work together. So the idea with ACARN, the agricultural climate change adaptation, research, network is to be able to network scientists and extension personnel across the province so that we can actually provide the guidance that is helpful for farmers, for consumers and policy makers, and also to train the next generation of experts to be able to effectively deal with climate change. Most of us are sole operators and we need to be able to walk with our neighbors and bring in teams of experts we're necessary because we ourselves don't have the resources to do the applied research on farm.