Dr. Jack Payne is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and the leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, known as IFAS. Dr. Payne previously held positions at Iowa State, Utah State, Texas A&M, and Penn State. He also served as the national director of conservation for Ducks Unlimited. He has led IFAS for nearly 10 years. He has essentially served as CEO for the R&D arm of Florida’s $160 billion-a-year agriculture and natural resource industry, the state’s second-largest after tourism. As one of the nation’s highest-ranking academic agricultural administrators, Dr. Payne has been a national leader in garnering support for the land-grant system to which the University of Florida belongs. He has also used his platform as a national leader to consistently champion science as the basis for good decision making. In our interview today, Dr. Payne will highlight his career as head of the University of Florida's IFAS, the many land-grant colleges he has worked at, and his time spent at Ducks Unlimited. Dr. Payne will also touch base on how land-grant colleges have helped improve farming across the country and how the Florida agriculture industry manages to be one of the most diverse in the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices