From the Editors: Communicating animal science to the public, policymakers, and students

This issue of Animal Frontiers, “Communicating the Animal Sciences Effectively,” focuses on the challenges associated with how best to communicate animal science information with policymakers, the public, and students. Communicating effectively with these stakeholder groups is critical to the future of the livestock and poultry industries. In addition, the general public gets most of its information related to food systems from the internet, family, or friends, and these sources often contain inaccurate information. It is not surprising, then, that communication about the production of meat, milk, and eggs has become increasingly difficult. The article by Johnson and Hamernik (2015) explores the reasons effective communication is important for how the public makes informed decisions. Scientists often try to educate the public with the hope that a better understanding of scientific and technical facts will enable the public to view controversial issues from the same perspective as a scientist. However, the public is also interested in the social, ethical, and economic aspects of issues. Effective communication on issues related to the management of livestock and poultry will require a commitment to building trust, shared values, ethics, and credible expertise. Glenn et al. (2015) describe the importance of sound agricultural and livestock policies in the United States to allow opportunities for animal science research, education, and extension activities that will be necessary to meet the growing demand for animal-sourced foods. Although most American politicians do not understand science, the unified voice of thousands of animal scientists as advocates for federal funding for animal science research or research friendly policies and regulations can have a tremendous, positive impact on elected officials. Federal policies and regulations in the United States are made based on emotions, trust, scientific facts, and clear and concise communication. Fraser (2015) provides a historical perspective of how science influenced Canadian policy for the welfare of farm animals. Development of national, science-based standards for farm animal welfare in Canada resulted from the timely actions of a number of stakeholder groups, including livestock producers, national producer organizations, retailers, and scientists. Each of these groups provided trusted individuals to participate in conversations and engage in debates on controversial issues associated with the welfare of farm animals. Social media, the internet, and conversations with the public and policymakers can be used to provide more information about the production of meat, milk, and eggs. This information can enhance a stakeholder's ability to make informed decisions and to refute misinformed communications that go viral on the internet. Capper and Yancey (2015) discuss how social media is used by the public to gain information and make food purchasing decisions and show compelling information indicating how different generations use social media differently. Given the credibility that farmers, ranchers, and academics have with the general public and policymakers, using the appropriate tools in social media to educate and inform is critical. National scientific meetings have an important role in providing a platform for communicating state-of-the-art research results and for bringing scientists together to discuss contemporary issues in animal science. The four member societies of Animal Frontiers provide insights of their vision for the future of scientific meetings. All four societies recognize the increased demand for virtual meetings from animal scientists that do not have sufficient time or resources to travel to participate in annual face-to-face meetings. In addition, all four societies believe that there will always be a need for large, multidisciplinary, face-to-face meetings. The American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) has used new communication technologies and social media to enhance communication between scientists that present results of their studies and scientists that attend the meetings (Wulster-Radcliffe, 2015). Future meetings will likely include more discussions of contemporary issues, values, and emotions as well as scientific facts associated with the management of farm animals. The Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS) recognizes that animal scientists find it increasingly difficult to spend time and money on attending the annual scientific meeting (Plaizier and Girard, 2015). However, CSAS justifies the need for animal scientists to attend annual society meetings to network, coordinate research, and attend specialized workshops with a critical mass of experts in a given field of research. The European Federation for Animal Science (EAAP) sponsors an annual conference on animal production and animal science (Rosati and Chemineau, 2015). The EAAP conferences in the future are expected to provide opportunities for discussions among scientists, industry representatives, policymakers, and other stakeholders that focus on the various systems of animal production and methods to reduce the environmental impact of animals. The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) hosts an annual Reciprocal Meat Conference that includes academic scientists as well as managers from the meat industry to facilitate communication and adoption of new scientific discoveries by the industry and focus research efforts on issues that are relevant to current needs of the industry (Powell, 2015). Scientific journals have played an important role in communicating science since the 17th century (Wulster-Radcliffe et al., 2015). New communication technologies and online platforms have led to real-time, open access to data, and publications that are free of charge to the public but still involve costs to the publisher. Social media allows the scientific community and the public to conduct an open, post-publication peer review and discuss scientific issues in an open, transparent format. Educational innovations using multimedia platforms are increasingly used in animal science classrooms. These platforms are effective because they combine 2- and 3-D animation with subject matter description and are available to students both in and out of class (Oki et al., 2015). Studies show increased abilities of students to recall information they have seen using multimedia platforms over a longer time frame. Could some of the educational innovations be used to educate the general public as effectively? Oki and Senger discuss how this approach may work and why online high quality modules may be a tool that animal scientists should consider for education of the general public. Parrish et al. (2015) describe the challenges associated with communicating to undergraduate students in animal science. In many departments of animal science in the United States, more than half of these students come from urban settings and do not have experience with livestock. The authors describe the importance of providing these students with opportunities to interact with cattle, sheep, or pigs to create the context for relevant, real-world experiences associated with the production of animal-sourced foods. An additional benefit of these experiential learning opportunities is a change in the way that students view livestock and how they communicate these views to the public. Interestingly, in the United States, the undergraduate student body in animal science is about 75% female while the typical composition of an animal science departmental faculty is about 75% male. These demographics may be a barrier to increased learning by some women students in the animal science classroom and may lead to fewer women pursuing careers as animal scientists. Training graduate students to be able to be effective communicators has long been a priority of animal sciences mentors. However, traditional methods of training have emphasized presentation of research at professional meetings. In lieu of the communication challenges, more attention is needed in graduate training to enhance student skills in multiple types of communication (Dilger and McKeith, 2015). Communication with policymakers through internships and field trips as a part of a graduate program that emphasizes policy and interdisciplinary science is also an effective way of training graduate students to understand and practice different modes of communication (Stehr and Lamb, p. 16). Innovative opportunities to use social media and professional networking to enhance science communication skills of graduate students are being implemented. Attention to these needed skills will benefit not only the student, but also society at large. Communication of animal science to policymakers and the general public is a complex topic. This issue discusses the challenges but also provides some innovative solutions. The people in animal sciences have the talent and ideas to effectively communicate to different audiences. It is time that we harnessed that talent and move to action.

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