Why?
Kids have a natural tendency to ask “Why?”. Most parents have had the experience of their child asking “why?” repeatedly over and over, no matter what the last answer was. It can be fun, annoying and challenging all at the same time having to answer that repeatedly. And yet it may be the best question of all.
I heard a scientist say recently that he never asks “why?” about anything in biology because “why?” is a philosophical question. He used the example of mutations in the virus causing COVID-19. The virus mutates by chance and some of those mutations have a better chance of spreading than others - but the virus had no conscious decision in the matter. There was no “why?” involved.
LRIC is focused on improving the innovation system for livestock in Ontario. Obviously, great research is a critical piece of that puzzle. Research is identifying the "what" and "so what?" of any number of things. For example, what if I feed yeast? The "so what?" may be a better immune response and lower use of antibiotics.
But one thing I hear over and over is that we don’t close the loop on research; we don’t do a good enough job of getting results into action on farm. That’s all about people and how they think: it is about “why?”.
