Today we learned about marketing and communications at Semex Alliance. Semex Alliance is the world's largest exporter of semen and embryos, due, in part, to a strong communications and marketing team. The team has grown to eight full-time staff members. By encouraging different countries to modify promotional materials through translation, local pictures, distinct design and specialized news, Semex Alliance has strengthened its brand worldwide and built global partnerships.

The next part of today's tour took us to Town and Country Ontario, an award-winning agricultural broadcast. It's all about making connections, the team stressed. Partnerships with foreign-language specialists, technical experts, industry and all levels of government have helped Town and Country Ontario recover costs and remain viable, even in a time of government cutbacks.

At AdFarm, the next stop, a creative and upbeat communications and marketing firm, partnerships are also key. In agriculture, we all need to work together, said Rob Hannam, one of AdFarm's team leaders. That's led to the new Ontario AgriCentre being constructed across from the Ontario government building on Stone Road. The Agri-Centre will be home to farm organizations such as the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, commodity groups and an agricultural law firm. The centre will allow these organizations to share facility costs and situate themselves next to academia, the federal and provincial governments. This will put agriculture on "Main Street" and strengthen agriculture's voice and effectiveness. Participants were also treated to a fascinating, well-coordinated look at how an agricultural agency handles projects, from management, to creative, to editorial and advertising. Gainesville, home of the University of Florida main campus, doesn't have an agricultural agency such as AdFarm, so the learning experience for the visiting students was greatly enhanced. At the same time, Guelph students accompanying the tour were in the privileged position of getting an inside look at one of Canada's top-managed companies.

Greenhouses in space - or the near equivalent, greenhouses in the Canadian north, was the topic of our tour at Prof. Mike Dixon's controlled environment lab. Dixon is working with researchers in Florida and elsewhere to find ways to grow plants in space. His work also applies to greenhouse production in Canada, where lack of light curtails production.

Today's tour finished with an all-Ontario dinner at the Woolwich Arms, hosted by culinary author and speaker Anita Stewart. Stewart explained how Canadian cuisine is truly a diverse, regional potpourri, and emphasized the need to support local farmers.