Meet Prof. François Tardif Descriptive Transcript

Summary: Prof. François Tardif describes his role as a weed scientist and his “love-hate” relationship with weeds

00:00 - 00:05 
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Text: :60 Second Snapshots
Meet the Profs of the Ontario Agricultural College

00:05 - 0:20

[Screen fades to show video of François Tardif speaking in front of library bookshelves; University of Guelph logo and white text on a black box fade in at bottom with text: Prof. François Tardif Department of Plant Agriculture. Music fades out.]

François: My research is about controlling weeds. So plants that invade, you know, agricultural fields or natural environments and it's important because it allows to optimize their production and allows the public to be safe against poisonous weeds.

00:20 - 1:07
[Screen quickly fades out and in, returning to Prof. François Tardif speaking in front of library bookshelves]

François: My relationship with weeds is, I guess, complex. It's sort of a love-hate 
relationship. Weeds are plants that people want to get rid of. As I studied them to 
help them, you know, get rid of them. I developed some kind of admiration. I'm impressed by the way nature can, I guess, respond to human ways of  managing the environment. So I've worked in the past with very resilient weeds like Yellow Nutsedge, which  is very hard to get rid of. Very impressive weeds like Giant Hogweed which grows very tall, which is poisonous. A weed like, Rigid Ryegrass, which 
developed resistance to multiple herbicides, so there is a range of these weeds that 
all have their peculiarities, [music fades in]very specific, also very interesting to study.

01:07 - 01:13
[Screen fades in to show OAC logo on a white background, red website link]
Text: www.uoguelph.ca/oac
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