Badger Common’Tater August 2022 Issue
Interview with Jed Colquhoun
By Joe Kertzman, managing editor, Badger Common’Tater
In addition to being a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, Extension specialist and integrated pest management program director, Jed Colquhoun has served in several administrative roles, such as (first image) interim Extension program leader and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) associate dean. He has also served on advisory committees, shown in the second photo (center) as part of the State Association of Feeding America Foodbanks Advisory Committee. Images courtesy of Michael P. King/UW-Madison CALS
Though he didn’t grow up on a farm, Jed Colquhoun says he always enjoyed plants and the productive feeling of growing his own food.
A professor, Extension specialist and IPM program director in the UW-Madison Department of Horticulture, Colquhoun says, “I was a biology major in college and originally thought I would go into the medical field, but the draw of a good day working outdoors pulled me away from the fluorescent lights of the labs.”
“My early experiences had much in common with working in agriculture,” he adds. “My father worked as a fisheries biologist, and I spent many days working outdoors with him and appreciated that hard work yielded harvest from the water, in that case, instead of the land.”
“My early job experiences were in construction and property maintenance,” Colquhoun remarks, “where working with your hands led to visible, tangible outcomes.”
Dr. Colquhoun began working in fruit and vegetable production in the summer after his first year in college and hasn’t looked back.
