extension & land grants

Patricia C. Bolin (bolinp@msue.msu.edu)
Thu, 21 Oct 1999 13:42:53 -0400

Okay, I can't sit here & listen to all extension services getting lumped
together without speaking up. In the IPM Program at Michigan State
University, we recognize that US agriculture will have to change to remain
viable. We have a number of projects looking specifically at incorporating
sustainable techniques into fruit and vegetable systems. True, there are
growers in this state who practice "spray & pray" all season long, but
there are a growing number of "conventional" growers who are willing to try
new approaches, alternative chemistries, pheromone disruption, cultural
controls, mass trapping, etc. etc. to manage their land in ways that
minimize the environmental disruption. And extension specialists are right
there, on their farms, demonstrating the new techniques, writing the
"non-sustainable" grants to get the money to find the way to make the
changes we need to see, as we help our growers survive the next 20 years.
Several of us subscribe to this digest and attend sustainable ag
conferences specifically looking for the jewels of wisdom we can bring back
to our growers as we move IPM from the "conventional" end of the spectrum
to the truly sustainable. And the extension agents with whom I work
demonstrate a true interest and concern about helping anyone who calls them.

Whew, thanks, I feel better now!

--Pat--

>Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 15:20:54 +0100
>From: "Bluestem Associates" <bluestem@webserf.net>
>Subject: Organic --- extension & land grants
>
>Organic and quasi organic farmers should just get on with building
>their businesses and caring for their land. If you need a grant to do
>it, it's probably not sustainable anyway. Don't worry about
>recognition from extension and land grants. If you do a good and
>sustainable job without always coming to the public teat you might
>eventually attract their attention anyway.
>
>Don't bother trying to imitate the folly of the broader organic
>industry in the US, much of which sought an ego-boost in the form of
>government legislation recognising organics. The resulting boondoggle
>may yet make it into the annals of history as the biggest and most
>domineering bureaucracy ever developed for such a marginal segment of
>an industry.
>
>Looking for acknowledgement from extension and land grants seemingly
>repeats the same errors, albeit on a smaller scale. If you've got an
>interested and cooperative ag rep / extension agent, great. If not,
>don't waste your time.
>
>Darrell Norton, director of the USDA's National Soil Erosion Research
>Laboratory at Purdue, put it very succinctly --- " A lot of extension
>people stop learning when they finish their degrees." [Wisconsin
>Agriculturalist, May 1998]
>
>Bart
>

==============================
Patricia C. Bolin, Ph.D.
Vegetable Crop Integrator
Integrated Pest Management Program
Michigan State University
B18 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302 USA
517-353-3274, fax 517-353-4995
e-mail: bolinp@msue.msu.edu

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail