Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Agriculture

by | March 28, 2013 · 9:01 am

Extension to host food security team in May

On Feb. 27, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan held a press conference at South Dakota State University to announce federal grant funding for the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s (AFRI) Food Security project. Teams at 21 universities received more than $75 million in grants for research, education and extension activities to ensure food security in the U.S. and worldwide.

May 29 to 31, Michigan State University Extension educator Becky Henne will take the lead in hosting the six-state team of partners that includes MSU Extension. Extension partners from Purdue, the Ohio State University, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the University of Missouri and South Dakota State will meet in Michigan with MSU Extension colleagues to get started on research focusing on food security particularly regarding food policy councils.

Becky has played a large role in this collaborative, helping to assemble the initial grant and coordinating meetings.

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by | February 14, 2013 · 12:40 pm

Extension educator and Extension specialist receive distinguished university awards

Douglas A. Landis, Michigan State University Extension specialist and professor in the Department of Entomology, received the Distinguished Faculty Award, and Jane M. Herbert, senior MSU Extension educator, received the Distinguished Academic Staff award Feb. 12 at the annual Awards Convocation in the Pasant Theatre in the Wharton Center. The awards presentation followed President Lou Ann K. Simon’s State of the University Address.

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) honored the awardees with a reception in the Agriculture Hall Atrium just prior to the Awards Convocation.

Dr. Landis was one of 10 faculty honored for a comprehensive and sustained record of scholarly excellence in research and/or creative activities, instruction and outreach. Dr. Landis has had joint funding from MSU Extension and MSU AgBioResearch throughout his service at MSU.

Douglas A. Landis, Michigan State University Extension specialist and professor in the Department of Entomology, received the Distinguished Faculty Award Feb. 12, 2013.

Douglas A. Landis, Michigan State University Extension specialist and professor in the Department of Entomology, received the Distinguished Faculty Award Feb. 12, 2013, at the annual Awards Convocation in the Pasant Theatre in the Wharton Center.

Dr. Landis came to MSU as an assistant professor in entomology 25 years ago. Since that time, he has strived to help people work with rather than against nature. He is author or co-author of numerous refereed research publications in wide-ranging journals as well as author or co-author of many book chapters. He is sought after as a keynote speaker on the topics of conservation biology and the redesign of agricultural landscapes. Dr. Landis has an outstanding granting record notable for its wide-ranging collaborations. He provides inter-disciplinary granting leadership at the highest levels of national competition.

As an international authority on the delivery of biocontrol services in agricultural landscapes, his contributions to a fundamental understanding of how landscape patterns structure insect abundance and distributions across entire watersheds has paved the way toward using this knowledge for pest management.

Beginning with his initial assignment of having extension responsibility for entomological aspects of field crops, Doug has done stellar work in outreach. In this work, Doug has always been dedicated to connecting with growers and
understanding their needs. He’s also been innovative in his approach, including the adoption of emerging technologies and helping us to continue improving Extension.

Doug has provided leadership to many collaborations over his career. He shaped the Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And he has been a member of the management team for the Long-Term Ecological Research program at the Kellogg Biological Station, a remarkable collaboration that began when Doug first arrived at MSU.

Jane Herbert was one of four people honored for the award that recognizes the outstanding achievements of academic specialists and MSU Extension academic staff members who serve the university in advising, curriculum development, outreach, extension, research and teaching.

Jane M. Herbert, senior Michigan State University Extension educator, received the Distinguished Academic Staff award Feb. 12, 2013

Jane M. Herbert, senior Michigan State University Extension educator, received the Distinguished Academic Staff award Feb. 12, 2013, at the annual Awards Convocation in the Pasant Theatre in the Wharton Center

Jane is a nationally recognized expert on inland lake management with an emphasis on natural shoreline landscaping and bioengineered shoreline erosion control.

She has been a major asset to Extension in the development, delivery and evaluation of regional and statewide water resource Extension programming since joining MSUE in 1996.

As a district water quality educator with the Extension Land and Water Unit at Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), she served the citizens of 17 southwest Michigan counties with innovative water resource programming. Now located at the Kalamazoo County MSU Extension office, she provides statewide leadership for water resource programming within the Greening Michigan Institute and serves as a water resource educator across Michigan.

She assumed a leadership role in the creation of the Michigan Natural Shoreline Partnership (MNSP), bringing together academia, industry representatives, regulatory agencies and nonprofits to develop and deliver innovative natural shoreline education. She also provides leadership for the development, delivery and evaluation of required continuing education for MNSP-certified contractors, including the creation of advanced bioengineering field construction experiences and training videos.

In collaboration with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, she led a multi-agency effort to develop a publication (MSUE Bulletin WQ60) to help large quantity water users and others understand the basis for Michigan’s new online Water Withdrawal Assessment Process – the mechanism by which Michigan complies with the Great Lakes Compact.

She has published in a variety of natural erosion control and landscape trade magazines, bringing national attention to the technical and community development model of Certified Natural Shoreline Professional (CNSP). She served as lead author and coordinating editor of the CNSP training curriculum, (MSUE Bulletin E3109), which received the 2012 Gold Award for a Long Publication from the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals.

She has co-authored successful grants totaling nearly $1 million to develop and deliver water resource management programming.

Congratulations to Doug and to Jane!

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by | August 30, 2012 · 8:44 am

USDA grant allows research of effects of grassland harvest on insect pollinators

Rufus Isaacs and Doug Landis, both Michigan State University entomology professors who have MSU Extension and AgBioResearch appointments, have received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study the effects of grassland harvest on pollinator populations.

The research team is seeking landowners and managers to assist with the project this fall. Appropriate sites include those in southern Michigan with at least 10 acres of grassland that will be mown, not mown or mown leaving a 10 percent refuge strip. Landowners can keep the forage. The team will sample the fields for two seasons for bees.

The project will investigate ways to manage grasslands with minimal damage to insect pollinators.

The team will connect with Extension educators and specialists as the results of the research become available.

Read more here.

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by | February 23, 2012 · 10:11 am

Update on the MSU Product Center Food–Ag–Bio

I heard an update recently from Dr. Chris Peterson, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, and director of the MSU Product Center Food–Ag–Bio, about the impacts the center has had since it was created in 2004. The center was established to serve the needs of entrepreneurs who are developing and commercializing “high-value, consumer-responsive products and businesses in the agriculture, natural resources, and bioeconomy sectors.” It was created with funding from Michigan State University Extension and MSU AgBioResearch, along with some key grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 The Product Center combines in-depth analysis of business trends in these three sectors with on-the ground, community-based and individually tailored delivery of educational services to entrepreneurs. Campus-based analysts team with community-based Extension educators who are trained as innovation counselors to provide the business-centered services. Clients are facing complex and dynamic situations in which they have to make potentially business-ending decisions. Sometimes the best decision they make is to proceed no further with their investments of time, talent and money. In other cases, they walk a tightrope of risk, carefully gauging each decision step as they seek to maintain a balance between profit and loss.

 Over the first seven years of the center’s existence, it has provided more than 21,000 counseling sessions and its clients, numbering nearly 1,800, have created 229 new enterprises, creating more than 900 new jobs and helping to retain more than 400 existing jobs. The total amount of capital that has been invested in these enterprises exceeds $310 million. The center’s productivity has accelerated in the past 18 months as the MSUE restructuring allowed greater concentration of effort by innovation counselors on the enterprise development program.

 The center has initiated a new line of programming that is directed towards existing Stage 2 businesses that have sustainable revenue and are looking to make major expansions in sales and production. This takes more detailed analysis of business trends and enterprise operations, but the investment of MSU’s effort is justified by the increased likelihood of success for established enterprises as opposed to startups. This new initiative is named the High Impact Venture Action Team, or HI-VAT, and is supported with investments of funding from MSUE. It will be interesting to track the continued success of the innovation counselor network and the HI-VAT team as they continue to build on the very successful first seven years of the Product Center. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Peterson and the Product Center and innovation counselor teams for their leadership in creating a new model for how Extension can have an impact in communities across the state.

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by | February 9, 2012 · 9:20 am

Extension program instructor receives CNPP recognition

Shari J. Dickson received recognition from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP). Shari is a Michigan State University Extension SNAP ED (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program–Education) and Family Nutrition Program instructor in Roscommon and Missaukee counties. She received a certificate signed by the CNPP’s Deputy Director Robert Post honoring her as a valued Community Partner in the CNPP/USDA Nutrition Communicators Network.

 Shari received a letter from the Nutrition Communicators Network Team thanking her for her continuing support and stating, “We appreciate your efforts in reaching your community and audiences with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines key messages and MyPlate. … In addition to promoting the MyPlate graphic as a reminder to eat healthfully, we appreciate your efforts in creating supporting resources, tools, and how-tos for your audiences.”

 Congratulations, Shari!

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by | August 25, 2011 · 9:14 am

Apple scab – Extension and research working across state boundaries

One of the greatest challenges of helping people understand “what’s different about Michigan State University Extension” is to get beyond the mission statements and legislative talking points and journalistic strategies and PowerPoint presentations to give people an actual example that shows “this is how MSU Extension works in our new structure.” Whenever I find one of these stories, I like to relay it to others to help give a context for understanding what often comes across as abstract concepts.

 This week we had the good fortune of receiving a visit from the Honorable Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chairperson of the Agriculture Committee in the U.S. Senate. During our conversation, Secretary Vilsack alerted us to the fact that he anticipates even greater emphasis on competitive funding for the work we do in the future and a greater emphasis on working across missions (research and Extension together) and across state lines. I shared with him that the plant genomics projects funded by the USDA Specialty Crops competitive funds and led by MSU scientists (Dr. David Douches on the potato/tomato genome project and Dr. Amy Iezzoni on the apple/peach/strawberry genome project) are great examples of cross-state collaboration and integration of research with Extension.

 The next day I had another example show up in my inbox, and thought I’d share this one through my blog: Dr. George Sundin, professor of plant pathology with appointments in MSU AgBioResearch AND MSU Extension, is a collaborator in a project addressing the challenges of a disease that affects the quality of apples and diminishes product value – apple scab. Apple scab results in brown marks on apples that make the fruit unacceptable to consumers. New varieties of apple scab are emerging that are resistant to the cocktail of fungicides that scientists like Dr. Sundin have recommended to growers in the past. What was particularly pleasing about the email I received from Dr. Sundin is that he and his colleagues from other states are addressing this collaboratively in a way that integrates research and Extension. And the story was conveyed in an article released by the Associated Press and picked up in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other significant media outlets. You can read the story here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/new-worry-for-orchards-scientists-say-apple-scab-is-growing-more-resistant-to-pesticides/2011/08/22/gIQA8YzrVJ_story.html

I’m sure others are involved in efforts like this that give a great example of how MSU AgBioResearch and MSU Extension work in the 21st century. Thanks to Dr. Sundin and his colleagues for giving an example that can help Secretary Vilsack, Sen. Stabenow and others understand how we are addressing needs in our transformed organization.

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by | April 14, 2011 · 9:30 am

Federal budget agreement for 2011 nearly settled

The last-minute agreement between leaders in Congress and President Obama last Friday night avoided a government shutdown and finally settled negotiations on the budget for fiscal year 2011.  Yep, that’s the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.  Although it was good to know they reached an agreement, we didn’t really know the details and how they would affect our budgets until Tuesday this week. And the news was even better on Tuesday.  The core funding for Cooperative Extension that comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Budget is authorized under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, which established the national Cooperative Extension System.

In the budget settlement, Smith-Lever funding for this year is reduced by 1.2%.  That was great news in light of the version that had passed the House of Representatives in late February. In that version, our funding would have been reduced by 10%, which would have forced us to figure out how to reduce our budget by $900,000 with a handful of months left in the fiscal year. Instead, we have a much more manageable reduction to absorb, and we can accomplish that with the changes we’ve been implementing anyway.  Congress still needs to approve the deal, and that is expected to happen today or tomorrow.

Now our attention turns to the budget for FY 2012, and Congress is just getting started on that process. It will likely be as contentious as the FY 2011 budget process.  President Obama released his proposed budget back in February, and in that, the funding for Extension was targeted for a 5% reduction.  Given the politics of the budget, it’s likely the House will begin at 5% or an even larger cut in their proposed budget for FY 2012.  It’s doubtful that Congress and the President will come to agreement soon, and there’s a good chance we may end up in a similar circumstance to this year, with the budget decision put off until after the start of the fiscal year.  We’ll plan conservatively in that case so we aren’t caught with needing to make a significant budget cut well into the new year.

On the state front, the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee passed out their funding bill for 2012 yesterday, and accepted the 15% reduction Gov. Snyder had proposed for MSUE and AgBioResearch funding. They also accepted the combination of MSUE and Michigan AgBioResearch funding into one line. They tweaked the funding for MSU and the other universities, cutting them all by 14% and then distributing the other 1% reduction unevenly among the universities, with universities that have a higher per student appropriation (like MSU, University of Michigan, Wayne State) taking a larger share of the remaining 1% and other universities taking a lower share.  The Senate has not passed out their bill for higher education, but their subcommittee held a hearing yesterday at which MSU President Lou Anna Simon and Farm Bureau President Wayne Wood spoke in support of the combination of the two funding lines into one and announced a summit that will be held this summer to bring representatives of state government, agriculture industries and MSU together to identify key strategic priorities for research, extension and education for production agriculture in the years ahead.  With this in the plans, both presidents encouraged the Senators on the subcommittee to avoid being very specific in their prescription of how the funding should be allocated among the various programs for research and Extension.

There is still a series of votes that will be required before our state appropriation is settled for the next fiscal year, but the early movement of bills like the one from the House subcommittee yesterday is encouraging. Gov. Snyder continues to say he wants the budget settled by June 1, and legislative leaders continue to say they would like that but are more optimistic about getting it done by the end of June. Either circumstance would be a welcome change from the years in which we didn’t know our budgets until after Oct. 1.

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