IN THIS Q&A, members of five teams talk about the role that Cooperative Extension and their programs can play in supporting people and places in urban and rural America. We’ll hear from the following:
Dr. Doug Arbogast Extension Specialist West Virginia University
Dr. Devi Kandel Assistant Professor Langston University
Dr. Brad Gaolach Professor Washington State University
Kirsten Cowan 4-H Educator University of Maryland
Dr. Cary Rivard Associate Professor Kansas State University
What excites you most about your program?
Can you share an anecdote that illustrates the need for or impact of the work your team is doing? GAOLACH : As our planet warms and many communities face extreme heat, urban spaces hold that heat and create heat islands that pose signifi- cant threats to health—both the ex- treme high temperatures during the day and often even more impactful the high overnight lows. One way to combat this challenge is to create ur- ban forests, which can provide shade and through evapotranspiration, cooling microclimates in overbur- dened communities whose residents often cannot afford air conditioners. KANDEL : During the field day and educational training program, growers were very interested in baby ginger production in high tunnels— and they seemed interested in adopt- ing the technology. Many of them asked about the market potential of baby ginger production in high tunnel systems, compared to tomato production in high tunnel systems. It seems like the next thing to do would be to conduct an economic analysis of this system.
Teams work to alleviate stress on urban and rural economies UNDER PRESSURE
ARBOGAST: Extension has the potential to help activate a U.S. De- partment of Agriculture (USDA) plan to expand recreation economies in communities surrounding America’s national forests, in partnership with Rural Development, the National In- stitute of Food and Agriculture, and the U.S. Forest Service. We’ve already done this in West Vir- ginia, through the Mon Forest Towns Partnership, which came out of a 2017 USDA publication identifying the outdoor economy as an emerging and priority area of national need. Extension is in an ideal position to fa- cilitate what the USDA plan calls for because we understand the complexi- ties of the plan’s partner agencies and their missions. And unlike private consultants, who often are brought in to create strate- gic plans in this area but then leave communities to implement them, Extension services aren’t constrained to short timeframes and can help create more sustainable plans and see them through.
GAOLACH: Researchers at Land- grant and urban-serving universities, federal agencies, and nongovernmen- tal organizations are excited about what we are trying to create—and their support for the center and how it will improve lives, communities, and the environment is what excites me. COWAN: Giving youth access to agriculture careers and Maryland’s agriculture industry, especially those who wouldn’t normally have that opportunity. We focused on removing barriers by providing transportation and offering a stipend upon com- pletion. The hands-on experiences allowed them to gain real insight, and seeing their perspective on agricul- ture shift throughout the internship will be incredibly rewarding.
versity and West Virginia University want to expand or share models they’ve created to enhance CES’s capacity to improve quality of life in their geographic areas of interest. CES professionals from Langston University, Kansas State University, and the University of Maryland are focused on farmer workforce develop- ment and prosperity. Using its Western Center for Metro- politan Extension and Research (WC- MER) as a foundation, WSU Exten- sion is developing a plan for a national version of the center. (See page 36.) WCMER applies Extension research to economic and environmental issues that affect urban areas, primarily metropolitan centers in the western
United States. The National Urban Research & Extension Center would scale this concept to work nationwide. WVU Extension wants to help gate- way communities across the country address their economic and environ- mental situations to achieve similar outcomes as in communities that have followed the Mon Forest Towns frame- work. (See page 34.) A team from Langston University is teaching under-resourced Oklahoma growers to cultivate baby ginger, a potentially high-profit, easy-to-grow crop. Teams from University of Mary- land (UMD) and Kansas State Uni- versity (KSU) want to deepen the pool of farmers in their communities. (See pages 35, 33, and 32.)
Our nation’s urban and rural
communities are facing significant challenges. Gentrification has created dispari- ties in wealth and opportunity—and sometimes environmental damage— in city centers and in remote areas popular for their natural attractions (gateway communities). The ongoing shortage of agricultural workers and racial inequity among farmers also are a concern in many areas. Several projects that received 2023–2024 New Technologies in Ag Extension (NTAE) grants are addressing these challenges. Cooperative Extension System (CES) teams from Washington State Uni-
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2023-2024 YEARBOOK | EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE
EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE | 2023-2024 YEARBOOK
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