This insert to Keeping Up will update extension faculty on events and activities influencing our implementation of the IANR Spires and our associated Action Teams. Please provide us with feedback on topics that you value and those that you do not.
Extension Flood Information:
If you have not checked out http://flood.unl.edu, please do so. This is an example of how Extension can respond quickly (5 days from idea to launch including a weekend). Thanks to the faculty and EdMedia staff who have contributed to this resource. We continue to host Friday noon conference calls to allow specialists and educators from affected counties to share needs and available educational products. Call Sheryl Burbach to connect to the next conference call.
Community Lessons for 2012:
Two new Community Programs will be offered for 2012: Making it Happen!: Building Positive Relationships with Children, and Social Networking Sites: What They Are and How to Navigate Them. Both of these lessons will be designed as interactive PDF's which means they will incorporate video, audio, and other technologies to help the reader better understand the content. We are excited about being able to teach using this new format. These pieces will also be able to be printed in hard copy for those who want to use them in that way. Community Programs are user-ready lessons that can be used by educators who are asked to present to civic groups or other community organization. Information in each program is based on research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and other educational institutions. For more information on Community Lessons, check the extension website: http://www.extension.unl.edu/web/extension/communityprograms
Animal Welfare Professional Development:
Was held in Council Bluffs May 25-26 in conjunction with the Iowa State University Extension with 90 faculty in attendance. This is an issue in which we must engage if we are to be relevant. Our role will need to be one of education, with careful consideration of how we avoid crossing into advocacy. By educating our 4-H youth and animal producers in the basic principles of animal welfare and how those principles can be applied economically, I believe we can remove some of the fear of this issue and help our industry prepare to meet the expectations of their customers. I encourage faculty to begin sharing ideas and lessons learned from building this issue into our animal agriculture programs. Thanks to Duane Reese, Lindsey Chichester, and Dave Aiken for their leadership.
Notes from DC - Rick
I recently met with my counterparts from the North Central and Southern regions in DC. War stories were shared about state budgets reminding me of why it is a privilege to work for Extension in Nebraska.
The discussion inside the beltway all starts and ends with the federal FY 2012 budget and how big the cuts will be. One House staffer engaged in these discussions suggested that commodity support programs face an uphill battle, risk management program may not change much, food and nutrition is facing significant cuts, and several competitive grant and conservation programs could disappear.
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) program leaders updated us likely scaling back or disappearance of competitive grant programs. The buzz words for AFRI continues to be “scale, focus and impact” with the emphasis on IMPACT. Proposals must demonstrate the capability of producing on the ground results. All NIFA programs are expected to be very highly competitive. Some additional themes shared by NIFA program leaders specific to Extension participation in AFRI:
• An extension component tacked on to an integrated proposal remains common and is a quick way to NOT get funded.
• Extension programs need more innovation. Reviewers are looking for something beyond field days, factsheets, and websites. Is your plan a “Transformational Education” plan?
• A tangible evaluation plan with resources to carry it out is proving to be a common element that separates top proposals that have a chance from good proposals that have no chance.
We hosted an outstanding session on the future challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. This issue is getting traction inside the Beltway, including at the highest levels of our current administration. The gap between demand for food and the growth in our production capacity was discussed by a team of USDA experts. Interestingly, agricultural technology to help close this gap is not as distasteful an option as I have encountered in the past. The North Central program leaders are pursuing a professional development for faculty involving some of these excellent presentations. If you have an opportunity to listen to or read publications by Keith Fuglie, USDA Economic Research Service, don’t miss that opportunity. He has an interesting story to tell.