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rural America. Likewise, we both have the capacity and are currently doing a great deal to 

 improve their nutrition and health, and to improve the educational opportunities of those who live 

 in both rural and urban areas. 



Let's look for a moment then at what we do best, what the preeminent land-grant system 

 has to offer the American citizen and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those who argue that 

 the mission of higher education ought to be narrow-focused exclusively on studying and learning 

 about the world but not being engaged with the needs of the world—do not understand the true 

 purpose of higher education. The purpose of higher education, certainly land-grant education, 

 is to serve the needs of the people in ways that flow out of the skills and knowledge of our 

 colleges and universities. 



Addressing your interest in an active, positive role by extension, what I call the "new 

 land-grant model," means serving social and economic needs as determined by society through 

 its elected representatives in collaboration with university leaders on a basis of mutual discussion, 

 negotiation, and trust It is the land-grant model in the sense that it is based on the principle of 

 extending knowledge-reaching out-to meeting ever-changing social, economic, and human 

 needs. It involves extending and linking the research base within both the USDA and research 

 universities with producers and consumers as well as with businesses, with community and local, 

 state and other federal agencies, and with volunteer public service associations in order to deal 

 with environmental and other societal challenges. This assertive role must be a broad and 

 collaborative one if we are to achieve the kind of consensus and support essential to effective and 

 sustainable extension efforts. Social progress depends on economic progress, and both depend 

 on effective, sustained education that promotes understanding and knowledge, and extends that 

 knowledge to our society. 



This is what we, the land grant universities, have provided our citizens and society over 

 the last century, and this is also what has helped forge such a successful partnership with the 

 USDA and American agriculture. Virtually all observers would agree that American agricultural 

 production has been one of the wonders of the world because of the linkage that was developed 

 between university faculty, practitioners in the field, and USDA scientists. It is imperative 

 therefore that as we look at change in the USDA, we keep in mind the concomitant change 

 taking place in our society and its institutions in order to insure ourselves that the new USDA 

 meets the needs of our future. 



Secretary Espy has articulated his vision of the new USDA as one that is "science-based 

 and user-friendly." This vision based on science to serve the people parallels perfectly the land- 

 grant universities' re-commitment to acquiring new knowledge and sharing that knowledge in the 

 service of the people. It is also the right approach for a federal department that finds itself at 

 the very interface between emerging technology and the timeless problems of people. 



