Adapting
...and Leading
f
this fall issue of Perspectives seems to have a summer feel to it, there’s
good reason: We’ve
combined our 2002 summer and fall issues. As you probably surmised when
you received your spring magazine in July instead of May, that issue was
delayed (and sent in the time frame of our summer issue) in compliance
with spending restrictions set this spring in response to the state budget
crisis. Yet we felt it was important that you receive the information
slated for the summer issue; those articles have been incorporated here
with fall news.
This schedule is just our
way of adapting while maintaining our commitment to remain in touch and
keep you in the know. We hope to be back on track with quarterly production
with the Winter 2003 issue. Perspectives is valuable in informing our
readers of the latest in research, extension and academic news from the
College and in providing an historic archive of those activities. Value
is added in that all of the color photo-graphy that you see in this magazine
becomes part of a photo library housed in the Department of Communication
Services. There, these photographs are stock materials available for use
in brochures, exhibits, recruiting materials, press packets, newsletters,
CD-ROMs, Web pages, slide presentations, manuals, booklets — a range
of multimedia products created for the College and its programs in both
the agricultural and life sciences.
Helping our clientele cope
with change, such as leading in the assimilation of new technologies in
agriculture, is one of the things that this College is very much about.
In this issue you’ll learn about the Futures Summit, a gathering
in June of nearly 300 Cooperative Extension agents and specialists to
discuss the future of agriculture, natural resources and community and
rural development Extension programs in the state. There, Dr. Jon Ort,
associate dean and director of the Cooperative Extension Service, said,
“We will have to recognize and appropriately adapt our programs to
emerging trends and needs.” He was referring to challenges and issues
identified at the summit, such as farm and environmental policies; greater
societal demands for food safety and quality and for environmental protection;
and technologies such as genetic engineering and precision farming.
Many North Carolina rural
communities are adapting to change by embracing a new “commodity”
— agritourism. In this issue, we take you from the mountains to the
coast, following back roads and trails, paddling on streams, navigating
crop mazes and visiting historic farm sites — just some of the (literally)
growing attractions intended to entertain tourists and, at the same time,
educate them about the agriculture industry that drives our country.
Initiating change and progress
through scientific discoveries and breakthroughs is the work of our research
programs. Among many of these efforts reported here are a newly developed
tool to assess phosphorus loss in farmland; a genomics outreach workshop
and a new poultry biotechnology scholars program; and a developmental
biologist’s work that gives undergraduate students important, hands-on
lab experience studying the role of genes in early organ development.
Finally, our College Profile
is Dr. Beth Wilson, an assistant professor in the College’s Department
of Agricultural and Extension Education. Among her activities, Wilson
guides high-school agriculture teachers and students in the use of biotechnology
in their curricula and helps them adapt to a model for agricultural education
that approaches agriculture as the life science it is.
Her work exemplifies how the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State both leads in adjusting to change and sets the pace in creating it.
Dean, College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences
