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2014 is off to a busy start. Washington State University Government Relations teams in Washington, D.C., Olympia, and the greater Puget Sound are working to ensure that WSU will have the funding and policy support to deliver cutting-edge research that aligns with the priorities of our state. Top academic and administrative leaders are partnering with WSU’s “GR” teams in contact with lawmakers to achieve these goals.
This is also the year WSU, and other land-grant universities, celebrate the centenary of the Smith-Lever Act, which established the Cooperative Extension Service in 1914. For many citizens, WSU Extension is the first exposure to a research university, whether it be through 4-H activities, participating in a WSU Master Gardener workshop, and/or accessing food nutrition programs. The goal of extension was — and remains — thoroughly egalitarian when it comes to “extending” research-based knowledge through a county-by-county network of extension educators. WSU Extension brings scientific research to the people making new knowledge available to all citizens.
A little history. Land-grant universities like WSU, were a product of Congress, which created a university system that would make higher education available to working class America. Congress envisioned a curriculum designed to provide a liberal, but practical education focusing on agriculture, industrial sciences, as well as arts and the humanities. Twenty five years later in 1887, Congress passed the Hatch Act authorizing land-grants to create experimental research stations, which specialize in research at regional levels, throughout the United States. Subsequently, Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 to create the educational mechanisms for disseminating the knowledge derived from the main campus and research stations.
Thus, for 100 years, the various federal laws authorizing and implementing WSU’s land-grant mission have stimulated innovative research and vital education programs that have improved communities and the lives of citizens in our state. Today, research and outreach at WSU’s four research and extension centers located in Puyallup, Mt. Vernon, Prosser, and Wenatchee focus on creating a safe and abundant food supply, a healthier world for humans and animals, systems for sustainable agricultural, and development of environmental practices for citizens living and working in both rural and urban counties.
Though issues and policy priorities have changed over four generations, the WSU land-grant mission has not. What has occurred is an ever-evolving ethos of service to meet new realities. This includes, for example, responding to issues and challenges and opportunities due to increased urbanization and its effects on the natural environment and communities, addressing new demands for protecting soil and water, discovering new uses for plants in clean energy production, and promoting wellness, and retention of health care providers for underserved populations.
WSU’s four Research and Extension Centers have embraced these changes and continue to generate new knowledge pertaining to human nutrition and childhood obesity, to development of agriculture practices and technologies for mitigating climate change, and the creation of specialty crops like delicious sweet cherries or Meeker raspberries, or reintroducing western Washington grains for artisan breads and craft beers.
It follows that success stories from the WSU’s research and extension centers abound. From the creation of new cultivars for many of Washington-grown fruits, to growing wine grapes that have made our state one of the top premium wine producing regions in the world, to addressing stormwater pollution from urban streets, to helping city neighborhoods grow healthy food, and, to addressing the deleterious effects of toxins on our threatened and endangered salmon, WSU’s Research and Extension Centers are working collaboratively with a wide array of public and private partners to target the research and bring the university to the people to make our lives better.
Who knows what the next big discovery will be, and how WSU extension will evolve over the next 100 years. One thing we know for sure: we can count on WSU and its land-grant mission to explore the issues, lead the research, and extend information to help address whatever lies ahead in every county of our great state.