Georgia Magazine - January 2015 - (Page 19)

UGA Extension Wrapping up , looking to the next century BY JACKIE KENNEDY 'What I appreciate the most about Extension is not what it's done in the past, but what it's doing now and what it will do in the future.' -UGA President Jere Moreland January 2015 celebration of 100 years, UGA Extension now embarks on its next century of service. "Extension has touched so many people over the past 100 years, and the changes have been phenomenal," says 2014 Steve Brown, interim associate dean for UGA Extension. "But the beauty of Extension is that University of Georgia Extension celebrated its 100th it does change. It's not a static anniversary throughout 2014 with special events, government agency that does a including a May 15 kickoff of a multimedia museum certain thing, and that's it. We exhibit. The 2010 Southeastern Farmer of the Year, respond to what the needs are, Robert Dasher, co-founder of G&R Farms, a crop and livestock farm in Glennville, poses by his photo and as the needs change, we in the wall of memories. change." With its roots in agriculture, Extension quickly expanded agents in local communities all over to address home life and help this state, we built conﬁdence." youth. Each county in Georgia, and This conﬁdence, grown through throughout the nation, had its own the decades, continues today, acExtension ofﬁce, with an agricultural cording to Michael Wheeler, Hall (ag) agent helping farmers choose County Extension agent. the best silage to feed livestock or "In a nutshell, I'm that trusted seeds to plant, a home economist link back to the university to provide who guided homemakers in meal information to help people out," says preparation and home furnishing, Wheeler. "Whether it's a homeowner and a 4-H agent who organized concerned about a vegetable garden clubs in local schools to educate or a cattleman needing advice on students on everything from milk how to improve pasture conditions, production and land judging to they know they can come to the Exsewing demonstrations and public tension ofﬁce, and we can work out speaking. the particulars." From the start, says Brown, the Putnam County Agent Keith key to Extension's success was its Fielder also views the local Extenlocal presence. sion ofﬁce as the "vital "It's important to link" between the For some recipes have that person who university and the from Extension's 100 years of lives in the community, assisting consumers on the farm community. "We do knows everybody and and in the kitchen, see "Stepping work that people asbecomes the reliable sociate with farmers up to the stove," source of information," and foresters, helping page 42. says Brown. "By having them get into business, COURTESY UGA EXTENSION F ormer President Jimmy Carter credits University of Georgia Extension with providing advice to him and his father when they farmed in Plains in the 1920s and '30s. Gov. Nathan Deal says his participation in 4-H was an important part of his youth growing up in Sandersville. For the past century, countless others raised in rural Georgia communities also beneﬁted from services provided through their county Extension ofﬁce. University of Georgia (UGA) Extension was founded in 1914 as the UGA Cooperative Extension Service through the Smith-Lever Act, a federal law that established and funded a national network of educators. These educators brought research from land grant universities, like UGA, to the public, along with practical knowledge to improve farming, business and life at home. Today, Extension remains a cooperative effort administered by UGA with funding from federal, state and local government partners. Fresh on the heels of a yearlong More online at www.georgiamagazine.org 19 http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Georgia Magazine - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - January 2015