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The Cooperative Extension Service has been a part of the land-grant university system in the U.S. for over 100 years. But as demographics shift from rural to urban populations, land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension must also adapt. While the number of U.S. farmers has greatly decreased during the lifespan of Cooperative Extension, the number of farmed acres has only diminished slightly. Growth in the average farm size means that a single farmer's decisions impact more of the environment, making it that much more important to educate farmers, agronomists, farm managers, etc. on the best-management practices developed through research from land-grant institutions that balance profitability and environmental impact. Industrialized agriculture has made great strides in production efficiency over the last century, allowing for food production to largely keep pace with rapid global population growth. But in many instances, the environmental and ecological effects of this intensive agriculture are starting to show. Often, best-management practices have been developed which, if adopted, would likely decrease the overall impact of agriculture on the environment, but farmers are reluctant to change from practices they have been using for years or decades. This is the challenge of Cooperative Extension in the agricultural industry. We attempt to rise to that challenge through a mixture of community engagement, demonstration of best-management practices, and local research that continues the evolution of best-management practice development.
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