Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
This chapter traces the origins, purpose, and importance of the LGU
system, and recounts how those searching for agroecological solutions
have tried to engage this institution. It outlines how the LGU system has
conceptualized its products, clientele, and extension process, and high-
lights important events that have shaped this system and its potential for
contributing to agroecological alternatives. It concludes by describing
the dynamic relationship among alternative farming systems, alternative
agriculture programs, and alternative agricultural scientific knowledge.
The Land-Grant University System: What Is the Product?
The Morrill Act of 1862, awarding “land grants” to the states for the
purpose of funding state colleges, was a remarkable political and cultural
innovation to make higher education widely available. These state col-
leges (and later universities) emphasized the agricultural and mechanical
arts, and cultivated scientific sophistication in frontier America. The
LGUs have been the foundation of public university education in this
country. Subsequent federal legislation expanded the educational mission
to include public agricultural science and extension services.
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The Hatch Act of 1887 authorized federal funding for agricultural
experiment stations, launching modern agricultural scientific research.
The initial work done by these pioneering scientists addressed fundamen-
tal questions of soil, fertility, plant and animal breeding, pest manage-
ment, and mechanical innovation. Farmer institutes requested these state
experiment station scientists provide them advice. When the Smith-Lever
Act of 1914 created a national extension service, researchers were freed
to pursue their scientific investigations less encumbered by responsibili-
ties to rural communities.
Two examples of plant breeding illustrate the wealth and controversy
generated by experiment station scientists. Jack Kloppenburg relates the
history of scientific plant breeding in the United States, and the critical
development of hybrid corn.
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This innovation led to massive increases
in corn yields, fostered the agricultural productivity that led to rural
migration to urban America, and sparked the adoption/diffusion
research agenda to explain how innovations spread. The superior hybrid
seeds are sterile, however, and their success transformed seed saving from
an on-farm practice to a scientific commercial activity. The success of
