MSU Extension reorganizes, prioritizes to better leverage communities' natural and human assets

MSU Extension director Tom Coon will be featured on 760 WJR radio host Kirk Heinze’s “Greening of the Great Lakes,” this Friday, May 14 from 7 - 8 p.m. You can listen to the two part interview now or anytime you’d like on the Greening of the Great Lakes website.

Tom Coon reports - in the first part of the interview -  that MSU Extension is undergoing a major reorganization. MSU Extension has offices in every Michigan county where “county-based staff members, in concert with on-campus faculty members, serve every county with programming focused on agricultural and natural resources; children, youth and families; and community and economic development,” according to their website.

The “core” of the reorganization is “establishing four institutes,” which serve as “priorities,” Coon explains. They are; 1) Agricultural and Agro-Business 2) Greening Michigan, by “leveraging natural and human assets” 3) Health and Nutrition “education programming to help consumers make wise choices...and in the process reduce their health care costs” and 4) Preparing children and youth to be the “workforce for tomorrow” in green industries and agriculture.

Another part of the reorganization involves leaning-down, “so that we can be responsive in a very timely way,” as soon as a community’s need for a particular type of programming arises out of the public interest, Coon explains.

During the second half of the interview, Coon gives a number of specific examples of the kinds of programs and actions that can help to accomplish these four priorities.