Four new titles are available on the Extension Foundation’s website. The brief publications – written as magazine-style feature stories – share project work funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program, a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of NTAE is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation. 

Each of the publications is excerpted from the New Technologies for Ag Extension 2022-2023 Yearbook, an 83-page magazine, which shares how these grant projects improve human, environmental, and community health. The Yearbook shares innovative Cooperative Extension work across the U.S., from technology to composting to youth development to health and equity. In addition, the publication shares information about the vital work undertaken by ECOP’s Program Action Teams.

• University of Illinois – Community Seminar Series. The University of Illinois Extension launched the Community Seminar Series in 2020 and has been refining and expanding it ever since. A collaboration between U of I Extension and U of I’s Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), the CSS is an effective way to educate the public on health topics and give students majoring in health fields a chance to build their expertise, through developing and presenting the seminars. This story provides a brief overview of the goals and strategies of this program.

• University of California ANR – Community is Our Jam. Through virtual and in-person workshops, participants in the University of California Master Food Preserver program learn about reducing food waste and about safe food storage, preparation, and preservation methods. This feature describes how the team has focused on equity, broadening their program’s audience and impact and the lessons the team has learned while developing the program. 

• Penn State University – Buy, Cook, Eat Local. While changing food habits isn’t easy, learning how to cook healthy food using farm fresh ingredients may help people improve their diets. An innovative program that Penn State Extension educators launched in spring 2023 is lowering barriers to healthy eating by introducing people to fresh produce and other local foods. This story describes how the program works and how the team collaborates in the community, specifically with farmer’s markets, to accomplish its goals.

• The National Center for Home Food Preservation: Because We Can. Specialists in consumer and retail food safety from nine Southeastern land-grant universities launched the Food Safety Extension Network in 2021 to raise general awareness of the importance of preserving food safely and to be a resource for home cooks, small, independent food retailers, and home-based food preparation businesses. This piece gives an overview of how the Network was built and how it expects to operate. Participating institutions are: University of Arkansas, Clemson University, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Tennessee, and Virginia Tech University.

The Extension Foundation carries dozens of titles in its library. Four to five additional publications are slated to hit the shelf each week through the end of November. Sign up to receive publication notifications here. You can find the entire library of publications here.