CSREES Update - February 13, 2008

CSREES Update, from the Office of the Administrator, is a biweekly newsletter for research, education, and extension partners at land-grant universities and other cooperating institutions.

In This Issue

CSREES

• Administrator Gives Keynote Address at International Conference
• State 4-H Military Liaisons Meet
• Auburn Gerontology Specialist is CSREES Visiting Scholar
• Gilmore retires
• CSREES Sponsors 2008 Ag Outlook Forum Student Diversity Program

USDA

• Schafer Comments on Death of Former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz
• Schafer Outlines President Bush’s FY 2009 Agriculture Budget
• USDA Holds First Biopreferred Biobased Showcase

Partners

• Federal Register Notice: New Standard Core Set of Administrative Terms and Conditions
• LGU Ag Economists Earn Nobel Laureate Honors
• New Issue of Rural Realities Looks at Self-Employment in Rural America
• New Report Highlights the Achievements of the Rural Community College Initiative
• Don Albrecht to Head Western Rural Development Center
• Missouri Offers Training for Trainers Working With At-Risk Adults and Teens

Opportunities

• 2008 CYFAR Conference Registration Open
• NC-1034 Calls for Papers

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CSREES

Administrator Gives Keynote Address at International Conference

Colien Hefferan, CSREES Administrator, gave a keynote address at the 3rd Economics Commission for Europe (ECE) Regional Implementation Meeting on Sustainable Development in Geneva, Switzerland, January 28–29. The ECE hosted this meeting to prepare for the upcoming UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) meeting in New York City, May 5–16. The themes of CSD-16 and -17 include agriculture and rural development, land management, drought and desertification, and Africa. The U.S. delegation included members from the U.S. State Department, USDA, and the U.S. Mission in Geneva. Hefferan met with a number of the non-governmental organizations about the sustainable agriculture, rural development and other initiatives, and chaired an interactive discussion of crosscutting issues. Hefferan’s speech is available at the U.S. Geneva Mission Web site. Contact Greg Crosby, national program leader for Sustainable Development, for more information.

State 4-H Military Liaisons Meet

State 4-H military liaisons from 45 states met in Crystal City, VA, January 22–25. CSREES Administrator Colien Hefferan; Army Maj. Gen. John A. Macdonald, commanding general of the Army’s Family and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Command; and Cathann Kress, director for Youth Development, addressed the liaisons. Macdonald thanked the 4-H professionals for their work in establishing 4-H clubs in all military installations and for providing special programs and support for those children whose parents are in the National Guard and Reserve and not on or near bases. Kress spoke of making the connection between essential elements of 4-H and the needs of military children. 

Other top military partners included the Air Force’s Eliza Nesmith, chief of Airman and Family Services for the Air Force Family Member Programs; the Army’s M.A. Lucas, director of Child and Youth Services for the Family and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Command; and the Navy’s Greg Young, program manager for Navy Child and Youth Programs. All military partners recognized the tremendous work of these 4-H military liaisons in coordinating 4-H efforts for military children throughout their states and promised continued support to the Military 4-H Grant Program. 

Currently 36 states have military 4-H grants and 40 states have Operation: Military Kids grants as a result of these partnerships.  

Gilmore Retires

Jeffrey L. Gilmore, director of Higher Education Programs, retired February 1, after 20 years of federal service. During his tenure with CSREES, Gilmore managed the Higher Education Programs portfolio for over 14 years. He was responsible for drafting the administrative provisions for several grants programs in the Science and Education Resources Development Unit including the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program and the 1890 Capacity Building Teaching and Research Grants Program. His many accomplishments include work on the “Food and Agricultural Education Information System” and the “Employment Opportunities” documents.  Both resources have proved valuable to the agency and are used widely by partners in agriculture and academe.

Gilmore, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, will continue to reside in Maryland with his wife Ursula.  His daughter Sarah lives in Rhode Island where she works in theater production.  Gilmore’s immediate plans are to travel to Florida and spend time with his parents on a birthday cruise for his father.

Auburn Gerontology Specialist is CSREES Visiting Scholar

Jatunn Gibson, extension gerontology specialist from Auburn University, has joined the CSREES Families, 4-H, and Nutrition Unit for a 3-week assignment. Gibson will work with Caroline Crocoll, national program leader for Family Science, to learn about programs and processes at CSREES and USDA, gain an understanding of CSREES Family Science efforts at the national level, and conduct an assessment of federal partnerships and emerging trends in health literacy and aging.

CSREES Sponsors 2008 Ag Outlook Forum Student Diversity Program

CSREES is one of three USDA agencies to sponsor the 2008 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum Student Diversity Program. The program gives agencies, corporations, and organizations the opportunity to sponsor junior and senior undergraduate agriculture students’ attendance at USDA’s annual Outlook Forum, February 21–22, in Crystal City, VA. It’s a unique opportunity for students, who represent the diversity of American agriculture, to learn about agribusiness, the latest research, future trends, and policy in contemporary agriculture. In 2007, USDA launched the Diversity Program, which focused on students majoring in agriculture-related majors at land-grant colleges and universities.  In its second year, the program will bring 18 undergraduate students from the Land-Grant University System to participate in the Outlook Forum.  Other USDA sponsors included the Economic Research Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service. Henry Bahn and Antonio McLaren were principals in developing this program. 

CSREES Lists Open Requests for Grant Applications

CSREES advertises all of its funding opportunities through "Find Grant Opportunities" on the Grants.gov Web site. This site is searchable and contains summary information on all federal funding opportunities with links to the full announcements. Users can search announcements by topic, funding agency, and date, as well as subscribe to an e-mail notification service based on these parameters.

USDA

Schafer Comments on Death of Former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz

(Feb. 4, 2008)—We are saddened by the passing of former Secretary Earl Butz (on February 2) but grateful for his many contributions to agriculture during his long and productive life and his careers in government and academia.

Throughout his life, Earl Butz championed the cause of the farmer and was an optimist about American agriculture and the power of the marketplace.

Butz served as Secretary of Agriculture from 1971 to 1976 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He also served as Assistant Secretary for Marketing and Foreign Agriculture from 1954 to 1957 under President Dwight Eisenhower.  Visit the USDA Newsroom to read the entire release.

Schafer Outlines President Bush’s FY 2009 Agriculture Budget

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2008—Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer released details of President Bush's FY 2009 U.S. Department of Agriculture budget, which advances the President's goals of building a strong agricultural economy, improving the quality of life in rural America, increasing energy security, conserving our natural resources, and improving the Nation's nutrition and health.

"The President's agriculture budget supports his commitment to increase the competitiveness of agriculture, ensure the safety of the food supply, and provide nutrition and housing assistance to those most in need." said Schafer.

Total USDA expenditures are estimated at $95 billion in FY 2009, which is approximately the same level as FY 2008. Roughly 76 percent of expenditures, or $72 billion in 2009, will be for mandatory programs that provide services required by law, which include many of the nutrition assistance, commodity, export promotion and conservation programs.  Visit the USDA Newsroom to read the entire release.

USDA Holds First Biopreferred Biobased Product Showcase

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2008—USDA will hold its first BioPreferred Biobased Product Showcase and Training in conjunction with the 2008 General Services Administration (GSA) Expo, April 21-24, in Anaheim, CA.

Visitors may register for the opportunity to network with over 6,000 federal and state procurement officials, to learn how to sell to the federal government, and to learn more about the BioPreferredSM Program.  Visit the USDA Newsroom to read the entire release.

Partners

Federal Register Notice: New Standard Core Set of Administrative Terms and Conditions

A Federal Register notice of interest was published on January 25, 2008, (73 FR 4563) by the National Science and Technology Council, the Research Business Models Subcommittee of the Committee on Science. 

The notice announces a new standard core set of administrative terms and conditions on research and research-related awards that are subject to the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-110, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations” (2 CFR 215).  The standard core set of administrative requirements are available on the National Science Foundation Web site.  Research agencies and awarding offices that participate in the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) must use the core set of administrative requirements, to the maximum practicable extent, in research and research-related grant awards to organizations that are subject to 2 CFR 215. 

CSREES is a member of the FDP and will utilize the new terms and conditions accordingly.  At a minimum, CSREES will post its implementation plans on the CSREES Web site.  CSREES also will make available its implementation plans through correspondence and other means to the extent practicable.

The Federal Register Notice may be retrieved by entering pertinent data and performing an advance search at the GPO Access Web site.

LGU Ag Economists Earn Nobel Laureate Credit

The chair of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) bestowed Nobel Laureate honors to a number of agricultural economists from land-grant universities (LGUs) who were instrumental to IPCC’s success.

“I have been stunned…with the news of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for the IPCC. This makes each of you a Nobel Laureate and it is my privilege to acknowledge this honour [sic] on your behalf,” Rajendra K. Pachauri, IPCC chair, wrote in a letter published in the January issue to The Exchange, the newsletter of the American Agricultural Economics Association.

The IPCC report, the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4): Climate Change 2007, was specifically recognized in the prize. Pachauri’s letter acknowledged the significant contributions of a number of LGU agricultural economists, who were either lead or contributing authors in the IPCC 2007 report.  In subsequent correspondence, the IPCC extended the honors to authors of previous IPCC assessment and special reports, The Exchange reported. 

LGU agricultural economists as lead and contributing authors in IPCC 2007 include Bruce McCarl (Texas A&M University), Brent Sohngen (Ohio State University), and John Antle (Montana State University).  The following agricultural economists were recognized for their work in IPCC 2001: John Antle (Montana State University) and Jason Shogren (University of Wyoming); and special report authors Richard Adams (Oregon State University) and Otto Doering (Purdue University).   Contact Fen Hunt for more information.

New Issue of Rural Realities Looks at Self-Employment in Rural America

The latest installment of the Rural Sociological Society’s policy brief series, Rural Realities, offers a snapshot of how self-employment is playing out in different locales across the country with a particular focus on rural areas. Written by Stephan Goetz, director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, Self-Employment in Rural America: The New Economic Reality documents the numbers of self-employed and their wages, and presents results that underscore the importance of regional and local distinctions that create or inhibit self-employment. The brief also provides key directions for policymakers in supporting and advancing local self-employment. For the complete report, visit the Rural Sociological Society's Web page. Contact Sally Maggard, CSREES national program leader for Economic and Community Systems, or Stephan Goetz, director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, for more information.

New Report Highlights the Achievements of Rural Community College Initiative

The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) recently released a report, From Ripples to Waves: The Rural Community College Initiative to Build New Partnerships in Support of America’s Rural Communities, which describes the results of their work with the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI). In 1994, the Ford Foundation launched the RCCI as a “national demonstration project to help community colleges in distressed regions move their people and communities toward prosperity. It challenged community colleges to become catalysts for economic development and supported aggressive efforts to increase access to education in rural communities.”  In 2002, Ford invested in an experiment to scale down the financial resources for the RCCI program and to look at ways of institutionalizing the RCCI process. This report describes the NCRCRD’s results from this experiment by identifying the program activities and analyzing the impact of RCCI on colleges and their communities. The report also looks at the colleges’ progress toward a sustainable model of community engagement and future prospects for the RCCI. Visit the NCRCRD Web site to view the complete report. For more information, contact Sally Maggard, CSREES national program leader for Economic and Community Systems; Cornelia Flora, director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development; or Bo Beaulieu, director of the Southern Rural Development Center.

Don Albrecht to Head Western Rural Development Center

Don Albrecht has been named director of the Western Rural Development Center (WRDC), based at Utah State University in Logan, UT.  Albrecht comes to WRDC after a 27-year career at Texas A&M University. He is a professor in the Department of Rural Sociology and in the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences, where he is program leader for the Rural Sociology and Community Studies Program and is a former associate department head. Albrecht will remain at Texas A&M through the spring semester and devote 20 percent of his time to directing the WRDC. He will assume fulltime responsibility for WRDC at Utah State University on July 1.  Albrecht is the 2007 president of the Southern Rural Sociological Association, is active in the Rural Sociological Society, and is past associate editor of Rural Sociology.  

The WRDC is one of the four Regional Rural Development Centers established under the Rural Development Act of 1972 and supported under the authority of Section 2(c)(1)(B) of Public Law 89-106, as amended (7 U.S.C. 450i(c)), which enables CSREES to support research, extension, or education activities.  WRDC serves 13 states and the territories in the Pacific.  Contact Sally Maggard, national program leader for Economic and Community Systems, for more information.

Missouri Offers Training for Trainers Working With At-Risk Adults and Teens

The University of Missouri-St. Louis is offering a 16-hour Chancellor’s Certificate program, March 5–7, to train trainers of adults and/or teens.  The program will use a proven life skills curriculum called Tackling the Tough Skills™:  A Curriculum Building Skills for Work and Life. The deadline to register is February 25. Online registration is available. Contact Rosilee Trotta, at 314-615-7637, for more information.

Opportunities

2008 CYFAR Conference Registration Open

Registration is open for the Children, Youth, and Families at Risk Program (CYFAR) 2008 Conference, May 7–9 at the Hyatt Regency on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX.  Visit the CYFAR 2008 Conference Web site for a conference agenda and program; to register for the conference, pre-conference, post-conference, and military tours; or to make hotel reservations.

The CYFAR conference provides a high-quality professional development experience for youth and family professionals, as well as the opportunity to learn and to share resources with colleagues and collaborators across the nation. All CYFAR conference presentations are peer-reviewed to ensure high standards and relevancy to this work.

CYFAR 2008 is planned for CYFAR project staff and collaborating partners, youth and family professionals from land-grant universities and other organizations. Extension military partners from U.S. Army Child and Youth Services, U.S. Air Force Services Family Member Program and Family Advocacy Program, and U.S. Navy Child and Youth Programs are invited as well.

NC-1034 Calls for Papers

NC-1034 Impact Analysis and Decision Strategies for Agricultural Research is calling for papers for its symposium on "Energy and Agriculture: Emerging Policy and R&D Issues," held in conjunction with its annual meeting March 7–8, in Washington, DC. The following submissions are encouraged: biofuels and new forms of public-private cooperation; R&D challenges for new biofuel technologies; intellectual property issues associated with new biofuel technology; impact of increased energy scarcity on agricultural research; or economics of biofuel support policies.  Other topics furthering NC-1034 objectives are also welcome.

To submit papers, e-mail an abstract of two pages or less to GianCarlo Moschini as soon as possible. For further information, contact a member of the program committee: David Zilberman, committee chair, at 510-642-6570; GianCarlo Moschini, Iowa State University, at 515-294-5761; John King Economic Research Service, at 202-694-5068; or George Frisvold, University of Arizona, at 520-621-6269.

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For a plain text copy of this newsletter, please contact Scott Elliott. CSREES UPDATE is published biweekly. The next regular issue is planned for February 27, 2008. Submit news items to newsletter@csrees.usda.gov by February 20, 2008.

Editor: Scott Elliott, writer-editor, CSREES Communications Staff. If you have questions about Update, please contact him at selliott@csrees.usda.gov.

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Back issues of CSREES UPDATE are available on the CSREES Web site.

Colien Hefferan, Administrator

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Last Updated: 02/13/2008