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The United States Department of Agriculture lies at the heart
of the very successful and productive land grant university system. Today,
federal funding for UMass Extension comes to each state via the Smith-Lever
Act, primarily, as well as from the state. In addition, the USDA provides
money for research in the form of Hatch dollars. Competitive research and
education funds are also provided by USDA through programs such as the Northeast
Regional Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. Via the
national network of land grant universities, the program collaborates with
faculty and staff from other institutions around the country.
Besides the land grant universities, key offices within USDA include
the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Farm Services Administration.
NRCS works with agriculture to conserve water and soil resources through
the application of environmentally-friendly farming practices. FSA also
works with farmers on conservation issues, but helps with farm loans,
disaster relief, commodity pricing and other policies of the Farm Bill.
State offices for both NRCS and FSA are in Amherst. In addition, the Environmental
Protection Agency works to solve agricultural pollution problems, largely
associated with pesticides and animal waste. The University of Massachusetts
has also worked with the National Parks Service to provide IPM training
for historic agricultural sites.
The College of Food & Natural Resources and the Massachusetts Department
of Food and Agriculture have a long history of cooperation. The programs
of each organization complement each other. In 2000, the University of
Massachusetts and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs signed
a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on environmental issues, one
of which is in Agriculture. One of the more successful collaborations
has been the development of integrated pest management (IPM).
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