Collaboration with groups outside the University is
both essential to the land grant mission, and extensive. Our partners
in businesses, professional organizations, government and private
non-profit organizations lie at the heart of agricultural outreach
programs. The two-way communication informs the research of the Commonwealth's
needs regarding agriculture, while the University provides research
and educational programming to address those needs.
Agriculture and Landscape has long-standing relationships with state and federal
agencies, principally the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental
Affairs, within which is the Department of Food and Agriculture,
and the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA is a source
of base funding for land grant universities around the country,
and both agencies frequently provide grant and contract dollars.
Via the national network of land grant universities, the program
collaborates with faculty and staff from other institutions around
the country, particularly New England, Cornell, Rutgers and Penn
State.
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