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>>Ron Walcott: The land grant mission has had
a tremendous and profound impact
on the food safety and security around the world.
>>Michael Doyle: We definitely need the land grant system
so that we have researchers that can help agriculture
to produce more and safer products.
>>Claudia Dunkley: As a product of land grant universities myself,
I can say that the influence of these universities
have far reaches beyond the shores of the U.S.
>>Narrator: In the past 150 years, America’s land grant universities
have revolutionized modern agriculture and
made farms more productive and more environmentally-sustainable.
The research and training programs developed by the 76 institutions
that make up the land grant system
have not only allowed the world to feed its growing population
but have given the population a better quality of life.
This year, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act
– the legislation that created the land grant system –
the World Food Prize Foundation decided to award this group of
universities with the Borlaug Medallion
– the highest honor available to groups who work to increase
international food production and nutrition.
The Borlaug Medallion recognizes the contributions made by
land grant researchers to the development of
more productive crop varieties;
more sustainable farming practices and
safer, better food preservation techniques.
The award also recognizes the land grant universities’
unflinching commitment to the idea that knowledge is the key
to improving health and well-being around the globe.
>>Walcott: The impact of researchers at land grant institutions
on food safety and security around the world
is tremendously significant, and it should be.
The land grant mission has been, and continues to be,
improving the lives of citizens of the United States predominantly,
but also around the world.
>>Doyle: I direct the Center for Food Safety
at the University of Georgia and also do research here.
The research we do is largely designed to develop better ways
to detect and control the harmful microbes
that you sometimes find in food.
We do a lot of work all the way from
the farm to the consumer and have developed treatments
that span the entire food chain.
We’ve been very successful in developing many
of the practical ways that farmers, as well as processors,
can use to treat foods to make them safer.
>>Dunkley: The research projects that I am most proud of are
my carbon footprint work.
The Carbon Footprint project helps the farmer to use
his resources responsibly and economically.
It also helps him to maintain his manure.
If a grower uses manure that is contaminated with pathogens
to grow vegetable crops, that can, in effect,
affect the food supply chain which leads to economic losses and
it can also lead to food safety issues
where we end up having food borne illnesses.
>>Walcott: The research to date that we’ve done that I’m most proud about
because of its impact has been working to develop
a molecular DNA-based assay to detect plant pathogens in seeds.
If seeds are shipped around the world, they not only can introduce these
pathogens into areas where they have not existed before
– so you introduce these invasive species –
but it can also severely affect seed quality.
So if we have poor quality seeds, we’re most assuredly going
to have a poor crop.
If we can do anything to increase the quality of the seeds that
we produce and we distribute around the world,
we’ll give individuals a good chance of producing a healthy crop;
especially if those seeds don’t have pathogens associated with them.
>>Narrator: As American land grant universities developed ways
to feed our growing world,
they became a cornerstone of the American educational system
– offering an unprecedented number of people a chance at
post-secondary education and a better life.
The University of Georgia opened the door to higher education
for hundreds of thousands of Georgians,
fundamentally changing the way the state lives,
works and raises its families.
Land grant universities not only made
a post-secondary degree accessible to the general public,
but also created the expectation that students must obtain
some kind of training after high school in order to be successful.
>>Dunkley: The mission of a land grant university was
to educate youngsters in agriculture and mechanics.
>>Walcott: And as a result, it somehow flattened the playing field and
gave individuals, who otherwise would not have a way to change
their socio-economic status, an opportunity to gain this education
and change not only their lives but the lives of their descendants.
>>Narrator: As we celebrate the accomplishments of the researchers,
teachers and Extension agents who have contributed to the
success of the first 150 years of the land grant system,
we are already looking to the future
– knowing there will always be people in world without food,
people without stability and
people who do not have the tools or opportunities to
lift themselves out of poverty.
With the challenges facing the world today, it is imperative
that we remember the legacy of the scientists and teachers
who came before us and continue to build on their work
to increase the world’s food supply,
improve the environment and
build on our knowledge of the world around us.
© 2012 The University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences