Think of the word cooperative. Got a picture? Consider all the ready synonyms: helpful, accommodating, obliging.

Powerful words. Unless you live in America, where words get ground up and repurposed. “Cooperative,” to the cynic’s ear, sounds weak.

But thousands of people work for agricultural cooperative extensions all across America, providing farmers with the latest ideas on how to raise better crops.

This began more than a century ago with the founding of land grant universities, like Cornell in 1862, based on the sale of “government-owned land to finance universities with a charge of broad-based education and public benefit.”

Extension offices were established to provide resources to a wide range of citizens.  Cornell, one of the oldest land grant universities, connects practical tested research with farmers in the field.

A Helping, Trusted Hand When You Need It

Every season farmers have so many things going against them: weather, disease, fickle consumers, cranky chefs and overseas producers selling below cost. But it you have an ag extension agent in your corner, you stand a fighting chance of finishing the year in the black.

In New York the staff of the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is beyond dedicated. One hundred and seventy Cornell-employed faculty and academic staff work collaboratively (another great word) with 400 locally employed professional extension educators and 40,000 volunteers.

“But it only works,” says Helene Dillard, the director of the CCE, “if you have a willing partner on the farm. As an ag agent you need to build respect and trust in the community.” That doesn’t happen overnight.

As Andy Turner, Executive Director for Greene and Columbia County, says, “you need to be incredibly passionate. Agents know how to make a direct connection with farmers.” Their sense of empathy comes from a shared experience; many ag agents have been growers. “Like all great partners, “they are not judgmental. They are trying to help the farmer wherever they need help.”

It’s almost a missionary zeal. One agent I met this fall, John Mishanec (pictured above), said that while he values his family vacations he often feels the need to get back to the fields. He needs to know out what’s been happening. What have the plants been doing since he’s been away? Who needs help?

Reintroducing Foods That Can Sustain Us

It was a Cornell ag agent—not the USDA—who spotted the early tomato blight that devastated tomatoes in New York last summer. It was an ag agent who walked into the Culinary Institute of America to show chefs that there really is more to potatoes than the Yukon Gold and the Red Russet. (The education often starts with a taste test.)

Winter Squash, Silimar Farm, Millerton NY

It is Steven McKay, the Extension Ag Educator for Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster and Orange Counties, who is helping farmers to re-introduce many varieties of small fruits, including black currants, chokeberries, gooseberries and more. (Often cultivated as ornamental plants  and inedible raw, chokeberries are high in antioxidants and can be made into wine, jam, syrup, juice, and more.)

A Nuanced View of Farming

Some may think of ag agents as evangelists for more production at all costs. And perhaps that was true at one time. We were all in thrall to the idea of “an unbroken belief in progress” and the use of technology to construct a better, more efficient world

But the people I talk to are far more nuanced. Spray only when you absolutely have to. That’s called integrated pest management (IPM). Improve soil vitality by adding organic amendments rather than petroleum-based fertilizers. Build up a base of consumers through value-added products. Use inputs that are sustainable.  Conserve water. Learn how to market better what you grow better.  Writing in The New Yorker Atul Gawande described how ag agents working at the county created “results beyond what anyone could have imagined.” Gawande strongly recommends that a similar “trial and error, continually adjusting policies over time in response not to ideology but to hard measurement of the results against societal goals” could be the solution for reforming health care.

We Are What We Grow

As it is a broadly educational institution, it is perhaps not surprising that Cornell has produced nutrition programs, especially for low-income families. The CCE not only pioneered food stamps at farmers markets, they show people how to cook what they bring home.

Otherwise, all that potential bounty sits in the fridge looking at you accusingly as it slowly decays. Feeding families on a budget has never really gone out of style but the Great Recession has made getting the most out of every food dollar absolutely vital.

Protect a Crucial Resource

But remove that support and things can crumble pretty fast. Cooperative ag programs depend on county, state and federal support. It all starts at the county level where sales tax revenues have plummeted. Cornell, as Helen Dillard notes, is “not a mandated operation.”

As more communities yearn to connect with local farmers and more sustainable food, it would be shame to see this incredible resource plowed under.

What can you do? Start by learning what extension agents are doing in your community. Talk to a county legislator and express your support. Recognize that a dozen hands went to putting that fingerling potato on your table. And one of them was an ag extension agent’s.

ALERT: The Integrated pest management (IPM) in New York is slated will end in New York State if funding is not reinstated. IPM is seen as “socially acceptable, environmentally responsible and economically practical crop protection.”  More to read here.

To read more out more about your local Ag extension, click here now.