The Ivory Tower and the Golden Silo: A Century of Land-Grant Extension and Rural (Dis)Engagement

• In Event: Contemporary Issues and Transformations in Rural Resource Communities

Abstract

A century of federal investment in agricultural research, education, and extension helped deliver the benefits of a scientifically-based and technologically-enhanced agriculture, increasing farmer productivity for capital intensive firms, and lowering foodstuff prices for American consumers. Yet social critics have denounced the land-grant college / extension complex as handmaidens of agribusiness, who have been unable or unwilling to serve as a bulwark against industrialization and rural degradation. This history of land-grant extension and outreach illustrates that rural community development was once a central component of the land-grant portfolio, but the focus shifted squarely to issues of agribusiness productivity, disinterested faculty research, state economic development, and innovation. This paper concludes by considering ways of reinvigorating a rural community focus at land-grant colleges.

Author

• Nathan Masters Sorber, West Virginia University