interdisciplinary perspectives, the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, and the tools to analyze systems comprised of interacting biological, physical, and economic processes. Such tools and perspectives are needed by both modern-day farmers, who must be sophisticated managers of biological and natural resource systems, and by public and private entities attempting to understand and manage interactions among production agriculture, natural resources and the environment, human health and the well-being of human communities.

Because of their historical role in developing a science base for understanding human interactions with our natural environment, the land grant colleges are natural leaders in developing and teaching modern environmental sciences. Environmental sciences are of great interest to students and society today. The land grants can take the lead in viewing agricultural resources as part of a larger ecology; they can thereby expand the relevance of their programs to a wider set of students and societal issues; and they can take a more constructive role in bridging and integrating the interests of farm and nonfarm clientele by providing students with the tools for undertaking systematic and quantitative analyses of opportunities and challenges in the food and agricultural system.

In sum, the committee believes there is significant potential for enhancing the quality, breadth, accessibility, and relevance of LGCA teaching programs. Given the relatively modest federal funding available to stimulate innovations in food and agricultural system teaching programs, the federal role is limited to providing incentives for state and institutional initiatives. To successfully stimulate innovations, the committee recommends the federal government target its resources to initiatives such as

• supporting the bridging programs and articulation agreements among institutions (Recommendation 6);
• supporting mentored internship opportunities that reflect the diversity of contemporary career settings for graduates in the food and agricultural sciences (Recommendation 7); and
• stimulating and rewarding the development of innovative multidisciplinary and systems-based courses and curricula for food and agricultural systems education (Recommendation 8).

The committee also believes that internally generated and state supported changes in LGCA teaching programs are needed to better prepare students for the challenges of a dynamic, complex, and consumer-driven 21st-century food and agricultural system and to strengthen the future of the LGCAs. Examples of needed structural changes that are discussed and recommended in this chapter, and in Chapter 2, and that require significant institutional leadership, are the following:

• Integrate teaching and learning opportunities more fully with research and extension through, for example, involving undergraduates in research, and enhancing the role and status of extension in academic programs.
• Reduce barriers to multidisciplinary and interdepartmental approaches to teaching and learning through, for example, rewards for and recognition of team scholarship.
• Develop long-term, comprehensive regional consortia to reduce duplication, differentiate course offerings, create inter-institutional faculty teams, capitalize on distance learning technologies, and broaden experiential learning opportunities.
• Strengthen relationships with and build bridges to other units of the university by, for example, developing courses that fill general education requirements in the sciences and humanities and that place food and agricultural issues squarely in the scientific context.

FRONT MATTER (R1-R14)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1-12)

1 INTRODUCTION (13-20)

2 A LAND GRANT SYSTEM FOR TOMORROW: OVERARCHING THEMES AND RECOMMENDATIONS (21-45)

3 TEACHING (46-68)

4 RESEARCH (69-86)

5 EXTENSION (87-104)

REFERENCES (105-110)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS (111-116)

INDEX (117-122)