Cooperative Extension as a Force for Healthy, Rural Communities

Historical Perspectives and Future Directions

Bibliographic Data

ID11017376
AuthorsDavid R Buys (0000-0001-8547-056X, David R. Buys is with Mississippi State University, Starkville. Roger Rennekamp is with Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, Washington DC.), Roger Rennekamp (David R. Buys is with Mississippi State University, Starkville. Roger Rennekamp is with Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, Washington DC.)
Year2020
Volume110
Issue9
Pages1300-1303
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
PublisherAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.2020.305767
PMID32673106
OpenAlexW3043470983
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited1

Cooperative Extension (Extension), part of the land-grant university system, has been engaged in rural communities for more than a century. While the focus of Extension’s efforts has largely centered on agriculture, there is an important thread of work that has similarities to public health. As Extension settles into its second century, we are working to be even more engaged in efforts that improve the health and well-being of rural communities in particular. Extension faculty and staff are accomplishing this through direct-to-the-population education and through partnerships with more classically oriented public health organizations able to leverage Extension’s networks and positive reputation in communities to engage them and improve their health. A component of these partnerships includes Extension faculty and staff increasingly engaging in policy, systems, and environment work and other initiatives that help ensure longer-term, systemic changes more likely to improve health outcomes. In short, Extension clearly changed the agricultural system of the United States, and because of its reach into rural communities, it has the capacity to do for health in rural communities in this second century what it did for agriculture in the first century

Agricultural extension · Agriculture · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Extension (predicate logic) · Geography · Health equity · Political science · Population · Population health · Public health · Public relations · Reputation · Rural area · Rural health · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics) · Computer Science · Diverse Educational Innovations Studies · Engineering · Medicine · Nursing