lifeblood in the form of land-grants

Oh, ye olde blog. What ever happened to you? I think you look ill. Malnourished by your owner when things got so bad that anything that was worth writing about was an attack on someone, or defense of himself. So, you were abandoned to avoid conflict, and its like in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind when Jim found he "hadn't written" in his diary for 2 years. I'm bringing you back, because I've wandered into healthy blogs and it makes me feel irresponsible.

I get lazy when it comes to current events, and triangulating sources feels like a chore when I apply the research skills typically reserved for school work in my leisure time. But, I hope to explore my own trails of ideas that start out as blue ink on the back of my hand and perhaps get them on here. If at least for my own sake of remembering what the hell all the smudged layers of ink on my hand represented in some bygone week.

So, what are land grant colleges?

A land-grant college or university is an institution which is given money and land from the federal government, as put forth by the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, on which agricultural research is to take place. They must also develop a university extension program which brings all relevant scientific results and products directly to the end-user (usually agrarian businesses). The land-grant school must also offer practical and modern education on military tactics, mechanical engineering, home economics, and cultural studies. Students at MSU will almost all recall seeing uniformed ROTC members on campus, and I think this is why.

There are also space-grant, sea-grant and sun-grant colleges specializing in scientific research and extension of their name-sakes. Sun-grant colleges are supposed to develop programs for studying alternative, renewable and sustainable energy alternatives.

In our mitten there are two universities with two of these grants. The University of Michigan is a space and sea-grant school. Michigan State University is a land and sea-grant school. I think the idea of a government incentive to promote scientific research and its dispersal is really cool. The underlying idea is that constant research and education in those fields result in a more efficient production and consumerist economy.

My professor and boss, Dr. Christine Difonzo works as an extension agent in the Entomology department. Some of her duties include running workshops with farmers about invasive insects, GMO farms and pest controls. She's good at phone conversations with grumpy farmers and identifying grubs by their butt-hair patterns because most beetles look the same as larvae: white C-shaped blobs. She said it's a stressful thrill working as a professor, extension agent and researcher because you are pioneering, learning and teaching on many levels every day. The extension program in particular makes me very proud to be part of such a university.