Re: OT: Master Gardeners
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] OT: Master Gardeners
- From: t*@cals.lib.ar.us
- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 09:00:49 -0500 (CDT)
Bill & Gang:
I am in agreement with Bill regarding the Extension Service being a tool
for agri-business interests. This is not as true as it used to be, in my
opinion. That change (taking the Ext. Service into the general gardening
populace) came about, in my opinion, when Reagan tried to kill the whole
program. All of a sudden, the Ext. folks discovered that they did not have
as large of a constituency as they needed for political defense...so, they
created a number of programs that would build their popular base...Master
Gardener program being one of them.
In Ark. the MG program works very well indeed. It has involved thousands
of people in practically every county. They do lots of interesting
programming too. I'm a big fan. However, I am not fond of the Dept. of
Agriculture as a whole. The bulk of the money still goes to support big
time agriculture, but with each passing year reformers nibble away and try
to build support for sustainable agriculture, soil conservation, etc.
My biggest criticism of the Dept. of Ag is saved for the Forest Service.
Now, THAT is a government program designed to help big business!
Tom
Tom W. Dillard, Curator
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
Central Arkansas Library System
100 Rock Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
(501) 918-3054
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