Agricultural News
OSU's Dr. Coon talks New Frontiers Progress, Plan for OSU and 2023 Farm Bill
Fri, 14 Oct 2022 12:11:33 CDT
KC Sheperd, Farm Director, caught up with the Dean of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University, Dr. Thomas Coon about the latest at OSU and the 2023 Farm Bill.
Now that the goal has been met for the New Frontiers project, Dr. Coon talked about the current state of the project.
“Construction has really been moving along,” Coon said. “I hate to say it but one of the advantages of a drought is that construction projects get ahead of schedule. We have been pouring a lot of concrete, the crew has been really efficient about that, so it is really starting to look like a building, and I think by Thanksgiving, we are probably going to see pretty much the basic outline of the building- all three stories- so, we are excited about that.”
They are now taking a more relaxed approach to the fundraising side of the project, Coon said, but there are many people who are still getting involved to honor someone who means a lot to them.
“We have several features in the building that we are not able to include in the budget,” Coon said. “With inflation and everything, the price went up and we really had to kind of hold the line on that, but there are a couple of features that, if we get some extra funding coming in from donors, we could add those to the project.”
As for President Shrum presenting her new strategy for OSU, Coon talked about the different parts of that strategy.
“I think the key feature is that she is really embracing the land grant mission of Oklahoma State University,” Coon said. “Not that we have ever left it behind, but she is talking about it very openly and really identifying that as the key difference and unique thing about OSU is that we have that land grant responsibility.”
Coon said President Shrum has identified four key priority areas for investing further.
“One of those is nourishing the world,” Coon said. “Another one has to do with helping to build sustainable energy sources for Oklahoma and beyond.”
The third area, Coon said, is focusing on improving human and animal health.
“So, our one health approach that we do particularly with the college of veterinary medicine really fits in with that, as well as some of the health education programming we have been doing in OSU extension,” Coon said.
The fourth priority area, Coon said, is with aerospace.
“Really building on the strengths of Oklahoma’s aerospace industry and trying to feed into that with even more engineers, even more innovation and research and so on,” Coon said.
President Shrum is a fan of extension, Coon said, so she has articulated that as imagining extension in a way that makes extension a platform for all of OSU.
“That is not to come at the expense of what we do in the division of Ag Sciences and Natural Resources,” Coon said. “Our cooperative extension programs get to continue to be as they are, but having that office in every county means there is a presence of OSU in every county.”
Coon also talked about the upcoming 2023 farm bill and how he believes a research title is a key part.
“There is a separate title for research that authorizes the work that the National Institute of Food and Agriculture does- that is our partner at USDA,” Coon said. “That is where our federal funding comes from to support the Agricultural Experiment Station, and Cooperative Extension Service and then in addition, the National Ag Statistics Service is in that, the Economic Research Service and the Agriculture Research Service is all in that research title.”
The research title is often ignored, Coon said, and on the policy side there may be a few adjustments there, but it is more on the funding side where improvements can be made.
“We are still getting the same federal funding levels today as we were getting 25 years ago and so there aren’t many enterprises that can keep going today on what their revenue was 25 years ago with inflation and so on,” Coon said.
Research is important, Coon said, to driving innovation in Oklahoma’s agriculture and natural resource economies.
“It takes research to bring along those new ideas and those new technologies and I will tell you, there are other countries in the world that are investing a lot more aggressively in that,” Coon said.
Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to KC’s full conversation with Dr. Coon talking about New Frontiers, 2023 Farm Bill and more.
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