February 2005
Volume 43 Number 1

Commentaries

A Call for Visionary Leadership

Chester P. Fehlis
Director Emeritus
Texas Cooperative Extension, The Texas A&M University System
College Station, Texas
c-fehlis@tamu.edu

During a new employee forum, a young county agent asked compelling questions that merit thought throughout the Cooperative Extension System. He asked, "What is the future for Extension? Will Extension still exist in 30 to 40 years so that I might hope to retire?"

I responded that our future can be significantly affected by each of us--by how well we do our job, how we listen and respond to the real issues facing our clientele, and whether we remember that we work for the people--and that the people ultimately decide if Extension will continue to exist.

As I pondered further, I realized there is a more specific question to ask: Do we have the visionary leadership in Extension and in this land-grant university system that is necessary to carry forward our success of the last 90 years and achieve even greater success in future years?

The Value of Visionary Leadership

A plan to exist 40 years from now will require much more than each individual worker expertly and precisely driving a spike in the rail. The real issue is whether anyone knows where the rail is heading and why it is heading in that direction.

Leadership is unquestionably the key factor in determining if Extension will be capable of synthesizing future changes in demographics, science, technology, educational models, and human needs, and then developing a very clear and specific vision for our system.

The futurist John Scharr is quoted as saying (Hempel, 1996), "The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destinations."

The future for Extension is what we create through leaders who have a vision for what Extension might look like, how we will function, and how we will serve the needs of our customers. Visionary leaders must know where we are going and why we are going in that direction.

Visionary thinking has been recognized for thousands of years. It is described in biblical statements such as, "where there is no vision, the people perish." The Constitution of the United States, written over 200 years ago, is based on a vision of freedom for the people. That vision was so remarkable that our Constitution has withstood the challenges of time and is still valid today as a vision for democracy.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the truly great visionaries of the 20th century. In his "I Have A Dream" speech delivered in August 1963, he clearly and eloquently described his vision of a world without discrimination--a vision that still inspires our world's quest for freedom for all people. Without vision and dreams, a people, a nation, a business, or an organization has no means to create a positive future because the paths lead nowhere and every day there is a new path.

The Selection of Leaders in the Land-Grant University System

A positive future for Extension depends upon having visionary leaders at all levels. It depends upon selecting individuals as director, vice president, president, or chancellor not just on their professional vitae of past accomplishments, but upon the careful analysis of their visionary leadership skills. Our future depends upon the leaders of these land-grant universities learning from Extension's past achievements, but not allowing our future success to be hampered or held hostage by the past.

We must have leaders who recognize that Extension has a broad mission to serve the educational needs of the people. Leaders who recognize that the changes affecting our society also affect the Extension mission. Leaders who know that the demands of our state legislators, commissioners, courts, and local people expand our opportunities for educational progress beyond traditional programming efforts.

We cannot have leaders who constrain Extension to serving only production agriculture and to working only in rural areas. The vision for Extension must parallel the needs of our nation; the vision must recognize both the basic, traditional needs and the ever-evolving needs of our society in a rapidly changing, diverse world. We need leaders with the astuteness to recognize the value of faculty contributions to traditional needs, but also to openly reward faculty who effectively respond to the needs of our dynamic society.

The risk of successful, innovative, creative, and visionary Extension educational programs reverting to mediocracy in our country is real. People placed in government and university leadership roles who are not visionary and whose only knowledge of the Extension system is from the past can pose a threat that ultimately contributes to the demise of Extension.

Decisions on the selection of individuals to lead Extension programs, those who supervise the Extension director and the placement of Extension in the university structure, should be among the most crucial a university president or chancellor makes. Extension remains the "front door" to the university for the majority of people and presents a tremendous opportunity to create a positive image of the visionary university that most presidents seek.

Defining Excellence as a Guide for Leaders

The questions asked at orientation by the new county agent also should stimulate another question. Once we establish a clear vision for Extension nationally, how will we define excellence in Extension?

How do we define excellence in Extension to a university president, a chancellor, a dean, a vice president, a faculty member from another college, our state legislatures, Congress, and our constituents? What are the metrics that define excellence in our state and national Extension system?

Various reports annually rank universities and academic programs within universities based on a set of common metrics. Presidents recognize these metrics and know what they must do to strive for excellence, and department heads and faculty clearly understand what it takes to be the best in a particular discipline.

In Extension, however, every institution has self-defined metrics. There are no mutual metrics that nationally define the best, or even the top 10. In my work nationally with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, I discovered that every Extension director believes that his or her state's Extension program is in the top five or 10 in the country. That may be good for our egos, but it is not good for Extension. That alone may prevent many state Extension programs and our national system from going from "good to great," as Jim Collins challenges us to do in his best selling book (2001).

In the document, The Extension System, A Vision for the 21st Century (ECOP, 2002), we are advised to ensure that organizational decisions in the states are consistent with the 21st century vision. The decisions must also be consistent with a national vision that supports defined characteristics of excellence that will help us and any dean, president, or chancellor to pursue that vision.

Extension is one of the few nationwide organizations or businesses that does not have defined metrics for success. How can a new administrator, especially one from outside Extension, have any idea of what vision they should have for excellence in the state Extension program if there are no established metrics?

I fully realize the risks associated with establishing metrics for our system, but we must also recognize the risks of not establishing these metrics. If one state rewards faculty for expanding Extension into the homes of millions of urban residents while another state criticizes faculty for the same work, then we are a system destined for failure. Creativity, innovation, use of technology, and the packaging of complete educational programs for diverse audiences are metrics that I have used to reward faculty in Texas.

In mid-2004, we hired a new Extension specialist to help improve our accountability and determine the economic impact of major educational programs. I anticipate that this will help us create new metrics on the relevance of many of our programs, while helping us to thoughtfully justify programs where economic impact is difficult to assess.

I shaped the metrics for Texas Cooperative Extension based on more than 35 years of experience working in Extension. Yet I am not confident that those metrics truly support a national vision for excellence. I do recognize that some metrics are unique to some states. But I believe there are enough common metrics that define excellence in the Extension system such that a clear vision can evolve of where we are going and how to get us there. This effort would take tremendous courage on the part of ECOP and our federal partner, but without it, we are perceived not as a system, but merely as some 76 institutions all heading in different directions.

I believe that there has never been a time in our history when Extension has been more relevant than it is today or will be through the 21st century. But our relevance can only be realized if the call for visionary leadership is answered.

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References

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the le ap--and others don't. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Hempel, L. C. (1996). Environmental governance: The global challenge. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

King, M. L., Jr. (1963). I have a dream. (Speech at the march on Washington for jobs and freedom). 88th Cong., 109 Cong. Rec. 16241 (1963).

National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), Extension Committee on Organization and Policy. (2002). The Extension system: A vision for the 21st century. Available at: http://www.nasulgc.org/publications/Agriculture/ECOP2002_Vision.pdf

The Holy Bible, King James Version. (1999). New York: American Bible Society. Bartleby.com, (2000). Available at: http://www.bartleby.com/108/

An Extension Role in Foreign Trade

David Youmans
Rural Development Specialist
Washington State University Extension
Prosser, Washington
youmans@wsu.edu

Introduction

American Extension workers have always assisted farmers and rural families in improving their lives through applied science and enhanced productivity. Then Extension specialists became involved in value-added production as the food processing industry expanded. As production grew and the U.S. economy improved its balance of trade, the export sector of agriculture took on critical significance. Domestic needs were exceeded for many commodities. Farm states with maritime and lake ports increasingly looked to offshore destinations as markets. Agricultural trade that once traversed the U.S. interior began to embrace the sea-lanes to Europe, the Far East, and even the Third World. Overland traffic shifted north and south towards America's borders.

Around 1985, a number of international trade development centers were established at selected land-grant universities, with federal, state and agri-industry support, and the IMPACT Center was established at Washington State University. Washington was identified as a highly export-dependent agricultural state, ranking second in export product diversity, third in export value, and arguably first in percentage of agricultural revenue from exports. Other developments in the late 1980's/early 1990's that added to the export trade focus of the Pacific Northwest and America in general were finalization and implementation of NAFTA and progress made toward other trade liberalization agreements.

Extension workers across the nation advised and assisted with crops and commodities that found their way to markets around the world. However, many potential exporters did not understand the myriad factors at work in world marketplaces. Foreign freight forwarding, export financing, documentation of trade, shipping regulations, and phytosanitary constraints were unfamiliar to many producers. Cultural sensitivities, language awareness, international business practices, transportation options, distribution systems, product shelf-life requirements, quality concerns, pricing, seasonality, consumer behavior, and dietary customs constituted another array of knowledges to be mastered.

Enter Extension

Washington State University addressed the information gap by creating the position of Extension Trade Specialist (ETS), to be filled by an individual who matched international mentoring skills with the expertise of a cadre of other Extension workers in a trade enhancement and support program. This individual would understand offshore markets, explore and expand new markets, reduce barriers to trade, conduct competitive assessments, and disseminate export market information among growers and shippers. Similar Extension activities and export information programs occurred throughout the nation. They were endorsed by USDA and state departments of agriculture and supported abroad by FAS at export destinations.

Intense Extension activity was sustained at Washington State University for nearly 10 years involving the ETS and several Extension agents and specialists in many countries. Today, involvement in foreign trade is a matter of program emphasis by individual Extension faculty members or states but remains a critical and highly valuable contribution in the U.S. and internationally.

Important to foreign trade Extension at home is opportunity for Extension workers who want to take on the task. Commodity groups and trade promotion organizations have materials and access to trade enhancement funds to assist and sometimes underwrite Extension functions. Resource people team with Extension personnel in the instruction of potential exporters. Foreign freight forwarders, port authority personnel, export banking institutions, and state departments of agriculture have resources and personnel to complement Extension efforts. Experienced exporters also share valuable experience.

Dynamics

The dynamics of overseas markets are subject to frequent and sometimes dramatic changes. A traditional market may dry up overnight. Such changes may have economic, political, phytosanitary, pathogenic, or regulatory origins, or any combination of these. Market shifts may occur as outcomes of effective promotions or popular trends. Extension workers may play fact-finding roles in those instances not only for the exporter community but for overseas clients as well.

Extension professionals also promote the quality and wholesomeness of American products and commodities overseas. It is critical that they be forthright with international clients. Importers place great trust in university academics, and it is not tenable to betray that trust. Extension faculty can open doors, share confidences, and discover facts in the international marketplace that can benefit the flow of trade in all directions. Genetically modified organisms and genetically modified material in agricultural commodities for export may currently be the most controversial matter in world trade. It would behoove the Extension worker to remain neutral on this issue.

Trading styles must also be learned by Extension personnel. Traders trade in different ways in different areas of the world. The formal protocol of the Japanese boardroom contrasts with the more flamboyant Brazilian style. Argentine opulence in Buenos Aires may differ markedly from less obvious Bangladeshi wealth in Chittagong. The textbook business deal with Canadian or English clients may be a different experience from the social event that an Arab or Colombian deal becomes. In certain governments, it is not uncommon to have a single buyer for a given U.S. commodity. In both Egypt and Algeria, for years, the Minister of Supply was the sole person responsible for the food security of the nation.

Examples on the Ground

Some examples of important commodity experiences in offshore markets illustrate types of interventions mentioned here. They also suggest a continuing and perhaps enhanced role in foreign trade for Extension workers across the nation. The export trade in U.S. meats is very active. Extension workers were central to enhancement of the flow of high quality chilled boxed beef from the Pacific Northwest to markets in Japan and Korea, in keen competition with Australia and New Zealand, and the two-way exchange of beef and feeder cattle between the U.S. and Canada. Not only was an understanding of Asian beef import quota systems and NAFTA critical to that achievement, but also close collaboration with FAS/USDA and the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

Attention to the number one apple market in Mexico required constant attention and was sustained in part by the hard work of Extension personnel. Transportation options were evaluated and cross-border relations fostered, including orchard visits to the U.S. by Mexican buyers. Balanced information was supplied on dumping disputes, client after-service was promoted, and field assistance was lent to Mexican orchardists on pest and disease control. As a sideline to the apple trade, Extension faculty promoted the top-loading of fruit shipments with Pacific Northwest Christmas trees seasonally and conducted tree-care education in Mexico. Those measures helped increase the market share for trees one hundred percent in a single season.

Offshore markets for Pacific Northwest peas, lentils, and chickpeas are needed for the industry to remain viable against Canadian, Mexican, Turkish, and Hungarian competition. Extension workers introduced the Palouse red lentil to international markets and made inroads into establishing a viable market for that crop. Extension personnel worked to establish Colombia as an important buyer of local chickpeas and assessed the competitiveness of Hungary and Canada in the erosion of the dry green pea market in India, ultimately recommending the transshipment of peas through the Canadian port of Vancouver to access favorable sea freight rates to the sub-continent. Finally, persistent work led to strengthened shipments of dry yellow peas to upland Venezuela.

Hop production is critical to the Washington agricultural economy, and the state leads the nation in production and export. Almost all the hops produced are channeled into beer production, and much of that is offshore. Considerable product finds its way to beer producers in Mexico and Brazil as well as lesser amounts to other Latin American nations. Both bitter and aromatic hops are typically blended by the world's brewmasters in creating good-tasting beers. The local product has been transformed over the years from baled cones to isomerized extract, which looks almost like a refined honey and which is economically shipped and easily stored.

After conducting an assessment of Canadian canola production in the late 1990's, an Extension team visited Japanese trading companies and oil mills in a successful mission to build bridges to Pacific Northwest canola production sources. Other local Extension colleagues have worked extensively on alfalfa exports and the lucrative offshore movement of timothy hay. Still others have assisted the pork industry to find a circuitous sea-lane to the Far East. At least one professional has become a world expert on sweet cherries, which consistently target Japan and Taiwan as prime time yearly markets, while American and recently Washington premium wines have found Extension experts centrally placed in support of their production, promotion, and world fame. The list goes on. Extension people have been at the cutting edge of forest products, seafood, dairy genetics, and nursery stock and pathfinding in the seed industry.

Scenes from the Marketplace

Inspecting lamb in Canada	Meat talks in Japan	Beef Retail in Tokyo	Seeing pulses in Turkey

Marketing Washington beef	Wagyu carcass sales	Lentil trading in Egypt

Pea research in Hungary	Shipping out	Korean meats trading

Conclusion

Foreign trade is and will continue to be central to American agriculture, and Extension can be the glue that brings that together. The experience begins with years of insights into production agriculture, risk management, pest control, quality improvement, and the wholesomeness of food and a commitment to quality. The next step is a natural for Extension workers. It involves a respect for people of all cultures and a belief that a trading world is a sharing world and that a sharing world is the best world.

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