Summary Recommendations
from Strategy Groups
- The land-grant university system
is well positioned to advance an obesity
prevention agenda through community-based
educational interventions well grounded
in research. University presidents
play a critical leadership role in
articulating the role of land-grant university
research, education, and extension in
addressing the obesity epidemic and making
the university campus residential experience
a model for lifelong healthy living.
- The Farm Bill should be
utilized to affirm USDA's role
in nutrition research and extension education to
prevent obesity and to assure funding to
address research gaps, conduct program
evaluation, and train land-grant faculty
members to address this major health issue.
- An immediate challenge to Cooperative
Extension is to identify and share
best practices in extension programming
that lead to healthy lifestyles and prevent
obesity.
- Cooperative Extension should make a commitment
to bring the total resources of
agriculture, youth development, family
consumer sciences and nutrition, and community
resource development together to address
the obesity epidemic with a holistic
programmatic agenda.
- Degree programs, professional
preparation, and service learning opportunities for
university students need to be adapted
to produce a cadre of professionals trained
to address complex health issues such
as obesity.
- Land-grant universities should assume
leadership for the coordination
of community-based wellness initiatives that
influence the adoption and implementation
of best practices for all citizens, i.e.,
the establishment and implementation of
school wellness plans community asset mapping,
etc.
- An eXtension community of practice should
be developed to place the land-grant university
system in a visible leadership position
regarding healthy lifestyles including
healthy weight and utilize innovative technology
to reach the American public.
- Land-grant universities should provide leadership
for public policy education that
prepares families, practitioners, and
community leaders to exert influence
on policy development at the federal,
state, and local levels to bring about
a culture of health and wellness in the
United States.
Sponsored by USDA/NIFA, the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, and the National Association
of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges,
July 19-20, 2005.
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