New CSU Spur partnership focuses on global food security

Photo by Arnaldo Aldana on Unsplash

By Margaret Jackson / NewsBreak Denver

(Denver, Colo.) The CSU Spur campus in North Denver partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to host the North American Agricultural Advisory Network (NAAAN).

NAAAN is a platform for North American nations to engage in a global dialogue on best practices for turning research findings into real-world agricultural innovations.

“We are just as eager to hear and learn from our global colleagues as we are excited to share our knowledge and experience with them in pursuit of our common goal of making healthy, safe, affordable food available to every citizen on the planet,” said Cavonda Jacobs-Young, undersecretary for research, education and economics at the USDA. “Supplying citizens with food is an opportunity for innovation and collaboration between nations. Partnerships such as this help make it happen.”

Each state’s land-grant universities offer cooperative extension services that provide a mechanism that helps research findings inform agricultural practices. Colorado State University, part of the three-campus CSU System, is Colorado’s land-grant institution and is one of more than 100 across the country.

“What the North American Agricultural Advisory Network is about is clearly bigger than any one university, and it’s bigger than any one sector, whether that’s academia, government, the private sector,” CSU System Chancellor Tony Frank said. “It’s bigger than any one nation. It has to be because the goal we have — providing food security to the North American continent — is one of the most important things we can devote our time and energy to.”