Dear Organites, Here is your chance to give your input to CSREES. Background Here is a little background on what they are responsible for in our government:(The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), part of the executive branch of the Federal Government. Congress created CSREES through the 1994 Department Reorganization Act, by combining the USDA's Cooperative State Research Service (CSRS) and Extension Service (ES) into a single agency. CSREES is one of four USDA agencies that make up its Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area. The other three agencies are: Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Economics Research Service (ERS) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) The USDA-REE agencies provide federal leadership in creating and disseminating knowledge spanning the biological, physical, and social sciences related to agricultural research, economic analysis, statistics, extension, and higher education. CSREES' unique mission is to advance knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities by supporting research, education, and extension programs in the Land-Grant University System and other partner organizations. CSREES doesn't perform actual research, education, and extension but rather helps fund it at the state and local level and provides program leadership in these areas. CSREES' targeted areas of interest-its 60 identified programs This is what was shared by Andy Clark, National coordinator for SARE. -----Original Message----- From: Andy Clark [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 10:02 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [SANET-MG] FW: CSREES Seeks Stakeholder Input ________________________________ From: McAleer, Patricia [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 9:57 AM To: smallfarmwg Subject: [smallfarmwg] CSREES Seeks Stakeholder Input CSREES is seeking written stakeholder input on the establishment of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (the Institute). The announcement was published in the Federal Register <http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E8-31258.htm> on January 2. The establishment of the Institute is mandated in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (FCEA) of 2008. All programs and authorities currently delegated to CSREES will transfer to the Institute, no later than October 1, 2009. CSREES is designated to act on behalf of the Secretary of Agriculture in soliciting public comment from interested parties regarding the establishment of the Institute. All written comments must be received by February 6, 2009, to be considered. You may submit comments, identified by CSREES-2008-0004, by any of the following methods: * Federal eRulemaking Portal (for online submission): See Federal Register <http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E8-31258.htm> notice. * E-mail: [log in to unmask] Include CSREES-2008-0004 in the subject line of the message. * Fax: 202-720-0289 * Mail: Paper, disk, or CD-ROM submissions should be submitted to Judy Rude, Communications Staff, CSREES, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mail Stop 2201, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-2201. * Hand Delivery/Courier: Judy Rude, Communications Staff, CSREES, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Room 4236, Waterfront Centre, 800 9th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20024. All submissions received must include the title "Institute" and CSREES-2008-0004. All comments received will be posted to http://www.regulations.gov <http://www.regulations.gov/> , including any personal information provided. Contact Judy Rude, phone: 202-720-4242, fax: 202-690-0289, or [log in to unmask], for more information. Patricia McAleer Program Specialist Economic and Community Systems, CSREES, USDA Phone: 202 /720-2635 Fax: 202 / 690-3162 E-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> CSREES' mission is to advance knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities. http://www.csrees.usda.gov/smallfarms.cfm <http://www.csrees.usda.gov/smallfarms.cfm> ******************************************************** To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: 1- Visit http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html to unsubscribe or; 2- Send a message to <[log in to unmask]> from the address subscribed to the list. Type "unsubscribe sanet-mg" in the body of the message. Visit the SANET-MG archives at: http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html. Questions? Visit http://www.sare.org/about/sanetFAQ.htm. For more information on grants and other resources available through the SARE program, please visit http://www.sare.org. If you would like to access previous postings to the Mich-Organic listserv you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser address bar http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html