PURPOSE Population health is of growing importance in the changing health care environment. The Cooperative Extension Service, housed in each state's land grant university, has a major impact on population health through its many communitybased efforts, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -Education (SNAP-Ed) nutrition programs, 4-H youth engagement, health and wellness education, and community development. Can the agricultural and health sectors, which usually operate in parallel, mostly unknown to each other, collaborate to address population health? We set out to provide an overview of the collaboration between the Cooperative Extension Service and the health sector in various states and describe a case study of 1 model as it developed in New Mexico. METHODSWe conducted a literature review and personally contacted states in which the Cooperative Extension Service is collaborating on a "Health Extension" model with academic health centers or their health systems. We surveyed 6 states in which Health Extension models are being piloted as to their different approaches. For a case study of collaboration in New Mexico, we drew on interviews with the leadership of New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Service in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; the University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Science Center's Office for Community Health; and the personal experiences of frontline Cooperative Extension agents and UNM Health Extension officers who collaborated on community projects.RESULTS A growing number of states are linking the agricultural Cooperative Extension Service with academic health centers and with the health care system. In New Mexico, the UNM academic health center has created "Health Extension Rural Offices" based on principles of the Cooperative Extension model. Today, these 2 systems are working collaboratively to address unmet population health needs in their communities. Nationally, the Cooperative Extension Service has formed a steering committee to guide its movement into the health arena.CONCLUSION Resources of the agricultural and health sectors offer communities complementary expertise and resources to address adverse population health outcomes. The collaboration between Cooperative Extension and the health sector is 1 manifestation of this emerging collaboration model termed Health Extension. Initial skepticism and protection of funding sources and leadership roles can be overcome with shared funding from new sources, shared priority setting and decision making, and the initiation of practical, collaborative projects that build personal relationships and trust. BACKGROUNDT he Cooperative Extension Service, administered by the land-grant university in each state, contributes to the health and social welfare of our nation. The service functions in every county in the United States alongside the health sector, yet the 2 systems usually work in parallel, unknown to each other. This disconnect between 2 major sectors of our socie...

BackgroundIn the last few years, antioxidants have become the stars of the nutritional world. Antioxidants are important in terms of their ability to protect against oxidative cell damage that can lead to conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and heart disease – conditions also linked with chronic inflammation. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of Alaska’s wild berries may have the potential to help prevent these diseases.ObjectiveTo discover the antioxidant levels of Alaska wild berries and the ways these antioxidant levels translate when preservation methods are applied to the berry.DesignThis research centred on both the raw berries and products made from the berries. In the first year, a variety of wild berries were tested to discover their oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC) in the raw berries. The second level of the research project processed 4 different berries – blueberries, lingonberries, salmonberries, highbush cranberries – into 8 or 9 products made from these berries. The products were tested for both ORAC as well as specific antioxidants.ResultsThe Alaska wild berries collected and tested in the first experiment ranged from 3 to 5 times higher in ORAC value than cultivated berries from the lower 48 states. For instance, cultivated blueberries have an ORAC scale of 30. Alaska wild dwarf blueberries measure 85. This is also higher than lower 48 wild blueberries, which had a score of 61. All of the Alaskan berries tested have a level of antioxidant considered nutritionally valuable, ranging from 19 for watermelon berries to 206 for lingonberries on the ORAC scale. With the processed products made from 4 Alaska wild berries, one of the unexpected outcomes of the research was that the berries continued to have levels of antioxidants considered high, despite the effects of commonly used heat-processing techniques. When berries were dehydrated, per gram ORAC values increased.ConclusionAlaska wild berries have extraordinarily high antioxidant levels. Though cooking lowered the antioxidant level, and adding ingredients such as sugar diluted the antioxidant concentration, products made from berries are high sources of antioxidants.

Cooperative Extension is at a crossroads and has increasing opportunities to articulate its existing role and future growth in impacting the health and wellness of the individuals and communities it serves. This is important because the health outcomes in the U.S. are poorer than any other developed nation, health expenditures are high, challenges with navigating the health system are immense, and opportunities to intervene and remove barriers to improving the nation’s health and wellness abound. This article provides suggestions as a follow-up to the reports featured in this special issue of the Journal of Human Sciences and Extension from the five Action Teams of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy’s (ECOP) Health Implementation Team. The authors present the idea that, to achieve greater impact in health and wellness, Cooperative Extension must also consider its role as translators of our history and how that history is relevant to health-related work, how we can engage with other health-related organizations, by embracing a partner perspective, and by submitting Extension’s efforts to the review of other disciplines.

Foodborne illness has a significant impact on public health and consumer confidence in the U.S. The Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center was established to provide educational programs, trainings, and workshops to address the health and well-being of consumers as it relates to food safety and food protection. A partnership between New Mexico Cooperative Extension, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, and the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security, the Center is the only facility of its kind in the U.S. This article describes its role and highlights the methods used to reach residents in a largely rural state

Health literacy is often defined as the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions. Research shows that 30 million Americans have Below Basic health literacy skills. People with low health literacy skills contribute to higher utilization of health care services. This equates to an excess of $230 billion a year in health care costs linked to low literacy in the United States. The primary responsibility for improving health literacy lies with public health professionals and the health care and public health systems. However, studies find that interventions using principles of health literacy, applied in community-based settings, can result in improved outcomes at the population level. In this article, the Health Literacy Action Team members consider the role of Extension in this important area, and suggest practices in incorporating health literacy into existing Extension programs and educational materials, and future resources for Extension and community partners.