Extension Expert Helping to Shape Agriculture’s Future
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Collapse ▲[View the full original article by Dee Shore at N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative News.]
As part of an Extension agent network working with the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative, Morgan Menaker is a voice for ensuring that research into problem-solving agricultural technologies addresses growers’ highest priority needs.
For Morgan Menaker, being a North Carolina Cooperative Extension field crops agent in Union County means being a linchpin in ensuring that the nation’s research-and-extension system continues to deliver agricultural knowledge and technology that works for growers and addresses their greatest needs.
One way that Menaker contributes to that mission is through his involvement with the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative. He is one of 12 agents selected in 2023 to serve as an inaugural member of a network of Extension agents helping shape future N.C. PSI research. Today, the network has 26 members.
Morgan Menaker, Extension field crops agent in Union County, gathers tissue samples to assess nutrient status of a wheat crop.
“Anything I can do to deliver a new perspective or technology to make our acres count makes me feel like I am leaving a better world for my son and daughter.”
Menaker, a U.S. Army veteran, recently answered a few questions about himself, his work as an agent, and his involvement with the N.C. PSI.
What drew you to Extension work and the plant sciences?
My internal motivation behind my Extension work is a sense of service to the American people. After my time in the military ended, I had an industry job that was not fulfilling that need. My love for plant science started in my mother’s flower garden, grew on my grandfather’s Christmas tree farm, and was cultivated through public school and my undergraduate and graduate studies.
What have you done as part of your role as a network member?
Beta-testing emerging technology was the initial ask of agents. Utilizing hand-held sensor-based technology to quantify cover crops and collecting feedback on decision support tools was the boots-on-the-ground work.
However, I quickly found that, as an Extension agent, I could play a part in providing my and my grower’s experience in agriculture to the research team and other N.C. PSI-affiliated faculty.
With the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative, there’s an opportunity for a county agent to give input and bring up challenges that people or research teams might not have known about that are important to your part of the state.
How does what you do ultimately impact people and agriculture in North Carolina?
A county agent’s business is their people. Each one of my growers can call on me for my expertise and opinion, with no motive other than to help them, at any time. I would move everything around to be by their side in a moment of critical decision-making. County agents save people time and money, plain and simple.
How does what is being done through the N.C. PSI motivate you?
Professionally I get to work with highly motivated and talented individuals on projects that I know will make a difference to my growers. That is all that I could ask for.
And personally, knowing I have a hand in bringing new and emerging technologies to the agricultural community I grew up next to is fulfilling. Urbanization and loss of open space are real threats to row crop farming, anything I can do to deliver a new perspective or technology to make our acres count makes me feel like I am leaving a better world for my son and daughter.
View the original article or discover more about the N.C. PSI Extension Agent Network.