a half century of statewide impact through teaching, discovery, and service. The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018. Here's more on history and the future. Hello, I'm Charles Denny.
This is Agcast, brought to you by the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. For UT's Institute of Agriculture, 2018 is a time to reflect and take pride in the past, but also focus on the future. Leaders say UTIA isn't just a place, but also a group of people. Our employees, and I'm talking about faculty and staff, regardless of role, have a heart to help people.
Chancellor Tim Cross likes to point out the impacts the Institute has throughout its history and today. As we think about our anniversary, and as we think about the future of the Institute, I think it's important that we always do so by honoring the past, recognizing the good work that's been done before, but also make sure that our eyes are firmly focused on what the future holds, what the needs are, where we can offer some opportunities, some benefits, and make some positive impacts across the state. UTIA includes UT Extension, Ag Research, the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Natural Resources, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Cross says all four units have a mission to educate, advance agriculture, and as part of the land grant college serve all the people of Tennessee.
What may not be as obvious as the impacts we've had on things like crop production. The impact that we've had on our forests, in our private forest owners, adopting sustainable and environmentally friendly techniques for harvesting and managing growing timber. The impacts that we've had on animal care and animal welfare. Now you may be asking, well hasn't UT been teaching ag classes since the days of baby crockett?
Well, not quite, but close. Yes, we've had an agriculture department literally for centuries. UT was founded in 1794, and for many years there's been an ag department with teaching and research. Also UT Extension has been around more than a century.
However, in 1968 that's when the university decided to highlight its true statewide presence. At the urging of future UT President Dr. Ed Bowling, the Board of Trustees voted then to form the Institute, largely based on statewide outreach. Dr.
Bowling believed the inherent statewide mission of the newly formed Institute made it a distinct unit of the UT system. In 1974, the College of Veterinary Medicine was founded and it also became part of UTIA. And the Institute, as we know it now, was in place. The land grant arm of the university with a mission to educate, discover and connect.
Today, UTIA is headquartered on the Knoxville campus, but cross points out the institute is also all over Tennessee in a variety of ways. You know, the fact that we are a statewide campus, we're in every county. We've got county extension offices, we've got research and education centers, we have 4-H centers that connect with our local communities that connect us with our stakeholders. Whether they be young people, farmers, homeowners, animal owners, we have such strong connections statewide.
You get a lot of satisfaction out there. People you've interacted with, people you've gone across the state. That statewide impact is something Dr. Pete Gossett takes pride in.
He worked with the Institute 35 years, time as a researcher and dean and later serving as UTIA vice president. So we've seen a lot of growth, especially in the 70s and 80s, with a lot of additional funding coming in. But there was a lot of fine employees back at that time, good people, well trained. And they kind of kicked the program off.
Dr. Gossett enjoyed his time as an administrator, but he was a plant scientist at heart. He notes that one of UTIA's greatest impacts came in the development of no-till agriculture, where one crop is planted on top of the residue of another without plowing the ground. Yeah, no-till came in in the 60s.
And I'd have to give Tom Cushing, who was superintendent at Milan, a lot of credit for the success of no-till. He was one of our people that just kept it before everybody all the time. And they began to work on the details of it. I remember one field A, we called it the no-till field A at Milan, had 11,000 people there.
And one program. I think I'm right on that fear. May have adjusted it up a little bit, but it's a big craft. And I think we deserve credit for really pushing that idea along.
Other states being in West Tennessee, we had Viscu or Arkansas and Mississippi, and they were falling along. But I think we were the leader in that area. Dr. Cross says past accomplishments are being celebrated as part of the 50th, but it's also a time to cast an eye on what's to come.
I see this year as a year to really reflect and say there's a benefit to the work that's been done, and there's a calling to do this work even better in the future. As I think about the future, I see us responding to the gap that exists with regard to the agricultural workforce. I see a need for additional students. I see a need for additional research to help feed a population of 9 or 10 billion people in the world.
I see a need to continue to connect across the state to help our, especially our challenged rural communities to improve their health, to improve their livelihood. And so I see that we must remain relevant and we've got to remain active in order to make sure Tennesseans have what they need for the future. As part of that future, UTIA is putting together a 10-year strategic plan based on recommendations from faculty and staff, a number of outside groups and people across Tennessee. Well, it's a really exciting year and a great opportunity I think to reflect back on on our history is we also cast our eyes towards the future.
One of the things we're just in the process of wrapping up is a strategic planning exercise and the strategic plan will guide us for the next 10 years of our institutes work. And I think that ties really well into where have we been and helps to point us in the right directions for where we go in the future. UTIA plans several events in 2018 to markets 50th anniversary. Meantime, while history is important, so is the present and meeting the challenges of the future, educating students, helping people, feeding the world.
Thanks for listening. I'm Charles Denny. For more real-life solutions provided by the UT Institute of Agriculture, go to our website at ag.tenacy.edu.