Rebar Quoted in Press Herald Report on 100 Years of Cooperative Extension
John Rebar, executive director of the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Portland Press Herald for a report marking the program’s 100th anniversary. At a time when more than 50 percent of Americans lived in the countryside, and 30 percent of the workforce was engaged in farming, the program’s earliest focus was on agricultural education, according to the article. Today, Maine has 16 county offices, and staff and volunteers across the state. Rebar said Extension educators specialize in topics such as the maple syrup industry, aquaculture, goats and small poultry flock management, and the program still focuses on nutrition, childhood obesity prevention and food safety. He said today’s farmers are “eager to learn the latest information on how to produce, store, package and market their harvest,” and they are avid consumers of UMaine Extension’s online resources.