Local Needs, Global Answers

Extension professionals are firmly grounded in local communities. We are proud of our ability to improve the lives of our neighbors. At times, we extend this definition of neighbor to include individuals living in our state, nearby states, or region. Sometimes we expand the definition to a national level. It can be more difficult to think of a neighbor as an individual living in another nation; this may seem too far from the Extension tradition, and may be thought to occur at the expense of local needs. Incorporating a global perspective into daily Extension work is not, however, a zero-sum game. The advantages of thinking globally have been outlined by several Extension professionals (Gallagher