From the Interim President This year we celebrate a sesquicentennial— the 150th anniversary of Idaho’s birth in 1863 as a territory of the United States. When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Idaho Territorial Act, he brought into the union what would become our state, which would owe much of its eventual prosperity to another Lincoln legacy—the land-grant university system created by the Morrill Act, which the president had signed just the year before. The land-grant concept has shaped the postwar economic, scientific and cultural development of the union that Mr. Lincoln preserved. The University of Idaho belongs to a distinctive “first family” of land-grant institutions. Unlike many Western land-grant institutions—which were created to supplement the founding universities in their respective states—the University of Idaho is a founding university. In fact, it is among the first in all historical elements of educational distinction: the nation’s land-grant legacy, a founding university, and was first to be recognized in Idaho when it achieved its 1890 statehood. This unique, multidimensional heritage does not confer a privilege; rather, it carries a profound responsibility. Our university is expected to be pre-eminent in shaping and shepherding Idaho’s progress in post-secondary education. Our leadership role includes enlisting the collaboration of sister institutions and the support
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of partners in the public and private sectors. Our leadership is powerful because it is collaborative. This edition of Here We Have Idaho—with its focus on food production and the emerging issues of food safety, security and distribution— illuminates the breadth of collaboration in agriculture and related disciplines. For example, you will read about how Carolyn Bohach is working to prevent harmful E. coli in beef; how our extension agents have nurtured the region’s now nationally respected vintners, wineries and grapegrowers and how alumni-founded Litehouse Foods Inc. has become a national model of entrepreneurial success. American agriculture leads the world—and feeds much of it. This inspiring fact reflects hard work by farm families, sound business planning in a dynamic global economy, and indispensable and strategic investments in science and technology. These investments are the products of the enlightened collaboration between industry and the academy. In the last year alone, nearly $7 million has been committed by agricultural entities to the University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Interdisciplinary collaboration also extends to, and is fostered by, every one of our colleges. The research is economically vital and is—as it must be—academically rigorous. These examples of industry-academy collaboration illustrate the power of a modern landgrant university. President Lincoln would have been pleased. Go Vandals! Don Burnett Interim President
uidaho.edu/president