I am sitting in a large conference room in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 75 of us from four agencies and organizations. The State Department, the Defense Department, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and then a collection of non-government organizations, the U.S. Agency for International Development and contractors. Our task is to examine the current status of water and land resources in Africa and the potential for greater food insecurity – a big job. In this article, I will summarize what we have learned and what we might do in the short term and long term.

As I enter my second year here in Washington, D.C., the topic of training arrived in my inbox. As Department of State Civilian Response Corps active members, we are required to complete eight weeks of training each year, so I glance at the schedule and list of courses.

I have come home. From the East Coast to the Pacific Northwest, from Washington D.C. to Washington State, and from the nation’s capital to the evergreen states of the Pacific, my journey is a pilgrimage home.

On a hot and humid Memorial Day weekend, I visited the Arlington National Cemetery. There, on the green hills and beneath the frequent shade trees, the white stone markers jut up so we may read the attributes of our fellow soldiers and civilians.

The spring of 2011 will be recorded as a wet and cool one for central Michigan. I spent two weeks at home in Gratiot County and heard this statement from everyone. Our winter wheat, for instance, is at least three weeks behind its normal growth stage. As of the middle of May, most crop fields had not yet been planted. In any field potholes or depressional areas, water stands, making tillage difficult.

During Christmas of 2010, I was assigned to Embassy Islamabad, Pakistan. I wrote four articles about the assignment there. One day about the end of December, I received a Christmas package from my wife, Sandy. In it was the book “Three Cups of Tea” written by Greg Mortenson.

At a recent workshop here in Washington D.C., our group had as many answers to this question as there were participants. So in this article, let me explain.

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan is heartwrenching. The enormous power of water is captured in multiple videos and photography. One telling video shows the power of water overcoming everything in its path on the very limited farmland, the disappearing hoop structures and barns and buildings, now gone.

There is much in the news today about unrest and revolution in the world. The “common man” rising up and asking: “Why do we live like this, when we have seen how others live?” The connectivity of our communication systems brings every corner of the world to our computer screens, our BlackBerrys, and our social media.

During my first month here in Pakistan, I have drawn certain conclusions about agricultural development. In this article I write about one of them, and make the case that one of our greatest attributes in the U.S. is the Land Grant University Extension System (LGUES).