Comment on FR Doc # E8-31258

The new Institute is extremely important in giving Cooperative Extension visibility at the county, state and national levels. My hope as a county extension educator is that this new federal institute will partner and collaborate with NIH, CDC, and our nutrition/health/family sciences professional organizations such as the American Dietetic Association (ADA), the American Public Health Association (APHA), the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), the National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) and the Society for Nutrition Education (SNE). I am hopeful that USDA and this new Institute will combine funding for research with an outreach education component so that research work done at our Land Grant Univesities includes funding for taking those results and getting it out to the public in the U.S. Too many grants are research only and do not include money for outreach education. That needs to change. Collaboration with NIH and CDC will strengthen the research component on food, health and wellness problems. It will also strengthen evaluation and impact results of research. USDA evaluation of educational programs needs to be strengthened with social, psychological and bench research data. Results of how and why federal dollars are being spent needs to show up using evaluation methods that show behavior change. Please look at ERS system for collecting EFNEP and nutrition ed data. The whole system needs to be replaced by a new, efficient nutritional evaluation system that is easy to use, accurate and can analyze diets with today's foods, supplements, etc. The current system is a nightmare to use in the community and has too many intake variables to be very accurate. Thank you for creating the Institute and good luck with developing a new system that can support food,nutrition, health and wellness education/research programs/projects in the U.S.that will improve the health of our citizens.