Hoping to recommend strategies for fundamentally revamping agricultural college programs throughout the United States, former UC Davis Chancellor James H. Meyer has launched a one-year study funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "Since their establishment more than 130 years ago, the land-grant colleges have helped U.S. farmers improve production so much that the number of people needed in the agricultural sector has plummeted. This has left these colleges feeling uneasy about their status and future," said Meyer, an animal scientist. "Although the original land-grant model was appropriate for its time, the modern environment at scientific and agricultural universities calls for a new model." In general, Meyer suggests that land-grant institutions need to dramatically broaden their focus to encompass all aspects of the food and fiber system -- from production to consumption -- placing more emphasis on the environmental and consumer-oriented aspects of that system. Land-grant colleges were initiated in 1862 by a congressional act, which set aside 30,000 acres in each state to be sold to finance new colleges devoted to "agriculture and the mechanical arts."