• Creating a Mid-Atlantic Regional Food Systems Web Site
• Educating Food Service Practitioners
• Food Policy Institute
• Food Science & Technology
• Food Systems Educational Programs for K-12
• Pathways to a Better Trained Workforce
• Regionalization of Animal Science Education Programs
• Plant Science Health and Nutrition Modules

Agri-CultureHealth.com: A regional food systems web site designed by partners of the Food System Consortium to provide a comprehensive resource for information related to agricultural production, marketing, food safety and nutritional sciences.

Educating Food Service Practitioners: The goal of this project is to bring about a complete rethinking of the educational needs of workers and managers in the food service industry and to develop new and strengthened educational programs and delivery systems. These objectives will be achieved via a regional training program offered by collaborating educational institutions. Government agencies, industry partners, and two and four year educational institutions are working together for a better trained and educated workforce that can provide improved customer service and safer, healthier food service.

Enhancing the Quality of Animal Science Education: The mission of this project is to establish a regional partnership to help transform Animal Science for the 21st century. The partners are facilitating inter-institutional collaboration so that by 2020 their Animal Science departments will have evolved into specialized Centers of Excellence. The centers will focus on specific species or disciplines, providing much of the teaching for the entire region. At the same time, these partners will enhance research collaborations within the framework of USDA-funded Northeast regional projects. In addition, Dairy Outreach Specialists have established an annual In-Service Training Program, and the New England institutions in collaboration with their stakeholders have created a new program in cooperative dairy research.

Food Policy Institute: The mission of the Food Policy Institute is to maximize the quality of information available to support public and private decision-making regarding food production, distribution and consumption through timely and relevant research that is responsive to the needs of stakeholders in the food system.

Food Science and Technology: Educational Objectives for the 21st Century: The mission of this project is to develop collaborative programs in the four focus areas in order to provide the basis for a comprehensive plan for recruitment and education of food system professionals with expertise in food science and food safety.

Food Systems Educational Programs for K-12 Youth in the Mid-Atlantic Region: The overall goal of this program is for individuals in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states to develop an awareness, understanding, appreciation, and specific knowledge about the food and fiber system.

Pathways to a Better Trained Workforce: This project focuses on systemic changes in the educational systems of the region in order to electively address the workforce problems of the food industry. Key project components include: building extensive public and private partnerships; identifying and documenting multiple pathways which enable youth to learn about and enter productive food system careers; and designing and delivering a comprehensive array of collaborative projects.

Plant Science Health and Nutrition Modules: The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station has provided seed funding for development of Plant Science and Nutrition Models. Tom Gianfagna, Rutgers University, will lead Plant Science and Nutrition Module Development Program and Rich Novak, Associate V.P., Continuous Education and Distance Learning (Rutgers), will provide the IT assistance to digitize the instructional module.

A WIRED grant proposal was submitted April 2008 entitled "Education, Workforce Development and Enhancement of Bioscience Development and Dissemination of Educational Modules for the Translation of Natural Product Science to Life Sciences Applications".