View current CAST Education Program Members and Board Members.

Education Program Benefits

Friday Notes Newsletter

Your university’s entire agriculture division would have the opportunity to receive CAST’s Friday Notes, our signature newsletter published and distributed 48 times a year. The Notes provide timely links to the latest news across the full spectrum of agricultural topics. Each issue features:

• Lead articles on current topics being discussed in agriculture.
• Hot topics selected from multiple sources, including live links to the original articles.
• Current events and opportunities; and News from the Far Side of the Barn (a less serious look at agriculture).

Reference Publications

Your college will also receive a “CAST Reference Collection.”

• This includes more than two dozen recent CAST publications relating to all fields of agriculture — CAST Task Force Reports, Special Publications, and Issue Papers (a $300 value).
• It can be used in your department library, Dean’s office, or any location that would benefit your faculty and students.

Current Publications

• With every publication release, CAST sends each of your representatives a hard copy of new Issue Papers, Special Publications, and Task Force Reports.
• Commentaries and Ag quickCASTs are available as free downloads. These brief, highly focused documents provide timely information on “hot topics” in agriculture, in user-friendly language.

Recognition of Your Support

Your organization is recognized on the CAST website and in the CAST Annual Report.

Representation on the CAST Board of Representatives (Optional but Encouraged)

Your university would have the opportunity to participate in CAST through a CAST Representative who serves on a work group (Animal Agriculture and Environmental Issues, Food Science and Safety, or Plant Agriculture and Environmental Issues).

• The primary charge of a work group is to identify, clarify, and prioritize national issues and concerns they believe CAST should address; and then develop proposals for new publications and/or projects.
• Representation would allow your school additional input on publications and projects and provide another method of outreach to the public on critical issues.
• Through CAST your input can be changed into credible science-based communications that are respected and referenced by stakeholders, policymakers, the media, and the public.
• Organizations on the board also have their names listed on publications and Friday Notes.

How It Works

• Friday Notes may be distributed broadly within a university’s agriculture division.  This would include faculty and students within the agriculture college, veterinary college, extension services, and directors of experiment stations.  The program fee may be split among these different entities as the administration sees fit.
• Your college would designate an administrator to receive CAST Friday Notes each Friday.  The designee would simply forward Friday Notes to distribute to your faculty/student listservs.
• This valuable service is offered at only:
  • $3,000/year for institutions with ag enrollments of 1,000 or less.
  • $5,000/year for institutions with ag enrollments greater than 1,000.

CAST Education Program Information and CAST Education Program Application

For more information regarding membership, please contact our membership department at 515-292-2125.