Dr. William Randle, the SAES dean, will be hosting a forum for SAES staff on Tuesday, May 8 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the Webb Hall Auditorium. This will be an opportunity to discuss strategies, express concerns and resolutions, and present Dean Randle questions regarding the SAES.
Jasmine Brodie, an agricultural education major, placed third during the 2012 Undergraduate Research Day competition on April 16. Her presentation covered an investigation of "Where Are the Healthy Dairy and Grains Options Found in Guilford County" and the project was guided by Dr. Kofi Adu-Nyako of the Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education.
The SAES sent a delegation of 17 students — along with posters detailing their research work — to Fayetteville April 13 and 14 for Fayetteville State University's 2012 Student Research Conference. The faculty mentor for five of the students was Dr. Radiah Minor of Animal Sciences; Dr. Jenora Waterman of Animal Sciences was mentor for another five students; an FCS Research associate, Bonita I. Hardy, mentored four of the students; and Drs. Paula Faulkner of the Dept. of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education and M.R. Reddy of Natural Resources and Environmental Design were mentors for a student apiece.
The four SAES Undergraduate Research Scholars presented overviews of their research projects on April 17, and topics and mentors for the 2011-12 research roundup were:
• Alani Adkins, mentored by Dr. Salam Ibrahim through research into the "Impact of Environmental Stresses on the Behavior of E. coli 0157:H7 in the Presence of Caffeine"
• Vacques Hines, who has been mentored by Dr. Willie Willis through research into the "Effects of Fungus Myceliated Grain Incubation Time on Broiler Performance and Health Attributions"
• Kelly Meadows, whom Dr. Benjamin Gray has mentored through research into the "Factors Contributing to Obesity in the Southern Black Belt Region of the United States"
• Ivy Smith, who has been mentored by Dr. Jianmei Yu through research into "Functional Bread Developed by Partial Incorporation of Grape Pomace with Wheat Flour"
The SAES's Undergraduate Research Program was inaugurated in 2010 to give select SAES juniors and senior academic credit and hourly wages for work on research projects directed by faculty mentors with the Agricultural Research Program.
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems — operated jointly by A&T, N.C. State and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences to promote sustainable agriculture — is one of the major beneficiaries from the Farm to Fork Community Picnic that will be Sunday, May 20, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the W.C. Breeze Family Farm Extension and Research Center north of Hillsborough.
A number of honored and acclaimed chefs from Piedmont restaurants will be showing their support for locally grown foods by serving up some dishes that convert meat and produce from local farms into gourmet cuisine. UNC TV did a feature on the 2009 picnic that includes a few words from Alex Hitt, one of the owners of Perrigrine Farms, which won the A&T Extension's 1995 Small Farm of the Year Award.
There is a cap on the number of tickets that will be sold and tickets to the Farm to Fork Community Picnic have become such a hot commodity that members of the CEFS staff strongly suggest that galloping gourmets get themselves a ticket very promptly if they don't want to get shut out. Tickets are $100 and available online.
The 2012 date has also been set for another central Piedmont agricultural get-together that's highly supportive of local agriculture: The third annual Great Tomato Tasting at the A&T State University Farm will be Saturday, July 14. From 8 a.m. until noon on Tomato Tasting Saturday, there will be short seminars covering selecting, planting, maintaining and cooking tomatoes.
On Thursday, May 17, the Agricultural Research Program (ARP) will offer the final installment in the ARP's 2011-12 academic year series of free-and-open-to-the-public workshops for gardeners and small-scale farmers at the University Farm. The program — "Improve Your Soil with Cover Crops" — will be led by Dr. Charles Raczkowski, an ARP soil scientist. Raczkowski believes that cover crops can be as effective in improving soil chemistry while reducing weeds and labor in home gardens as they are in large fields. He will discuss the cover crops that have proven most successful in North Carolina.
The program will run from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and although there is no charge to those attending, pre-registration is requested. To pre-register, contact Raczkowski at 336-334-7779.
A news release was recently issued by North Carolina Central with the headline "Researchers from NCCU, N.C. A&T Develop Anemia Treatment." The release goes on to say that TinChung Leung of NCCU and Dr. Shengemin Sang of the SAES's Center for Excellence in Post Harvest Technologies have findings concerning "a promising use of ginger that may lead to the development of a treatment for anemia that the scientists were invited to present at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Chicago [in April]." Leung and Sang, both part of their respective universities' staffs at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, have found that a compound in ginger called gingerol can combat anemia in mice and zebrafish.
The 2012 issue of the Agricultural Research Program's annual magazine, Re:search, carried a story, "Functional Foods for Disease Prevention" that provides the complete background on Sang's research as well as other promising developments emanating from his work with gingerol and other compounds found in ginger.
The editor-in-chief of the inaugural issue of a new peer-reviewed scholarly journal states in his introduction to the new publication that "The Journal of Waste Conversion, Bioproducts and Biotechnology (JWCBB) is born out of the need to create a platform for rapid dissemination of information relating to the science, technology and business of converting wastes to bio-products in a profitable and sustainable manner." Among the editor-in-chief's other hats is SAES mycologist: Dr. Omoanghe Isikhuemhen. His Waste Conversion, Bioproducts and Biotechnology editorial board includes Dr. Osei Yeboah, interim director of the SAES's International Trade Center, and Dr. E.I. Ohimain of the Biological Sciences Department at Niger Delta University in Nigeria. Ohimain has been a visiting scholar at A&T, and he is also the author of an article in the inaugural issue that delves into "The Prospects and Challenges of Waste Wood Biomass Conversion to Bioelectricity in Nigeria."
This past semester, the SAES's Landscape Architecture Program was approved for accreditation until 2017 by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB), which was established to develop standards and assessment procedures by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
The SAES Landscape Architecture Program began with approval from the UNC General Administration in 1976. It remains the only accredited undergraduate program at an HBCU and continues to graduate more African-American landscape architecture students than any other program in the country. The A&T Landscape Architecture Program is also now the only undergraduate program in the field in North Carolina, and the program has frequently put A&T into the public eye as faculty-guided student teams contributed extensively to community planning and design projects. Among the area communities on the Landscape Architecture Program's assist list are Asheboro, Trinity, Haw River, Lexington, and Salisbury.
Perry Howard, Anna Reaves, and John Robinson comprise the current Landscape Architecture faculty. Howard, the program coordinator, has served as president of the 16,000-member American Society of the Landscape Architects, which has and 48 chapters across the United States. Howard was the first — and remains the only — African American elected to that office.
Program assistant Darlene Primas (336-334-7520) handles requests for additional information on the program from prospective students.
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) has been recognized for innovations in community-based learning and local-level engagement with the Opal Mann Green Engagement and Scholarship Award. The Opal Mann Green Award is presented by N.C. State University, and named to honor a former member of the Cooperative Extension faculty whose contributions to community service as a volunteer rivaled a slate of professional achievement that included national leadership for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).
Dr. John O'Sullivan, the SAES's professor of sustainable agriculture and local food systems and also director of A&T's CEFS activities, was part of the team of CEFS personnel accepting the Opal Mann Green Award in a presentation ceremony at the McKimmon Center on the NCSU campus in Raleigh April 23.
Shorlette Ammons, A&T Extension's community-based foods systems outreach coordinator at the CEFS, has played a major role in a program launch that is drawing USDA’s undersecretary for Food and Nutrition Services, Kevin Concannon, to Goldsboro on Wednesday, May 9.
According to Ammons, the kickoff that will bring Concannon, former Congresswoman Eva Clayton and other dignitaries to Goldsboro is for "Produce Ped’lers, a bike delivery program that will deliver fresh produce from the city farmer’s market to areas of the community that have limited access to fresh, local produce. The project is funded by a USDA Farmer’s Market promotion grant."
The launch will get under way at noon at the farmer's market in Goldsboro's Herman Park on May 9. There will be entertainment, cooking demonstrations , along with immediate gratification for guests who come out to support and enjoy fresh, locally grown produce.
WFMY's quest for an expert opinion on the "pink slime" controversy brought reporter Lauren Melvin to A&T last week, and her story — originally appearing on the 11 p.m. newscast Monday but still available online revolves around an interview with Dr. Ralph Noble, chair of the SAES’s Department of Animal Sciences. A story written by Meghan Packer that accompanies the online interview says that Noble's conclusion is that "He's not worried about eating hamburger, and consumers shouldn't be alarmed either."
According to Packer's story, Noble's confidence in the nation's meat supply isn't shaken by pink slime because "It's going to have to be checked by USDA. It's going to already be investigated and studied by animal scientists, meat scientists, food scientists, to make sure it's acceptable and it won't cause any human harm."
Noble was able to work one fact into his interview that will, in all likelihood, be news to WFMY viewers who aren't also colleagues or students at Webb Hall. Packer's story says that, "According to Noble, the proper term for what's become widely known as ‘pink slime’ is actually 'Lean Finely Textured Beef' or LFTB.”
The Southern Region of USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has proposal invitations on its website for SARE research and education initiatives. There will not be a call for proposals for the Research and Education Grants (SARE R&E) this year. Calls for proposals for that program will resume in 2013. Two of SARE's other research and education funding proposals remain intact for 2012, and June 4 is the first proposal deadline for both.
Pre-proposals for graduate student research projects — due June 4 — should be built around a topic that will contribute to a better understanding of sustainable agriculture. The ceiling for graduate student research grants is $11,000, and the time limit for funded projects is three years.
June 4 is also the pre-proposal deadline for SARE's professional development grants, which will go to Extension and other agricultural support agencies for seminars, on-farm demonstrations, and other training activities with a focus on sustainable agriculture. These grants are limited to $60,000 for single-state proposals, while proposals involving more than one state (program guidelines call for participation or support from both 1862 and 1890 institutions) can qualify for up to $100,000.
The Cooperative Extension Program at A&T is hosting the SAES’s 11th Annual Small Farms Field Day at the University Farm from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, June 21. (Registration begins at 8 a.m.) Four research projects and Extension demonstrations at the farm will be open for inspection, and farmers and the general public are as welcome as Extension agents and other professionals working to promote and support small-scale agriculture.
Guided tours of research plots will be conducted, and topics will include
• Pastured poultry
• Alley cropping: pecan trees and watermelons
• Mixed grazing: meat goats and hair sheep
• Managing small ruminant parasites in conjunction with mixed grazing
• Managing collard pests
Although there is no registration fee for Small Farms Field Day, those planning to attend should get their names on the registration list for a lunch headcount, which they can do by contacting Alexis Gaines at 336.334.7956.
Specialists and associates on A&T Extension's state-level staff will be offering special training opportunities for the field staff on the day before 2012 Small Farm Field Day (June 20) and also the afternoon of the 21st, following the Field Day. There will be a program covering the nuances of "Small-scale high tunnel construction and management" on June 20th from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The topic from 1:30 to 5 p.m. following Small Farms Field Day on June 21 will be "Irrigation systems for high tunnel and small-scale horticulture crops." The team providing subject-matter expertise for the programs includes Dr. Keith Baldwin, former Extension horticulture specialist who is now a regional program coordinator; Dr. Jimo Ibrahim, Extension's farm safety, energy and environmental specialist; Kurt Taylor, horticulture unit coordinator; and Grace Summers, plastic mulch and drip irrigation program coordinator.
Members of the Extension field staff interested in enrolling in either of these programs should register at Extension's Learning Management System by 5 p.m. on Friday, June 15.
The five 4-H camps in North Carolina are still accepting applications for cabin counselors, lifeguards, sports instructors, health coordinators and other summer-job openings. Two 4-H camps currently accepting applications for summer employment are within a daily commute of Greensboro: Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Educational Center in Reidsville, and Sertoma 4-H Center west of Madison. Betsy-Jeff Penn's summer job opening list includes counselors and outdoor sports instructors; Sertoma's summer needs include an arts and crafts instructor, and challenge course facilitators as well as lifeguards and swim Instructors.
Millstone 4-H Camp in the Sandhills, Swannanoa 4-H Camp near Asheville, and the Eastern 4-H Environmental Education Conference Center on Albemarle Sound also have summer job openings posted on their websites.
Dr. Guochen Yang, an associate professor with the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, is one of the co-authors of an article in a recent issue of the Australian Journal of Crop Science. The findings from an "Assessment of clonal fidelity of micro-propagated guava (Psidium guajava) plants by ISSR markers" — co-authored by Xiaomei Liu, an SAES postdoctoral researcher — were that "Clonal propagation ... may be an efficient way to produce guava." Guava is an important food and medicinal resource in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, and the SAES researchers' study of the risks of genetic variability that come with clonal propagation is a response to the declining viability of guava cultivation methods currently in use. Current production methods are not likely to keep up with growing demand for the plant — for juices, pastes and dietary supplements in addition to traditional unprocessed consumption.
The Chicago Manual of Style, the Associated Press Stylebook and Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary agree that the “french” in “french fries” isn’t capitalized. But while the Chicago Manual of Style says the “swiss” in “swiss cheese shouldn’t be capitalized unless the cheese is actually from Switzerland, AP and Webster currently stick with “Swiss cheese.” (The Associated Press Stylebook’s general rule of thumb is: “Most proper nouns or adjectives are capitalized when they occur in a food name: Boston brown bread, Russian dressing, Swiss cheese, Waldorf salad. Lowercase is used, however, when the food does not depend on the proper noun or adjective for its meaning: french fries, graham crackers, manhattan cocktail.”)
The Writing Style Guide that the Office of Public Relations at Southern Utah University has online uses “nutrition and food science” as an example of when not to capitalize an area of instruction. The guidance from Cedar City is “Don't capitalize areas of instruction unless the area is a proper noun [http://www.suu.edu/ur/pr/writing-styleguide.html]. Examples then listed are: “physics, English, forest engineering, nutrition and food science.” The Southern Utah Style Guide adds that “Areas of instruction should be capitalized when used as part of the formal department name,” and the examples are: “Department of Biology vs. biology department.”
A handout provided by the editorial director at Ten Speed Press says: “When dimensions modify a noun (8 1/2 by 6 1/2-inch pan), the hyphen goes between the last numeral and unit of measure. Use the word "by," not a multiplication symbol, with a space on each side to separate the dimensions. Use hyphens only when measurements or amounts modify a noun. Example: 1-inch-thick piece, but 1 inch thick.”
The University of Arkansas’ Editorial Style and Usage Guide has an entry on “temperatures” that’s applicable to oven recommendations as well as summer highs and winter lows. It says, “Use figures for all temperatures except zero. Use the word minus rather than a minus sign to indicate temperature below zero: The low temperature was minus 5 degrees, or the low was 5 below zero. Expect a temperature in the 30s.”
A blogger who covers language, usage and journalism, John E. McIntyre, has a column critical of writers using “a list of disparate items inappropriately linked by the construction range from ... to or ranging from … to.” His examples of false ranges include “a range of illnesses from Lou Gehrig's to Parkinson's diseases” and “tunes that range from Black Sabbath to Franz Ferdinand.” McIntyre asks “What is the continuum on which one can place Lou Gehrig’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, Black Sabbath and Franz Ferdinand?” His clarification is that “To have a range requires a set of objects, persons, topics or attributes within a limited set.” His example of what does constitute a true range is “The proverbial phrase from soup to nuts [which] means the whole thing, an entire dinner considered as a sequence of courses.”
