Extension Beach Watchers host Sound Living learning day
WSU Snohomish County Extension Beach Watchers offer Sound Living: a community day of learning about the connections between the water, land and people of the Salish Sea—the linked coastal waterways that include the Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The event is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, October 22, hosted at Mukilteo Presbyterian Church. Learn about the latest Puget Sound research and implications of weather and climate on the habitats and creatures of the area, and hear the Beach Watchers’ outlook for tomorrow and beyond. Register by Oct. 17.
This one-day Agritourism workshop will cover fundamentals and best practices.
Trevor Lane, Community & Economic Development Director for WSU Ferry County Extension, is keynote speaker.
In the news: Cryopreservation
to save the honeybee
The WSU Cryopreservation program and Department of Entomology researcher Brandon Hopkins were featured in regional media this month, including the Capital Press, and in an article in the Lewiston Tribune’s 2016 Fall Northwest Farm and Ranch magazine.
Read about how Hopkins and fellow Cougs are helping sustain a more diverse, healthy honeybee population.
Stark, Wash. Stormwater Center featured in WSU Drive to 25
John Stark, ecotoxicology professor and director of the Washington Stormwater Center, is one of the featured researchers on the new WSU Drive to 25 webpage.
Read the article titled “Advancing solutions to halt stormwater pollution” here. The feature shares how our researchers are working to reduce flooding, prevent pollution, and aid the recovery of endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead.
Murray talks plant path challenges for Asian nations
His talk, “Challenges for Agriculture and Food Production: Understanding Plant Pathology,” introduced scientists and policymakers in the food production industries to the importance of plant diseases and how to manage them using new tools for genetic manipulation. The conferences were supported by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), AACC International (AACCI), and USDA-FAS. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
“I was invited in my role as President of the American Phytopathological Society,” said Murray. “This seminar educated technology providers, food transporters, food processors, and regulatory authorities about food production, including some of the hazards, and how to manage them, especially in light of new genetic technologies such as genetically engineered crops and new genome editing technologies.”
Yang, Du, Rodgers paper explores obesity, ‘brown fat’
WSU Department of Animal Sciences researchers Qiyuan Yang, Min Du and Dan Rodgers, in collaboration with Meijun Zhu of School of Food Science and David Gang of IBC, share new insights into brown fat, obesity and cell metabolites in a new paper published in the September edition of Cell Metabolism.
They found that obesity inhibits the activity of an enzyme called AMPK that acts as a master regulator of cell metabolism, slowing cell heat functions and decreasing beneficial “brown fat.” Their research could help pave the way for promising obesity treatment.
New Center for Interdisciplinary Statistical Education and Research
WSU’s new Center for Interdisciplinary Statistical Education and Research, or CISER, which helps faculty build their statistics skills and improve their research, has been greenlighted by the Board of Regents at their Sept. 16 meeting.
CISER will grow an interdisciplinary statistics community and provide high level statistical assistance to researchers across all of WSU’s campuses and programs. To learn more about CISER’s mission and how it can assist you in your research endeavors, or get involved as a member, visit http://ciser.wsu.edu.
Awards and Grants
WSU Ag Ed students win national video contest
Students in the WSU Agricultural Education program recently won a nationwide commercial contest promoting teaching agriculture. The contest was part of National Teach Ag Day, observed September 22. The winning team was determined by the number of views the commercial received.
WSU won with almost 4,500 views. Second place with almost 3,000 views was Kansas State University; Texas A&M University took third place. The student video team was led by Jacklyn Bennett, with assistance from Reni Lucido and Shania Simons. Many students were featured in the video and helped share it to build viewership.
Adams-Progar part of $9.3 million dairy health project
Amber Adams-Progar, Dairy Management Specialist with the Department of Animal Sciences, is part of a multi-university team working to prevent illness and injury in the Pacific Northwest dairy industry.
The five-year, joint WSU-UW project is funded by a $9.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Adams-Progar is leading efforts to identify current dairy cattle handling training programs on Washington dairies, gauge their effectiveness, and help design training programs to further minimize dairy employee injuries related to cattle handling.
“The ultimate goal is to determine which types of dairy cattle training programs have the greatest impact on dairy employee learning and safety, so we can then design dairy cattle training programs that are not only educational, but are also practical and easily accessible,” she said. “My input will help ensure that training recommendations are relevant and feasible for Washington dairy farms.”
Crop Science Society honors Kidwell with Fellow Award
Kim Kidwell, Executive Associate Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, has been elected a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA). Kidwell will receive a 2016 Fellow Award at the Society’s Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., in November.
“Being a fellow validates the efforts and contributions I have made to the discipline and the Society over the duration of my career,” Kidwell said. “It means a tremendous amount to me.” Read more here.
Ganjyal named Trainer of Trainers for FSMA Human Food Safety course
Girish Ganjyal, Assistant Professor and Extension Food Processing Specialist in the WSU/UI School of Food Science, was recently certified as a Trainer of Trainers, or ToT, by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA). He is one of just 31 ToTs in the United States.
Ganjyal has taught Food Safety Modernization Act/Preventive Controls for Human Food trainings across Washington and in Oregon, including nine times this year, co-teaching with Claudia Coles at the Washington State Department of Agriculture and with Barbara Rasco and Stephanie Smith with WSU Food Science.
The FDA-created alliance seeks to develop training programs to help food companies comply with regulations. ToT’s like Ganjyal are highly skilled and knowledgeable about food safety systems, and they train independent instructors who offer standard courses.
Animal Sciences’ Du to visit Indonesia as Fulbright Specialist
Min Du, professor and scientist in the Department of Animal Sciences, is traveling to Indonesia this November and December as a visiting Fulbright Specialist.
Du will present his lab’s current research progress on how genetic expression affects muscle and adipose tissue development. He will also talk with the impacts of early nutritional management on beef production to local producers.
Additionally, Du is giving a series of lectures to graduate and undergraduate students on animal growth and development, and he will visit farms and ranches to discuss potential collaboration.
He was selected as a Fulbright Specialist earlier this year for a five-year term. The Indonesia project was funded in September. The program builds links between U.S. scholars and their counterparts through short-term collaborative projects in over 140 countries.
Grants help hop, tree fruit growers, bees
Congratulations to recent Department of Entomology grant awardees, who earned funding to preserve bees, manage pests and aid fruit and hop growers in September:
• Vince Jones, professor and entomologist at the Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center in Wenatchee, received a $117,017 grant to develop needed modifications for implementation of the WSU Decision Aid System for British Columbia Fruit Growers.
• Steve Sheppard, chair of the department, received $10,700 from USDA-ARS for collection and cryopreservation of honey bee germplasm.
• Doug Walsh, associate entomologist and Environmental and Agrichemical Education Specialist at Prosser, received a $240,000 USDA-NIFA-AFRP grant for Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management on Alfalfa Produced as a Seed Crop; $323,491 from USDA-NIFA for developing and delivering integrated pest management strategies that expand the hops industry; and $34,000 from the Washington Hop Commission for hop entomology research.
Farming on islands has its challenges, from the high cost of land to isolation among farmers to the difficulty of attending workshops. To address challenges like these, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a collaborative team of agencies and non-profits, including WSU Extension programs, a USDA Beginning Farmer Rancher Grant for a multi-pronged program on San Juan, Orcas, Lopez, and Whidbey islands.
