CALS Perspectives Magazine Summer 2015

perspectives NC STATE UNIVERSITY

Summer 2015

The Magazine of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Economy Boosters

perspectives

Marc Hall

NC STATE UNIVERSITY

Perspectives is online at the CALS News Center: www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/

The Economy Boosters

The Magazine of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Summer 2015 Vol. 17, No. 2

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Staff Photographers: Becky Kirkland, Marc Hall, Roger Winstead Staff Writers: Terri Leith, Dee Shore, Suzanne Stanard

On June 18, Dean Richard Linton was named to chair Gov. Pat McCrory’s Food Manufacturing Task Force. Shown front row (left to right) are Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, Linton, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and McCrory. (Story, page 21)

Richard Linton Dean College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Third Class Postage paid at Raleigh, NC 27611. Correspondence and requests for change of address should be addressed to Perspectives Editor, Box 7603, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7603.

William R. “Randy” Woodson, Chancellor

innovation.

7 Crops on the Ground, Eyes in the Air CALS scientists are launching a better future for agriculture through unmanned aircraft.

10 Built for Use New and renovated flora and fauna research facilities will bolster college programs that support the state’s economy.

16 Among Friends It’s time well-spent when CALS agricultural education students teach diverse groups and learn valuable lessons in a service-learning course.

19 College Profile Hands-on experiences for students and a new major to attract more of them into agriculture are among benefits of Michelle Schroeder-Moreno’s agroecology program.

Printed on recycled paper.

Richard H. Linton, Dean and Executive Director for Agricultural Programs

33,000 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of $20,253, or $.61 per copy.

on the challenges of new jobs and be leaders in their fields. The better we can prepare our students through interdisciplinary training to meet the needs of future jobs in the state, the better the ideas that they can bring with them that could ultimately enhance the economy.

We are also focused on enhancing the already strong partnerships we have, while better engaging industry in projects that will propel us forward and introducing new partners that can help with these collaborations.

This summer, I began my role as chair of Gov. Pat McCrory’s Food Manufacturing Task Force. This is a committee created with the state’s economic future in mind, especially new business development, with plans to foster the growth of food manufacturing endeavors and the development of innovative food products and processes. We will explore how we will attract companies with a global presence to build food manufacturing operations in North Carolina, how we can help small entrepreneurs build their business interests and how we can enhance value-added profitability, so we can gain more of an economic benefit to the ingredients that we produce here in North Carolina.

In these and all our endeavors, we will be stakeholder-driven, allowing stakeholders to partner with us, to leverage ideas and resources that they have, so that synergistically we can solve the complex challenges of the future. That is the key. That’s how we’ll do it.

Perspectives is published by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University.

Sam Pardue, Associate Dean and Director, Academic Programs Travis Burke, Interim Associate Dean and Director, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service

contents

2 Seeding North Carolina’s Future CALS and its partners strive to make North Carolina the world’s leader in plant sciences

Design and Layout: Vickie Matthews

Printed by PBM Graphics, Durham, N.C.

ow do we grow our No. 1 economic engine – agriculture – in North Carolina and boost the state’s agricultural economy to $100 billion? And what is the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ ongoing role in making this happen?

The college has been for many years a major driver of the state’s economy. We’ve done this with innovation and collaboration, by leveraging ideas and resources to solve complex issues. We have worked to transform the economy through a formula of assets plus ideas plus research plus partners.

The key is this: When we help our stakeholders, we help the economy. We introduce technology, new ways of thinking, new product developments, so our stakeholders can help their independent businesses to be better, which helps the industry to be better and helps us again to respond to their needs.

The College continues to be the site of the genesis and the nurturing of ideas and initiatives that will deliver the innovative technologies to help us not only build the economy but feed the world! At the end of the day, building the ag economy is a matter of creating new opportunities – and giving our taxpayers a return on investment.

There are two really good examples of how an economic return can be engendered on the investment in university agricultural research initiatives for the future: One is the Plant Sciences Initiative, featured in this issue of Perspectives. The other is the Food Manufacturing Initiative, to be featured in the next. An economic feasibility study on both of these initiatives indicates that, collectively, the two can create 70,000 jobs and add $20 billion to the agricultural economy in our state in the next decade.

Simply put, these things are going to make our state better. In this issue, we provide an indepth look at the Plant Sciences Initiative and its promise to deliver the world-feeding technologies, high-value crop varieties, new food products, increased industry capital, job growth and superb workforce education. We also spotlight a number of the plant scientists whose work illustrates how we are already delivering on that promise.

That is followed by several other feature and news stories exemplifying the potential economic impact of our work that supports agribusinesses and commodities, creates and improves products and trains the needed workforce, through research, extension and teaching endeavors in areas such as horticulture, aquaculture, soil science, crop science, animal science, agroecology and agricultural and extension education.

We look to the future in terms of what jobs are going to be most important and how we can best equip our students to be ready to take

Managing Editor: Terri Leith

F E AT U R E S

NOTEWORTHY 21 News Linton named by governor to chair N.C. Food Manufacturing Task Force • Joint venture: Troxler and Linton partner to teach agribusiness course • March summit celebrates economic value of agriculture in North Carolina • Extension-trained volunteers assist local apple industry • Hundreds turn out to celebrate Ag Awareness Day • NC State explores promising pest-control strategy with high-impact potential for sub-Saharan Africa • Study helps farmers along Dan River make decisions following coal ash spill • Top-notch: NC State hosts national ‘Olympics of landscaping’ • Barbecue camp brings university meat science to consumers • Partnership gives CALS students opportunity to teach Cooking Matters classes• Strategic efforts boost CALS in minority student rankings • NC State releases first agromedicine dictionary

Steve Lommel, Associate Dean and Director, North Carolina Agricultural Research Service Sylvia Blankenship, Associate Dean for Administration Keith D. Oakley, Executive Director, Advancement, 919.515.2000 Celeste D. Brogdon, Director of Alumni and External Relations

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Alumni

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Giving

Keeper of the kingdom: Training rhinos is all in a day’s work for this NC State alumna • Business and Busy-ness: Brevard couple manage part-time farm with full-time careers in agriculture • Ph.D. student sheds light on wellwater contamination here and abroad The George and Rhoda Kriz $4.5 million estate gift will fund multiple faculty-support endowments • A rosy day for the 2015 Gala in the Garden • New endowments created honoring Klaenhammer’s legacy in probiotics research • Industry advances sweet potato research and extension • Officials break ground for new 4-H camp building

The Cover: The work of NC State plant scientists – and the Plant Sciences Initiative – can make a difference in increasing agricultural yields and profitability. Shown collaborating at the NC State Phytotron are Drs. Ignazio Carbone, Terri Long and Amy Grunden. (Story, page 2) Photo

by Becky Kirkland

Seeding North Carolina’s Future CALS and its partners strive to make North Carolina the world’s leader in plant sciences innovation.

by Dee Shore

Becky Kirkland

Top photo: In the field at the Cunningham Research Station, where they are developing an irrigation decision support system, are station Superintendent Phillip Winslow (left); graduate student Bobby Vick, Biological and Agricultural Engineering; Dr. Jeffrey White, Soil Science; Dr. Gary Payne, Plant Pathology; and Dr. Mohamed Youseff, BAE.

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C State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has a grand vision for addressing the greatest agricultural challenges facing the state and the world. Called the Plant Sciences Initiative, the objective is to make North Carolina the global hub for plant-related innovation, in much the same way that Silicon Valley is the world’s high-tech hot spot.

The initiative is about increasing agricultural yields and profitability in ways that create new agricultural and agricultural biosciences jobs, markets and businesses. It’s about filling the need to double the food supply for a fast-growing population, using less land and less water and protecting the environment upon which life depends.

It’s about collaboration that builds on scientific strengths of academia, industry and government.

It’s about bringing together the leading scientists in plant-related disciplines – plant and microbial biology, plant pathology, biochemistry, and horticultural and crop sciences – with engineers, mathematicians, physicists and economists in ways that generate the

type of big ideas that not only work but make economic sense.

It’s about training the agricultural science workforce and leaders of tomorrow by giving students the chance to interact with industry on such interdisciplinary projects.

And as Dean Richard Linton says, “It’s about increasing our industry capital and taking advantage of an equation that no one else has in the country: Different soils, different climates, diversification of farming operations, Research Triangle Park and a very strong landgrant university. … No one else has these assets in their backyard that we’re trying to take advantage of.”

The Plant Sciences Initiative evolved from discussions that CALS administration had a few years ago with thousands of stakeholders in farming, agribusiness, science and technology as the college developed its strategic plan. Stakeholders called for more research that enhances agricultural productivity and profitability and that spins off agricultural biotechnology companies.

Several factors led to the focus on plant sciences: With two-thirds of the college’s

Dee Shore

faculty engaged in plant sciences, CALS has a strong reputation in the area. In addition, the college, along with N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, has 18 research stations spread across the state, where field trials can be conducted in highly diverse soils and climates.

The college’s other plant-related assets include the Center for Environmental Farming Systems partnership, near Goldsboro, and the Plants for Human Health Institute at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.

Equally significant, says CALS Associate Dean and Director of Research Steve Lommel, the college is located near the world researchand-development headquarters for three multinational ag biotech seed companies, as well as many smaller plant biotech firms. With these companies, plus Duke University, UNCChapel Hill and N.C. A&T State University nearby, the area is home to top plant science experts – and would be attractive to even more.

But what the college lacks, Lommel says, is a modern facility where public and private entities can work together, under one roof, on interdisciplinary efforts to enhance food security, water resource management, bioenergy, food nutrition and other major challenges. In January, the college, along with NCDA&CS, delivered to the state legislature an economic feasibility report that calls for the building of a 190,000-square-foot Plant Sciences Research Complex on Centennial Campus.

NC State has raised about half of the $18 million needed to plan the $160 million complex, with most of the support coming from commodity groups that have embraced the initiative.

Experts expect the economic gains from an investment in such a complex, and the initiative it is part of, to be substantial. Battelle Memorial Institute, which put together the feasibility study that went to the legislature, estimates that pursuing the initiative’s vision could increase plant technology sector jobs by 2,365 jobs and boost associated economic output by $366 million by 2024.

Nowhere else, Battelle reports, has its Technology Partnership Practice seen such a “promising convergence of assets poised to take advantage of large-scale expanding

The Plant Sciences Initiative aims for North Carolina to be the global hub for plant-related innovation. Dr. Steve Lommel, CALS director of the N.C. Agricultural Research Service, sits before an artist’s concept of a proposed Plant Sciences Research Complex on Centennial Campus.

markets as North Carolina has in plant science and associated ag bioscience.”

College leaders say the Plant Sciences Initiative’s goal is to increase agricultural yield by emphasizing four interdisciplinary areas: crop protection from biotic stresses, such as weeds, insects and pathogens; plant adaptation to abiotic stress and marginal conditions; precision agriculture and field-data systems; and agri-symbiotics, or beneficial biological interactions between plants and microbes and other organisms.

According to Battelle, each of these focus areas is aligned with the scientific goals that the American Society of Plant Biologists set for the next decade. Not only that, they are relevant to the ag bioscience industry and would enhance the state’s annual $78 billion agricultural production and value chain. All fit with core CALS faculty expertise, except for agri-symbiotics, but that fast-emerging area is seen as vital to the future of plant sciences.

Moving science forward in these four areas requires collaboration, says Lommel, a plant scientist by training who serves as director of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service (NCARS). In an increasingly competitive funding environment, he says, granting agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, “want biologists, engineers, mathematicians, modelers and economists to be working together.”

A proposed effort related to programmable plants is one example of a CALS research project that would depend on such collaborations. In leading that effort, Dr. Margaret Daub sees biologists, mathematicians and engineers using their combined expertise for modeling and plant systems biology to understand the molecular-level networks that underlie yield variability.

“We would look at massive changes in plants as they are affected by stress responses,” says Daub, head of the Plant and Microbial Biology Department. “What genes are turned on? What metabolites are being produced? How do plants adapt to these various environmental conditions – including soil nutrient status, as well as drought or temperature – as well as the time of day and the developmental stage of the plant?”

NCARS Assistant Research Director Dr. Becky Boston explains that rather than testing every network component independently against every imaginable variable in the plant and its environment – an impossible task – the scientists would use computer modeling to identify some of the most promising, then test them in the field.

“This type of research that uses both experimental and computational tools is now the norm, whether you are looking at plant breeding or more basic research,” says Boston, also a plant scientist.

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Becky Kirkland

Problem: Facing an array of crop-production challenges – from diseases and insects to poor soils to drought and flooding – farmers struggle now to feed the world’s people. And without the right solutions, that struggle could grow exponentially as the population rises to 9 billion by 2050.

Fueling transportation

“The Plant Sciences Initiative’s goal is to stimulate more interdisciplinary conversations that move the work forward toward application,” says Dr. Ignazio Carbone (left), whose interdisciplinary perspective is shared by Dr. Terri Long and Dr. Amy Grunden.

“In looking at what’s the optimal way to grow algae on a large scale, going all the way from algal culture to finished fuel, and doing that efficiently, just one discipline can’t do it all.

We need chemical engineers, civil engineers, economists, plant biologists and microbiologists all working together.” – Dr. Amy Grunden

patent-pending way to put together enzymes from a number of different microorganisms to create a unique five-step carbon fixation cycle to function in conjunction with the Calvin-Benson cycle of camelina, an oil-seed crop, to increase its productivity. And they are discussing with private industry the possibility of licensing their innovation.

Grunden says, “This makes it so the plant can more efficiently take carbon dioxide out

Gathered near Kinston are research team members (at front) Dr. Colleen Doherty, Mariano Lowenstern and Yifan Wang; (standing) Dr. Mohamed Youseff, Bobby Vick, Jigar Desai, Dr. Gary Payne, Dr. Gail Wilkerson, Dr. Jeffrey White, Robert Walters, Andrew Thapa and Greg Buol. In right background is a 50-foot telescoping vertical mast with a spectral imaging camera to collect light color distribution data that reveal seasonal plant growth information.

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Becky Kirkland

Problem: With a limited supply of petroleum and a growing need for energy, the world needs sustainable alternatives for transportation fuels.

Solution: Biofuels start with plants and therefore offer new and expanding markets for farmers. Not only that, they also nearly eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. But making efficient biofuels that are economical is challenging. At NC State, Drs. Heike Winter Sederoff and Amy Grunden, both of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, are using microorganisms able to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth to turn plants and algae into better oil producers.

For example, they recently came up with a

the commodity groups fired up. I have seen some of them almost give testimonials supporting this initiative.” – Dr. Gary Payne

Becky Kirkland

Indeed, CALS scientists have for years been moving away, Lommel says, from a “siloed, cloistered approach” to science to a “whole new way of thinking.” So although the Plant Sciences Initiative is in its early stages and questions about funding remain, NC State plant scientists have already embraced its key principle: that creating solutions to the biggest agricultural challenges and opportunities will require collaborations among researchers from multiple disciplines; among growers, scientists and Extension experts; and among academia, government and industry.

Here, from the perspectives of their own research, a few of these forwarding-thinking plant scientists describe the power that can come from such collaboration.

of the atmosphere and convert it to molecules that go on to be oil and plant starch, so you get a bigger plant making more oil.”

Growing yields “I am extremely excited about the Plant Sciences Initiative. … I think it will create a great deal of vitality within the research community, and it certainly has the growers and

Solution: Farmers need ways to grow more crops on less land – in other words, they need to keep increasing their yields. Precision agriculture, or site-specific farming, focuses on using advanced technology such as sensor technology, wireless data transmission, satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and more to observe, measure and respond to variability in crops in ways that increase yields.

At NC State, Dr. Gary Payne, of the Department of Plant Pathology, and Boston have been leading an initiative known as AMPLIFY to create the types of scientific breakthroughs that dramatically increase crop yield with the most efficient use of natural resources. AMPLIFY – or Agrosphere Modeling for Producing Large Increases in Food Yield – is a research partnership that brings together interdisciplinary teams of experts to develop, test and disseminate innovative, cost-effective and precise solutions.

Bobby Vick, BAE Ph.D. student, secures a connection on one of the variable rate irrigation system control manifolds at Cunningham Research Station. The system, which includes an onboard controller and GPS, allows researchers to precisely control irrigation rates across a single field.

Through AMPLIFY, NC State engineers, for example, are working with crop and plant scientists on applying the latest imaging and sensor technologies to identify yield potential and to develop smart irrigation systems that ensure crops have just the right amount of water – not too little, and not too much.

Tests on these approaches are taking place at AMPLIFY’s technology-rich site at the Cunningham Research Station near Kinston and, in the future, could be carried out at other research stations reflecting the

range of soil types and climates found on the East Coast and beyond. Industry is already involved, and Payne is working to establish more industry-university partnerships.

“I think the field is ripe for more collaborative work with industry,” he says, “and the more we do and the more successes we have, the more collaborations will come.”

Pumping iron “What working with engineers enables me to do is to apply mathematical and engineering approaches to see regulatory relationships that I couldn’t identify just by visualizing things by eye. Basically, I have a different perspective than I did before – a more global perspective.” – Dr. Terri Long Problem: About 30 percent of the world’s arable soil is calcereous – meaning the pH is so high that it makes iron unavailable to plants. And when crops don’t have iron, they grow poorly. Not only that, they make fruits, vegetables and grains that are poor sources of iron needed for human and animal nutrition.

Solution: Solving the problem, says Assistant Professor of Plant Biology Dr. Terri Long, requires knowing more about how plant regulatory network components, such as genes, hormones and proteins, respond to low iron conditions.

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Solution: At NC State, Dr. Colleen Doherty of the Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry, studies how plants respond at the molecular level to different stressors, including temperature changes, over the course of a day – in other words, does the plant respond differently at, say, midnight than it does at 2 p.m.? Does the temperature change interfere with the plant’s 24-hour cycles known as circadian rhythm? Knowing that would be key to develop solutions – ways of manipulating plants through biotechnology or breeding to respond in ways that enhance, rather than diminish, yields.

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She is conducting her research in collaboration with field researchers, as well as experts in creating images that capture the entire physical, biochemical and physiologic makeup, or phenotype, of an organism. Meanwhile, she’s part of a larger project looking at making hops – the flowers that are used as a flavoring and stability agent in brewing beer – more suited to grow in North Carolina.

While others at the Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis plan to examine the metabolites in hops to maximize their health benefits, she is considering whether there is a best time of day to harvest them.

Soil-borne friends and foes “Today, there are more tools that we can use to answer biological and agricultural questions. But we need more cross talk among the disciplines, between the biologists and the mathematicians; the population geneticists and the Extension specialists. The Plant Sciences Initiative’s goal is to encourage that kind of cross talk – to stimulate more interdisciplinary conversations that move the work

Crops on the Gro

by Art Latham

T

he Wright Brothers would have been amazed.

North Carolina, the state where the soaring siblings first lifted us to the heavens, is abetting another aviation revolution and NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences researchers are in at the ground level.

CALS scientists are working to ensure lower future field crop production costs and a cleaner environment by exploring a rapidly expanding technology: unmanned aerial vehicles. They’re partnering in this effort with high-tech vendors, NC State’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education’s (ITRE) NextGen Air Transportation (NGAT) Center and others, as part of a multi-university

Art Latham

CALS scientists are launching a better future for agriculture through unmanned aircraft.

Rob Austin, Extension geographic information specialist, prepares a Vireo unmanned aerial vehicle for flight.

consortium.

“With recent advances, small UAVs are poised to transform the field of precision agriculture,” says Rob Austin, North Carolina Cooperative Extension geographic information systems specialist. “Our objective is to provide the initial groundwork to position North Carolina as a leader in UAV use in agriculture.”

Austin and Dr. Josh Heitman, environmental soil physicist in CALS’ Department of Soil Science, are co-principal investigators on a Art Latham

Problem: With the average temperatures at night rising faster than they are in the day, rice yields have declined – and, with climate change, the same may be happening to other crops.

Shown in the Cunningham field are a tipping bucket rain gauge (top-left on the pole), radio antenna (top-right on the pole) and solar panel. This is one of several monitoring stations used to record rainfall, soil moisture and water table depth.

Solution: The world of soil microorganisms – bacteria, fungi and other tiny beings – is largely unexplored, and NC State’s Center for Integrated Fungal Research (www.cifr. ncsu.edu) is hard at work figuring out how to achieve their potential to help stop crop loss and increase yields.

The center focuses on modeling, predicting and managing how changes in the environment – for example, droughts, diseases or pesticides – affect microbes and microbial processes ranging from sub-cellular to ecosystem levels.

The center is a collaborative effort of scientists representing both CALS and the College of Sciences at NC State. They come from fields as diverse as plant pathology, microbiology, mathematics and modeling. They work to gain a better understanding of what microbes are out there, how they interact with each other and plants, and how those interactions affect their behavior and genetics. At the same time, the scientists are developing and applying computational, genomic and experimental tools to make the research faster and deeper.

The scientists also are especially interested in ensuring that what they learn in the lab can be translated into farming practice – and thereby create more food, more jobs and more income. For example, they are interested in finding naturally occurring microbes that might be added to soils to act as pesticides.

They want those biological pesticides to be both economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

“That translation is an integral part of this, because at the end of the day, our goal is to address the grand challenges of agriculture,” Carbone says. “We want to leverage new technologies – things like precision agriculture, deep sequencing and modeling complexity within ecosystems – to make huge leaps, not baby steps, that lead us to better agricultural management.”

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“Science is moving so much faster now, you need to work together – not just the plant scientists, but the bioinformaticians, statisticians, economists – to have a meaningful impact. This means students have to be broadly trained, as well. They don’t have to be experts in multiple disciplines, but they have to be exposed, because everybody speaks a different language, and they’ve got to be able to communicate.” – Dr. Colleen Doherty

Problem: Right beneath our feet is what some scientists call the next frontier: our soils and the beneficial soil microbes on which plants depend – but also the microbes that destroy billions of dollars’ worth of crops each year.

Becky Kirkland

A matter of time

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forward toward application.” – Dr. Ignazio Carbone

Long is working with faculty members from the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering to come up with a novel computing and modeling approach with enough power to identify previously uncharacterized regulatory components involved in iron homeostasis in the model plant Arabidopsis.

So far, they’ve been successful in identifying several novel regulators of important iron homeostasis genes that they are now following up with. Next up: Seeing if those gene regulators work the same way in soybeans.

“It’s a long stretch off, but if we can identify the relevant genes, we can hopefully modify them through breeding or engineering to produce plants that have either increased tolerance to low nutrient soils or increased nutrient content,” she says.

Joe Taylor, CALS soil science graduate student, is on the run for a hand-held UAV launch.

$61,460 Golden LEAF grant-funded UAV-related project. With their research team, they’re not only looking at the most farm-worthy craft but also evaluating appropriate sensors and cameras, as well as establishing research parameters for later trials. And they’re calculating which systems best fit producers’ budgets.

For agricultural purposes, UAVs are speedy, pre-programmed, fixed-wing, low-flying, miniaircraft, some of which can scout a 10-acre field in a minute. Supervised by a ground crew within a predetermined line-of-sight area, the craft come in a range of sizes, from smaller models comparable to a briefcase to those with buzzard-wingspan lengths. Electric motors are standard, as are programming software and

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Tom Zajkowski (left), NGAT flight operations manager, and Joe Taylor go over pre-flight calculations before launching a FourthWing Vireo to gather corn field data at Tidewater Research Station, near Plymouth.

hardware and radio communication equipment.

Researchers also are testing rotary-platform “quadcopters,” which can hover to provide real-time images for spot inspections.

Austin ticks off UAV advantages: More efficient crop scouting, earlier yield predictions, enhanced irrigation management and control, and more precise nutrient and chemical applications under varying field conditions. The anticipated results include lower food production costs, increased crop yields and profits, and more precise on-farm practices that conserve water and improve water quality while reducing fertilizer and pesticide use.

To those ends, researchers at Vernon G. James Research and Extension Center at the Tidewater Research Station at Plymouth, flying several UAV models, are harvesting baseline data, looking at digitally gridded wheat and corn fields’ responses to various nitrogen treatments. Vernon James is one of six Federal Aviation Administration-approved UAV test sites that include CALS’ Lake Wheeler Road and Butner Beef Cattle field laboratories.

Concurrently, Tom Zajkowski, ITRE’s flight operations manager for the NGAT program, is test-flying various other UAVs and providing sensors. He also trains FAA-required ground crews and pilots for five more FAA-approved North Carolina agricultural research sites. Kyle Snyder, NGAT director and center manager, coordinates all unmanned aircraft activities in North Caro8 perspectives

lina, including military, academic research and civilian. NGAT, funded by the N.C. Department of Transportation with state Office of Information Technology Services oversight, was recently named a UAV Center for Excellence.

“With UAVs, we can get the timely information we need,” says Dr. Ron Heiniger, project team member. Based at Vernon James, Heiniger is a Cooperative Extension corn specialist in CALS’ Department of Crop Science.

He also trains producers to use GPS, GIS and related technologies.

Subject to an FAA-mandated top altitude of 500 feet, UAVs can swoop even lower, almost down to field level, so their high-resolution cameras can record extremely detailed images. And their programmable field-scanning speed and on-board equipment mean operators can work with initial calculations the same day as the scouting flight.

“Contrast that timeliness with the imaging data you get from a satellite,” he says. “They only go over once a day, and if it’s cloudy, it’s no good. And fixed-wing aircraft can scout fields, but can’t deliver real-time scans. Their results are more like a static snapshot; a GPS scouting by a UAV is like a motion picture.

We’re looking at high-resolution images that would work well, for instance, on HD TV. “You are always looking at ways to phenotype crops, to observe a composite of a plant’s

For instance, while the Golden LEAF grant paid for the pint-sized, hand-launched, lithiumbattery-powered FourthWing Vireos at Vernon James, California-based Trimble Navigation donated the $50,000, catapult-launched, delta-shaped UX5 Aerial Imaging model researchers tested at Lake Wheeler. Raleigh-based PrecisionHawk also offers models to test.

By 2025, about $24 million of that sum will have accrued to the agriculture sector, as will a forecast 700 new jobs. “Research and development will focus on new, lightweight sensors and on highly trained operators who understand current regulations, air-worthiness and safety,” Austin says.

But the ultimate payoff, he says, is the UAVArt Latham

energy from the visible to near-infrared, as well as tissue tests that measure nutrient levels at predetermined growth stages. They then can correlate sensor data with different levels of nutrients present in the crop.

To determine which instruments produce the most useful whole-field information, the team overlaps data sets to build larger mosaic images and compare various sensors’ abilities to measure the most efficient nutrient use and potential crop yields.

At season’s end, researchers will validate all UAV Art Latham

At left is the Vireo and its system of computerized flight programs and data recorders. Above are UAV project team members Alan Meijer, Dr. Josh Heitman, Joe Taylor and Rob Austin.

those used with publicly available satellite and piloted aircraft images. “We’ll see how well different optic systems do in depicting the amount of nitrogen in corn, to compare their worth in terms of predictive ability and grower value,” he says.

Here’s how: Plant tissue – in this case wheat or corn – responds differently to different-wavelength light, especially in the near-infrared range.

UAV onboard multispectral sensors record varying plant reflectance, called their spectral signature. Researchers compare these signatures with on-the-ground data. These include field spectrometer measurements of reflected

data with tissue test values to see how well these match a crop’s actual status and how it relates to crop yield.

What’s on the UAV adoption horizon?

“We are certainly hopeful of expanding to that next thing, not just to take images, but to carry in small amounts of herbicides to drop,” Heiniger says. “They already do that in Japan, where small, terraced fields and drift are a challenge, so we are setting up tests with different levels of fungicides and pesticides as a baseline.

If we could deliver small amounts of those, we don’t need to treat the entire field, only a few plants, and without the time and fuel expenses.”

Data from UAVs may reap research gold, but it’s mined by craft that, with associated hardware and software, can run from a few thousand to several hundred thousand dollars.

This summer, researchers also are testing the $3,800 DJI Inspire rotary platform quadcopter purchased through the Golden LEAF grant.

But UAV manufacturers hope that for farmers already using GIS technology, the upmarket switch to UAVs might not be a deal breaker.

Indeed, Austin notes that for new technology to become accepted, benefits must outweigh expenses, so the team is calculating UAV operating and maintenance costs to provide growers a range of potential total investments associated with the various platforms.

Austin cites figures released by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

“After the first three years after integration in North Carolina, say by 2018,” he says, “UAVs – a transformative technology – are expected to contribute $153 million to the overall economy.”

generated imagery that will lead to better understanding of the dynamic, field-scale processes that control the soil-water-nutrient relations that drive yield, land sustainability and farm profit.

And then there’s the “X” factor.

“We are looking forward to seeing all the things the UAVs might do,” Heiniger says.

“And we’re also looking for things we didn’t expect. Sometimes you discover something new every time you go out in the field.”

In addition to Heitman, Heiniger and Austin, UAV project researchers and their specialties include Drs. Deanna Osmond, Soil Science Department Extension leader, nutrient management and water quality, and Carl Crozier, who studies soil fertility management in the state’s Tidewater region. Also, Alan Meijer, Extension associate in soil tillage and soil management and graduate student and hand-held UAV launcher Joe Taylor, of the Soil Science Department. Gary Bullen, Extension associate in the Department of Agricultural and Research Economics rounds out the team. Crozier, Heiniger and Meijer are at Vernon James; the others are NC State campus-based.

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Art Latham

characteristics such as leaf size or chlorophyll density, to indicate when nitrogen stress occurs, or when an infestation started,” Heiniger says. “In applying crop nutrients, time equals money. Two-to-three days without nitrogen is no good for plants, so to compensate, most farmers would over-apply nitrogen, and the excess would drain off to the watershed. We can literally launch an UAV from the side of the field and get the precise information we need to respond immediately. Not by walking the fields, but actually from an image, you can pick up that needy area.”

To be certain their comparisons are balanced, researchers analyze and compare algorithms and techniques designed for UAV-obtained high-resolution imagery against

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Becky Kirkland

An Aquatics Facility, Custom-Designed

Built

for Use

New and renovated flora and fauna research facilities will bolster college programs that support the state’s economy.

by Terri Leith

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Becky Kirkland

Drs. Bill Fonteno (left) and Brian Jackson present the hammer mill, part of the equipment housed in the new Substrate Processing and Research Center (SPARC).

s the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences works to support the growth of agriculture as the state’s foremost

economic engine, among its top priorities is growing facilities to help expand its capacity for agricultural research. Developing new facilities and renovating existing ones helps meet students’ needs and keeps CALS at the forefront of interdisciplinary innovation. Two prime examples, one renovated, one new, can be found on the NC State campus: the Aquatic Facility at Grinnells Animal Health Labs and the NCSU Substrate Processing and Research Center (SPARC) at JC Raulston Arboretum’s Horticultural Field Lab. Here is a look at those facilities and the programs that they are enhancing.

Standing by tanks of fish in the new Aquatic Facility at Grinnells Animal Health Labs are John Davis (left), research technician, and Brad Ring, research operations manager.

10 perspectives

The aquaculture farm gate, processed product and feed value to North Carolina has been estimated as approaching $53 million. What happens in the Grinnells Aquatic Facility strengthens the college’s ongoing support of those activities.

Grinnells has been renovated to house the new state-of-the-art aquaculture facility that can serve multiple researchers under one roof. The new wet lab unit is located on the central campus of NC State. Dr. Harry Daniels, head of the CALS Department of Applied Ecology, in which the facility is housed, described the unit as “designed for highly controlled, small-scale, replicated research with aquatic animals.” It consists of 11 research rooms, a workshop, two offices and various other support rooms.

“This facility’s location, makes it ideal for educating the public, as well as serving as a showpiece to visiting scientists,” said Brad Ring, research operations manager and supervisor at Grinnells, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in fisheries and aquatic science and has been working with fish about 17 years. “The standards by which this place was built will be impressive to anyone who knows what they are looking at and will reflect very positively on NC State University.”

Ring is supervisor and liaison of the aquatic portion of this building and has one full-time staff member, research technician John Davis. In fact, Ring and Davis are the artisans of the renovation: All the equipment and systems, all the concrete tank stands, all filtration systems were designed, built and/or installed by them.

“We saved the university about $1.4 million by doing the concrete work and the design and by our building the actual systems,” Ring said.

The research rooms have a total area of 4,743 square feet, and all the rooms are equipped with closed-loop filtration systems to continually clean and recirculate the water.

Each room is equipped with independent photoperiod controls. The research rooms have a wide variety of aquaria systems (rack units) and tank sizes and configurations that were designed to accommodate a broad spectrum of potential needs for current and future faculty. Currently, there are multiple faculty

P.I.s [principal research investigators], post docs, graduate students and undergraduate students who conduct research there.

“This facility houses several different species of fish for multiple P.I.s. The most common species you will find here are striped bass, hybrid striped bass, zebrafish and various species of tilapia. However, we have and will continue to care for whatever species our research requires,” Ring said, as, in a walkthrough tour, he described the updates that were made to the building.

In the fry-rearing room, Ring pointed out tanks where he keeps the brood stock fish, in this case producing juvenile tilapia that grow in these tanks. “We raise the tilapia from fry to fingerling to adult,” he says. “When they are full grown, they can be used for various research purposes. Our growing them here allows us to have fish when we need them and avoid introducing diseases from other labs.”

When baby tilapia from the first room get bigger, they move to the grow-out area in the experimental room. In the tanks are tilapia ranging from about four inches in the first tank to one foot in the farthest tank, where the brood stock are swimming. An interesting note: Tilapia, big and little, keep the tanks clean.

In a nearby rack room, several racks of shelves hold multiple aquaria, where adult

zebra fish are kept and mostly used for behavioral studies. They breed the zebra fish over gravel, so the eggs can be hidden, because zebra fish will eat their eggs and fry.

Across the hall is the holding systems room, where the tilapia will live the rest of their lives, until needed for research study.

There is a year’s worth of fish there.

But there are still tanks at ready for more.

“All those from grow-out will move to here when they are bigger,” Ring said. “We don’t want to have the population in the tanks too dense, but enough so they can compete for food, which is healthy for them to do.”

The filtration system is consistent in each room: Green vessels filter out solids; the blue one is a bio filter, taking care of ammonia waste. A black horizontal cylinder at top is the UV filter, where a UV bulb kills parasites, bacteria and algae to sterilize the water. A black box is the heater, and big white containers are

Tanks hold juvenile tilapia (below) that grow from fry to fingerlings in the fry-rearing room. In the grow-out area (right), larger tilapia swarm to the surface of their tank at feeding time.

Becky Kirkland

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Brian Jackson

A SPARC of Ingenuity

sumps, which pull water from and push the water to the filtration and back.

“Each part has a bypass fixture so if something goes awry the system can keep running,” Ring said. “We built automated systems to treat the water, to dechlorinate the city water that we use.”

Ring pointed out the Metal Halide lights that simulate dawn. “They’re programmed to come on before the fluorescents do,” he said.

“Most fish spawn in morning or afternoon.

We can adjust the length of day for summerwinter cycles.”

Added Davis, “Both of us had worked at multiple fish places before, so we knew what worked.”

R

enovations were much more extensive in some rooms than others. However, all the rooms needed a complete electrical upgrade.

“The electrical needs of a fish facility like ours are much higher than most would think.

We chose all high-efficiency equipment for this facility, but all that equipment still has to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Ring said. “This portion of the building was fitted with its own transformer and back-up generator independent of the rest of the building to meet our power needs.”

There is also an automated system that will contact Ring and Davis, wherever they are, if anything goes awry.

Corrosion resistance was Ring’s No.1 concern in all phases of construction, he said.

“All building materials are concrete, plastic, fiberglass or stainless steel. The new conduit 12 perspectives

is PVC and all the brackets and fasteners are stainless. There was no wood or other porous materials that could rot or mold used during the project. Even the light fixtures have gaskets allowing us to wash down floors, walls and ceilings whenever we like.”

Previously most of the fish had been housed in the Biological Resources Facility and in the Don Ellis Building off Varsity Drive, Ring said.

“We had a few small fish systems in BRF, but that facility was not designed for larger systems. Unfortunately neither was Don Ellis.”

So the search was on for a space more suited to handle the corrosive environment that is a fish facility.

“As soon as we saw Grinnells we knew it was perfect,” he said. “Every room had a water supply, multiple large floor drains and good square footage for fish systems, and the building is a single-story building. Putting thousands of gallons of water on the second or third story of a building isn’t the best idea in the world.”

Ring said that an average day at the Grinnells facility consists of monitoring water quality, backwashing filters, daily fish care, maintaining equipment, disease management and whatever special needs that the current research projects require.

“In addition to these activities, we are now spawning our own fish in order to provide research animals for the future projects,” he said. “Producing our own future generations allows us to control genetic diversity in our animals, as well as reducing the risk of bringing in disease from other fish facilities.”

Ring pointed out that there is no “ownership” of space by a single investigator and that he designed the place to be as flexible as possible to different types of research, as well as different research species.

“Short of housing great white sharks, this facility was designed and built to accommodate fish ranging from one inch to several feet. The filtration units were sized to support either freshwater or saltwater fish at cold or warm temperatures. I tried to take all my experiences here over the last 15 years and build a place that would accommodate anything the P.I.s could need with little or no modifications.”

Ring also noted that there are plans to have a teaching lab in the facility’s “big room” to support NC State aquaculture classes.

He hopes to conduct some alternative power studies here, too, if funding becomes available, he said. “I am interested particularly in solar-thermal heating to try and reduce the power consumption of our water heating devices. I think that this facility would be ideal for testing the efficiencies and reliability of these units and the results could have real world applications in the aquaculture industry.”

Ring wanted to thank “everyone involved here at NC State for trusting me to design and build this facility.”

He extended gratitude to, from University Facilities, Mike Baker, “our engineer who did a fantastic job with our electrical work and lighting systems,” as well as J.C. Boykin, Lisa Maune, Andy Sneed, Angkana Bode and George Smith; and from CALS, Drs. Damian Shea, David Smith, Sylvia Blankenship, Harry Daniels and Craig Sullivan. He also acknowledged Scottie Groover, Aquatic Ecosystems/ My Aquatic Solutions; Wayne Nicholson, Carolina Plumbing Supply; and Tony Harzell, Tarsh Moore and Abe Seiders, all of Lowes Home Improvement.

“I’ve been building fish systems for a long time, but this build was truly something special,” Ring said, “It should also be a facility that NC State can rely on for many years to come.”

According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the North Carolina green industry – which includes greenhouse, nursery, floriculture, sod and Christmas tree producers and related industry trades – represents $8.6 billion in economic impact in the state. Among the NC State University programs supporting that industry are those of the Horticulture Substrates Laboratory (HSL). And now the work of those substrate scientists has been significantly strengthened with a new state-ofengineering facility – the Substrate Processing and Research Center (SPARC).

At the SPARC, “researchers seek to stay on the cutting edge of developing and engineering new soils/substrates to meet the needs of the ever-changing world of agriculture and horticulture,” said Dr. Brian Jackson, associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Department of Horticultural Science.

“Substrates” refers to the growth media or potting soils around a plant. Horticultural substrate research studies include plant/water/ fertilizer issues related to the below-ground portion of a crop.

“To think of substrates and their role in horticulture, it is in many ways like Atlas holding the world. Substrates are to horticulture what Atlas is in that portrayal….the foundation!” said Jackson, who specializes in horticultural substrates for greenhouse and nursery crop production and for retail consumer products (bagged soil and mulches in garden centers).

The SPARC enables large-scale processing of organic materials – such as wood, bark, grasses, tobacco stalks – that can be used in developing the next generation of potting soils. The SPARC also facilitates lab activities and, with the creation of new products, can be an economic stimulus.

“The growth of plants in containers is as important now as it ever has been and will continue to be in the future, as horticulture and all of agriculture continually improve in efficiency and effectiveness,” he said. “Even field grown horticultural plants and crops start their lives in substrates when they are in the seed/seedling or cutting propagation stage.”

Dr. Bill Fonteno is founder and lead developer of the CALS activities that make up the premier substrate science program in the United States. The Horticultural Science Department has had a long history of soils and substrates work. Along with Fonteno, Drs. Ted Bilderback, Stu Warren and Paul Nelson were groundbreakers in greenhouse, nursery and landscape substrates at NC State for more than 20 years but have all since retired. Today several others have research and extension areas in soils and substrates, including Dr. Helen Kraus in rain

Becky Kirkland

Becky Kirkland

Ring and Davis make adjustments to the filtration system, which they designed, built and installed at Grinnells themselves.

At the Horticultural Substrates Laboratory in Kilgore Hall, Drs. Brian Jackson and Bill Fonteno show the various types and consistencies of substrates, the plant growth media designed to meet growers’ specific needs.

gardens and nursery crops, Dr. Brian Whipker in greenhouse nutrition and Dr. Barbara Fair in landscape and urban soils. It is the largest collection of researchers in horticultural soils and substrates in the United States.

Fonteno explains that there are three tiers of function in his and Jackson’s combined program: 1) laboratory analysis and characterization of retail and professional substrates; 2) “rhizometrics,” the assessment of root growth of container-grown plants; and 3) with SPARC, the engineering and construction of traditional and alternative organic substrate components.

In the first, or diagnostic function, the CALS scientists analyze a substrate’s chemical properties, those concerned with plant nutrition, fertilization practices and nutrient retention in the container, and its physical properties, which dictate how rapidly the container will drain, how often watering is needed and, to a certain extent, how available nutrients will be to plants. They also analyze materials sent to them by growers and those who manufacture substrates.

“What we all did for more than 35 years was to analyze materials brought to us to answer the question, ‘Will this work?’” he said.

“Now, adding Brian’s perspective, we are actually engineering components for substrates.”

So, for the last five years, Jackson said, “We’ve been working on engineering wood materials to be used in soil products – a process that makes several different products from the same original tree. We have added the engineering to the science of substrates to design them to meet the growers’ needs.”

While Fonteno and Jackson have worked with several less popular materials (tobacco

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Becky Kirkland

pot. Unlike a conventional pot, where you would have to remove the pot to see what’s happening with the roots, the mini-horhizotron’s three windowed sides offer multiple plant-friendly views of how roots are faring in the substrates.

In designing the mini-horhizotron as a new way of measuring roots, Jackson said, “We started with a larger horhizotron, developed at Virginia Tech. We wanted to make a smaller version to look at smaller greenhouse grown plants.

We made this redesign with removable panels to look at all three sides at the root system.

“These are used for research collaboration and for teaching. This gives us the opportunity to test several soils and substrates, observe the plant’s response, and record the effects of water and fertilizer – all without disturbing or destroying the root systems.”

And lately they’ve modified it further, adding a non-glare glass through which to look and altering a side panel removal trajectory to protect the leaves of the plant when the panel is lifted off.

“This shows how fast they grow. The first three or four weeks are critical. This allows us to monitor growth and put numbers on it. There are now three times the surface area through which we can see the roots,” Fonteno says. “It’s almost like a plant version of an ant farm! It gets students excited to see what’s going on.”

The substrate lab is the largest university lab of its type in the world, Jackson said, adding, “Half the techniques used, Bill has developed himself.”

Yet, the two realized there was still a lack of knowledge in the area of engineering substrates. “We knew we needed to build a facil-

Wood chips (right) fed into the hammer mill will be pulverized and rendered into desired particle sizes via chosen screens. This process yields the varieties of substrates (above) to suit potting purposes and geographic needs.

ity to do state-of-the-art substrate work and on a big enough scale to do the work commercially,” Jackson said. “We got $180,000 from Golden LEAF to build SPARC. The SPARC building was conceived and designed to do commercial-sized testing.”

And now, he says, “It is the only thing remotely like it at a university in the United States – possibly the world – to research substrates. The SPARC building is the next step to carry substrates work to the next level; it is the crown jewel in our program.”

T

Becky Kirkland

The mini-horhizotron (below) was designed to be a new way to measure roots in growth. At left, Jackson uses a larger version to observe how plants are responding to growth media.

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he new space where the engineering of the substrate material takes place is by the Horticultural Field Lab, behind the JC Raulston Arboretum.

“It’s a dream come true for us,” said Jackson.

The SPARC is the home of a 50-horsepower hammer mill, 2-cubic-yard hopper with auger feed system, conveyer system, cyclone air handling system, substrate dryers and two different screening devices for separating substrate particle sizes.

A big red machine is the centerpiece. It includes the hammer mill, made by a company in Hickory. It’s a pulverizer, where large hammers spin and bust materials into small particles.

“We look at all variables that go into particle size reduction,” says Jackson, who describes how a fist-size or smaller chunk of wood goes up the blue conveyer, then falls into a hopper, where an auger at the bottom of the hopper conveys the chunks to the hammer mill, where they are pulverized.

Settings on the hammer mill determine the

consistency of the resulting material, such as shredded or chips or pellets. Particle size is adjusted by changing the screen inserted at the bottom of the hammer mill. As material falls through the hammers, they keep hitting it till it will fall through the chosen screen (there are different sizes of holes in each).

Then, air sucks up the product into the cyclone and sends it into a collection vessel. Big white bags above collect dust as air moves through.

“We also have a capability to run the material through more screening devices and shake, to sieve and fraction particles after they’ve been engineered,” Jackson explained. “This allows the construction of substrates from these particles into specific products for specific purposes.”

The SPARC has “tremendous potential for collaborative work among many, not just in horticulture,” said Jackson.

“The unique thing about this facility is its specific capability to examine many processing variables associated with grinding/ engineering/constructing substrate materials from organic materials. The capabilities of this facility could be of interest to colleagues in forestry, wood products, soil science and ag engineering, to name a few. We are partnering with faculty from most all these departments to build a team of specialists to advance substrate science in ways never before attempted.”

There is not such a facility at any university that has the full capability as the SPARC, he said. It is because of this void in research

Brian Jackson

facilities that they wanted to invest in creating such a facility, he said. “From root boxes to soil diagnostics to this facility – one can’t be done without the others to help ‘Atlas’ support all of horticulture!”

Jackson is also excited about what the new facility can do for the state’s economy, as he foresees “jobs created by current soil/substrate manufacturers, who may be making and selling new products based in part on this research, and money generated from organic materials that may be the next popular materials used in horticultural substrates – pine trees, agricultural wastes, storm debris, biochar.”

The premise behind the funding provided

by Golden LEAF was the creation of new substrate materials/components made from local materials in North Carolina and around the region, Jackson said. “There are numerous companies and businesses in the state that make their living making and selling substrates. This state is the fourth largest producer of floriculture and nursery crops in the United States.

And North Carolina has some of the largest pine bark substrate suppliers in the East.”

“It is my dream to help continue the long tradition of NC State being the most recognized university program for substrate research in the United States and one of the best in the world,” said Jackson. “The construction of the SPARC is testament to our commitment and desire to continue cutting edge research in substrate science.”

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He points out the varieties of media they are processing from pine wood for the differing roles they play, including a cottony, waterholding medium that can substitute for peat; pellet-like wood particles that add drainage and substitute for white perlite (volcanic ore aggregate); and a small particled blend that holds water and improves drainage.

“As water quality and supply becomes more problematic for growers, efficiency of materials to capture and hold water must be greater,” Fonteno said. “For example, we have created a sustainable, renewable version of perlite at half the cost.”

There are also samples of biochar – black charred products made from materials such as rice hulls, wood shavings, peanut hulls and wood chips. This char technology that improves poor soils is actually hundreds of years old, Fonteno said. “It holds nutrients very well and is good for sandy eastern North Carolina soils.”

And while biochar can be a costly process, the gas that comes off in the charring of the materials could be collected as an energy byproduct to mitigate the costs. “We’re testing biochar to understand its properties,” Fonteno says. “Also, when we see the viability of its use, commercial power plants that currently use bark and wood as fuels could be a good source of char.”

The Fox Hall greenhouse complex is the site of greenhouse crops and plant nutrition teaching and research, along with a large area devoted to the non-destructive study of root growth – the key in growing a healthy plant, Jackson said.

And here is also where they use the minihorhizotron, a three-sided, propeller-shaped Becky Kirkland

stalks, cotton stalks, switch grasses, bamboo, and eucalyptus) for substrates, the two main materials they are engineering and constructing from are pine bark and pine wood – specifically from loblolly pine, which is native pine to the southeast United States and is the most abundant, most grown pine species.

“Substrates used to contain soil (field soil) until the 1960s, but today no field soil is used,” Jackson said. “Soil is heavy, may contain heavy metals, doesn’t have good air/ water properties when put in a container, and it can contain weed seeds, herbicides, pathogens and diseases.”

Today, substrates are “soilless” in that they comprise organic and inorganic materials that are lightweight and have better physical (wettability, water holding, air space) and chemical (pH and soluble salts) properties.

“We needed to figure out how to manufacture wood-based analogs of traditional components, so people can make and sell these products,” Jackson said.

Thus, he said, “The new SPARC facilitates not only the lab activities but new products and an economic stimulus.”

And more and more crops are and will be grown in containers and controlled environments in the future, he said. He lists as popular examples floriculture crops (poinsettia, mums, bedding plants, cut flowers), vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers), fruits (strawberries), herbs and a possible crop of the future, marijuana.

Said Fonteno, “Soils that plants grow in have to maintain high standards. Having better engineered substrates helps produce better plants.”

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AmongFRIENDS It’s time well-spent when CALS agricultural education students teach diverse groups and learn valuable lessons in a service-learning course.

by Terri Leith

16 perspectives

so the CALS students also refer to the GMS pupils in that way.

Typically the friends are ages 16 and over, Morgan said. The AEE students work with the friends in completing ag-related activities, such as planting gardens, making bird feeders, beautification projects on the friends’ campus and other mini projects. “We also go on field trips with the friends,” Morgan said. “Past field trips include visits to Maple View Dairy Farm and a community garden. The AEE students enjoy this project because they receive hands-on experience but are also giving back to the community through their efforts.”

The course originally was created by Dr. Beth Wilson as a special topics course in 2008, said Morgan. “In 2011, it was approved as AEE 326, Teaching Diverse Learners in Agricultural Education.”

It’s a course that helps NC State prepare a skilled workforce for future employers, particularly those that employ teachers.

“Agricultural teachers at both the middleschool and high-school levels are teaching a diverse group of students. The experiential learning components of agriculture courses are a great fit for every student,” said Morgan.

“Because of this, agriculture teachers must have expertise in working with a vast group of students.”

Moreover, research has shown that beginning teachers felt more preparation was needed for working with diverse learners, Morgan said. “In the classroom, teachers must modify and accommodate learning tasks to meet the needs of students. This course and the service-learning project help preservice teachers become more comfortable working with diverse populations.”

The entire course focuses on teaching diverse learners in agricultural education, she said. The service-learning project takes place the second half of the semester, after students have already been instructed in the foundations for educating students with special needs, strategies for learning, building social relationships, and planning instruction, as well as information on disabilities and special needs.

Students also received training from the orientation and mobility specialist from Governor Morehead School. “Before going to the centers, a discussion about fears and questions also allows students to express concerns,” Morgan said.

“My goal was to design a project that forced students out of their comfort zones in a ‘fun’ setting; therefore, when they enter the

Becky Kirkland

A

pril 15 is usually a date to dread for many, but for pupils at Raleigh’s Governor Morehead School for the Blind, this year that date was very much something to look forward to. On that evening, a class of NC State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students came to lead a Governor Morehead group in informative – and fun – agriculture-related projects.

The activities were part of an Agricultural and Extension Education course AEE 326, Teaching Diverse Learners in Agricultural Education.

“The service-learning project was designed to give our NCSU students within the agricultural education major a hands-on experience working with individuals with special needs,” said Dr. Joy Morgan, lecturer in the AEE Department and the course instructor.

This is the first year her class has worked with GMS. The CALS class also conducts service-learning labs with the Reality Center in Durham, which works with participants with special needs, as well as disadvantaged youth.

“After reading a newspaper article on the Reality Center, I thought this would be the perfect place to work with. I contacted this organization, and they have graciously worked with us for the past three years,” said Morgan, who explained that the Reality Center refers to its participants as “friends,”

CALS’ Joy Morgan (center, back row) leads her AEE students as they gather with their “friends” at the Reality Center in Durham.

information. (Flowers for the activities were donated by CALS Advancement, from its Donor Reception the previous weekend.)

CALS students Carmen Huneycutt, an aged junior from Benson, and Derrick Bracey, a senior from Lake Waccamaw, guided friends in choosing flowers to arrange, while telling them that the petals they were touching attract bees and that all parts of the flower serve a purpose. With their assistance, one friend chose a lily and two tulips to start her design.

Bracey’s career objective is to be a highschool or college-level teacher. The AEE 326 course and the experience helping diverse learners reach their potential, he said, will be beneficial to him as a teacher.

Also gaining that experience this night were Danielle Blake, a junior from Mount Gilead; Breanna Williams, a junior from Smithfield; Jessica Martin, a junior from Harnett County; Jordan Shipton, a Davidson County junior; Sarah Smith, a Caswell County junior; Elijah Frisby, a junior from Weaverville; Bradley Glover, a junior from Goldsboro; Sarah Adams, a junior from Granite Falls; and John Ross Robertson, a junior from Four Oaks.

A common denominator: All the future teachers are from small-town North Carolina.

“I never had an experience like this,” said Robertson, who aspires to be an ag teacher and basketball coach. “It is eye-opening and

Future teacher Derrick Bracey (left) enjoys helping the friends he works with in the servicelearning course. Here he assists a Governor Morehead School student with her flower potting.

Becky Kirkland

Courtesy Joy Morgan

classroom, they are comfortable with working with individuals with disabilities and various needs.”

Most of all, Morgan wants her students to be comfortable working with students with special needs and to realize that these students can do anything their peers can do.

“The joy of being an agriculture teacher is the hands-on nature of the courses,” she said.

“When implementing experiential learning activities, all students are more engaged in the classroom setting. This course prepares students to make modifications and accommodations to learning activities to meet the needs of students with special needs.

“I also believe that the AEE students come away seeing just how much each friend contributes to the classroom setting.”

Morgan said that Chad Sechrest, an ag-ed senior from Ether, emphasized this point when he told her, “No one ‘friend’ is similar. They all have a variety of strengths, gifts, talents and knowledge. Realizing this made me think about all of the great things these students could do in a classroom. It would be such a joy to teach them.”

This perception also was shown to be accurate on April 15 at the Governor Morehead School. The projects this night included making flower arrangements, planting flowers in pots and making ice cream – with some accompanying horticulture and dairy-related

At the Governor Morehead School, CALS junior Jessica Martin (right) gives a lesson in ice-cream making.

warms my heart. It’ll help me be a more wellrounded person to help people to do more of the things everyone does.”

Morgan would agree. “Not only are students gaining a better understanding of the content, but they are also becoming engaged in their community and developing leadership skills,” she said.

“Part of the goal of an educator is to prepare students for careers in the agricultural setting, but I also strongly believe that we are to build strong leaders who appreciate and value the differences among people.”

In fact, Morgan believes students are receiving better training and are better prepared for their roles as teachers because of the service-learning project.

“The ‘hands-on’ atmosphere has a tremendous amount of benefits for our students, the friends at both locations and myself,” she said. “I leave every visit with a smile on my face because the friends have a great time and so do our students.”

The friends have conveyed their appreciation, too. “On one of the visits, I asked one of the friends what their favorite activity was for the day, and the response was, ‘I loved them all!’” Morgan said. “And that’s typically the response you get from all of the friends. At

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service-learning projects or emphasize community-service projects in their classes and FFA chapters,” said Morgan.

“One of the greatest joys about the service-learning project is seeing the true enjoyment of learning on my students faces. At the end of one of the visits, one of the friends called for attention and proceeded to give a little speech thanking us for taking our time to come work with them. Looking around the room, I noticed tears in some of my students’ eyes, including my male students. It’s at that point you realize the impact that had been made that night,” she said.

Joy Morgan hopes that her class imparts lifelong skills to participants.

the end of the visit, I strongly believe that we (myself and the class) are the ones benefitting the most from this experience.

“The students look forward to going to the Reality Center and Governor Morehead, because all of the friends just brighten our day and are so eager to learn the agricultural lesson for the day. I am very thankful that both places allow us to work with their participants, because it’s the participants that make the impact on my students.”

Another benefit of the course is that it raises agricultural awareness, Morgan said.

they had last night! Thanks for giving them such an awesome educational experience.

The cottage rooms are beautifully decorated with fresh flowers. Thanks again, we look forward to seeing you next week!”

Previous feedback reports indicated that “the friends enjoy being able to plant in their gardens that we have helped create on their campus,” Morgan said. “The things that are taught through the agriculture lessons also reemphasize some of the curricula being taught in their classes. Overall, both groups of friends enjoy that they are making new friends and learning about agriculture at the same time.”

Meanwhile, the CALS students who participate “talk about how, when they become agriculture educators, they will implement

“With so much negativity about education in the news, I also believe this class reminds pre-service teachers about the difference they can make in the lives of others through being a teacher. I enjoyed being a middle-school and high-school teacher, and it’s one of my goals to create opportunities for the students in the department to realize just how special it is to be a teacher. It might not be the most respected, high-paying career, but the non-monetary rewards are priceless, and that’s what being a teacher is about,” she said.

“This is paying it forward. Something that was used in my class will be used in their classes, and hopefully we are contributing to the overall good of society with an emphasis on giving back.”

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Courtesy Joy Morgan

18 perspectives

Profile

by Natalie Hampton

Hands-on experiences for students and a new major to attract more of them into agriculture are among benefits of Michelle SchroederMoreno’s agroecology program.

Becky Kirkland

Bradley Glover (right) leads a group in flower planting and arrangement at the Governor Morehead School.

A sunny spring day allows for an outside potting session at the Reality Center.

COLLEGE Becky Kirkland

Becky Kirkland

“All of the activities are designed to focus on agriculture, and the more we can positively promote agriculture is always beneficial. In addition, some of the skills such as gardening emphasize lifelong skills that participants can take home.“ She notes that one of the friends talked about how he took one of his plants home and a parent helped him make a garden. At the Reality Center, the vegetables from the gardens are also used in cooking classes. And after the April 15 visit, the GMS Student Life director, Laura Wooten, told Morgan, “My students have been raving about the fun time

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n 2005, Dr. Michelle Schroeder-Moreno was a new assistant professor of crop science, hired to develop an agroecology minor and teach courses. In her first semester teaching here, she realized, “I need a space to teach students in a hands-on way.”

From such humble beginnings as a field of alfalfa and corn with no real infrastructure for teaching or anything else, the Agroecology Education Farm has grown to a small sustainable farm that supports student and community education and provides vegetables for NC State’s University Dining. Last summer, the farm at the Lake Wheeler Road Education Unit hosted 150 people from across the country for the national conference of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association.

The farm has indeed come a long way since 2005, when there was not even a toolshed. Student work groups relied on hand tools delivered by pickup truck. With no irrigation at the field, water was provided from a tank on the back of a truck.

Much of what is there now – irrigation equipment, tool sheds, real farming equipment, composting areas, picnic tables for events and even a wood-fired pizza oven – has come over time through Schroeder-Moreno’s persistence and charming way of sharing her vision of an educational farm with others.

She began looking for space for a student farm in 2005 with College of Agriculture and Life Sciences colleagues Dr. David Orr, entomology, and Dr. Mike Linker, crop science.

She was attracted to the small field between Lake Wheeler’s Beef Education Unit and the Historic Yates Mill County Park, home to one of the county’s restored grist mills.

“What spoke to me about this area was the proximity to Yates Mill. We made a lot of advocates in the Yates Mill Park. The director also wanted an educational farm here that demonstrated sustainable agriculture practices near a natural area,” Schroeder-Moreno said.

She saw potential at the site to demonstrate riparian buffers along a stream that ran

by the field and to demonstrate crop rotation and cover cropping. Early on, organic hybrid corn and organic heirloom corn were raised at the farm, with the idea that grain produced would be milled at the park. But hungry deer ate the corn, teaching Schroeder-Moreno a valuable lesson about wildlife living near the farm.

“I wanted my agroecology students to come out here, and it was really important that they had a space to design, not just on paper, but to actually plant and to come back and harvest. And many of them did come back,” she said.

The lower end of the field, which has the richest soil, became the student farm’s primary production area. In the spring, advanced agroecology students develop plans for their own space. The garden designs showed great creativity – spirals and round plots.

“I’ve evolved over time in how much liberty I give the students – Alison (Reeves, farm manager) kind of helped me rein it in. They’re on rows now,” she said. “It’s too hard for us to manage and keep it beautiful in summer.”

A turning point for the farm came in 2007, when Schroeder-Moreno invited CALS administrators out to share her vision of what the farm could be. The three directors, along with then Dean Johnny Wynne and the Crop Science Department head, each pledged $10,000 to support the project.

“One of the main reasons for the success of this was strong support and blood, sweat and tears of students. And there was also support from our administrators and the Crop Science Department who understood what I was trying to do, and they really saw that it could bring new students to agriculture,” Schroeder-Moreno said.

A former horticulture student developed the design for the farm, and though the land is not yet certified organic, the farm needed a buffer between organic and conventional in order to qualify. The farm’s design called for a buffer of milkweeds and native grasses that provides habitat for beneficial insects. Birding enthusiasts have discovered the area’s diversity of birds that frequent the buffer.

Over time, student interest in agroecology has really grown. When Schroeder-Moreno first started teaching at NC State, her intro-

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most produce came in during summer months when there are few students on campus.

So Reeves, the farm manager, convinced University Dining to develop high tunnels on the farm for season extension, allowing the farm to grow produce earlier and later than the normal growing season. The partnership

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agroecology class is limited to 14 students to accommodate field trips and farm visits. Those students delve deeper into service learning, working in teams on projects that engage the larger community.

This year, the advanced class took on three different service projects: an Ag Awareness

NEWS

Linton named by governor to chair N.C. Food Manufacturing Task Force

Farm manager Alison Reeves assists Schroeder-Moreno at the Agroecology Education Farm.

The program offers multi-disciplinary courses in soil, crop and horticultural sciences, as well as agricultural economics and sociology.

Day for students at Wake County’s Spring Hope Elementary School, a community workshop for families to make container gardens from recycled materials, and a design plan for an edibles garden that will adorn a rooftop area of NC State’s new Talley Student Union.

“I feel that is a very important component of education – the ability to communicate an aspect of what you learned and work with a diverse group, and to provide something to the community if you can,” she said. “We’re a land-grant university, and I feel very strongly about the land-grant mission in my courses, in the curricula and out here at the agroecology education farm.”

Another educational component of the agroecology education farm involves partnerships with food service organizations that have included Raleigh’s Green Planet Catering, previously, and NC State’s University Dining, currently. The challenge with providing produce to NC State’s dining operations was that

with University Dining has been wonderful, Schroeder-Moreno said.

“The whole idea is to get the education back to a greater number of students, through food in the dining halls. We want to promote local food and to have education and marketing in the dining halls,” she said.

This summer, Schroeder-Moreno is off to Croatia on a Fulbright Scholarship, to learn about agricultural production in that country and bring back knowledge to her students.

She has nothing but praise for those in CALS who have supported her and the vision for hands-on sustainable agriculture education for the college.

“I can’t think of a better place and a better job: The people I get to interact with and collaborate with in sustainable ag, and the students who are entrepreneurs,” she said.

“These are what keep me going and excite me every day.”

eated around a large table anchored by North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, members of the state’s new Food Manufacturing Task Force convened for the first time on June 18. The task force, created by executive order this spring, is made up of 30 representatives of all aspects of food manufacturing, from farming to transportation to economic development.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Richard Linton will chair the task force.

N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, N.C. Lt. Governor Dan Forest and N.C. Secretary of Commerce John Skvarla also will provide leadership.

“We have a goal to expand the economic impact of agriculture and agribusiness in North Carolina to $100 billion by the year 2020,” Linton said during the meeting. “Food manufacturing is part of the solution to get us there.”

In 2014 the North Carolina General Assembly funded the North Carolina Food Processing and Manufacturing Initiative to diversify and add value to agricultural-based businesses through food processing. An economic feasibility study led by the college and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services revealed that North Carolina has a significant opportunity to catalyze food processing, manufacturing and industrial development statewide. The anticipated economic impact of the recommendations in the study includes nearly 38,000 jobs and an increased economic output of $10 billion.

“This state’s economy is built upon those industries that make things, that innovate things, that build things, that produce things and that grow things,” McCrory said. “And I firmly believe as we continue to recover from

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duction to agroecology courses attracted about 10 to 12 students each semester. At the time, agroecology was a minor degree, and later it became a degree concentration in the plant and soil sciences program.

Today, the introductory course attracts about 100 students in class and another 30 students online, and efforts are under way to develop a major in agroecology and sustainable food systems. The program will be interdepartmental between Crop Science and Horticultural Science, Schroeder-Moreno said, with multidisciplinary courses in soil, crop and horticultural sciences, as well as agricultural economics and sociology.

The classes represent a good mixture of students from a traditional farming background and those who are newer to agriculture. The program also attracts a number of students working on interdisciplinary degrees.

The diversity of experience leads to engaging class discussions, she said.

“I set the tone in the very beginning of each semester that everybody has something to bring to the table, experience and knowledge, and we respect everyone’s opinion. And we don’t agree all the time, but what matters is using critical thinking skills and to try and see things from a holistic perspective,” she said.

The agroecology students have a variety of interests and not just one career path. Some are interested in food policy issues, while others want to be involved in production agriculture. Many are engaged in what SchroederMoreno calls “entrepreneurial careers.” One such graduate was Ariel Fugate, manager of the campus farmers market and an intern with Lowe’s Foods, who went on to a permanent position with the company, helping develop relationships with local producers.

In an effort to get her classes involved in the community, Schroeder-Moreno requires students to participate in some type of service learning. As part of the experience, students write a reflection on their service both before and after their projects.

Students in the introductory class do just four hours in a semester, and many of them spend time at the Agroecology Education Farm or other local community gardens, planting, weeding and more. The advanced

N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory holds the Bible as (from left) N.C. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and CALS Dean Richard Linton take oath as members of the new North Carolina Food Manufacturing Task Force.

this recession that we’re going to still be very dependent upon those industries to create the jobs and grow the economy of North Carolina.

I’m proud of the manufacturing and agriculture industry that’s been an important part of our past, present, and it will be a very important part of our future.”

The Food Manufacturing Task Force will focus on:

– developing a strategic business plan to leverage existing activities in food processing and manufacturing;

– establishing a statewide food processing and manufacturing organization, directory and database;

– creating a plan to develop a proactive industrial recruitment campaign for new business development;

– and planning to foster the growth of

food manufacturing entrepreneurial endeavors, enhance development of innovative food products and processes and provide sector-specific regulatory training and outreach.

“Because we grow so many products, North Carolina is a great supplier of ingredients, so we have the raw products needed to create value-added products,” Linton said.

“Value-added products provide great value to our economy. For instance, you get a lot more financially from a processed can of string beans than you do by the string beans alone.

Value-added products are much more profitable, and the food processing step is what adds that financial value. And that financial value can help our state grow from $78 billion to the goal of $100 billion by 2020.”

– Suzanne Stanard

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The class gave students a rare opportunity to learn from some of the state’s top leaders in commerce, economic development and agriculture. In April, Secretary of Commerce John E. Skvarla III talked with the class, along with Chris Chung, CEO for the new Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest spoke at another class session.

“We want to expose them to leaders they would never have a chance to meet,” Troxler said.

Linton and Troxler also want students to come away with a sense of the importance of partnerships to North Carolina agriculture and how CALS and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services work together to support agriculture and agribusiness in the state. One class focused on the 18 research stations that the two organizations share to help find solutions to challenges facing North Carolina producers.

“This course exemplifies the partnership that exists between the N.C. Department of Agriculture and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences,” Troxler said. “Each time I teach, I try to bring awareness to the strengths of North Carolina agriculture.”

“When we bring in industry leaders to talk about their farming operations, their production practices or their agribusiness success, we focus on the partnerships of university, government and industry,” Linton said.

For one class, students went downtown to

Becky Kirkland

t 2:30 p.m. on Thursdays, students filed into a classroom at NC State taught by what may be a unique team of educators in U.S. agriculture – the dean of NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and North Carolina’s Commissioner of Agriculture.

Dean Richard Linton and Commissioner Steve Troxler taught Joint Ventures in Agriculture during the spring semester to a mixed group of two-year and four-year degree students. Having taught the course alone in the past, Troxler proposed that Linton join him as co-instructor.

The course is an example of the innovative approach that CALS uses to prepare the next generation workforce for agribusiness in North Carolina and beyond, Linton said. The focus is on emerging and important issues in agriculture and life sciences today.

For Linton, the partnership provided an opportunity to return to the classroom. He had not had a chance to teach since he came to CALS as dean in 2012.

“The class that we teach is nothing like the normal classroom environment,” Linton said. “It’s really about introducing and discussing important agriculture-related issues, whether they are policy or regulatory or science-based issues. And we bring in experts from the state and national levels to talk about how those issues impact North Carolina and how they impact global agriculture.”

State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler led the class, which gave students the opportunity to hear from many of the state’s top leaders.

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Linton (right) called the course an example of innovation in preparing the workforce for N.C. agribusiness.

North Carolina’s legislative building and reenacted the process of voting on a mock bill – more funds for the agriculture department. For a class session on the Food Safety Modernization Act, Linton pulled together a team with expertise in the areas that the law will cover.

The class also connected online with Michael Taylor, Food and Drug Administration deputy commissioner for foods.

“We talked about the many facets that would be important to prepare the state of North Carolina for one of the biggest pieces of legislation in food systems written since the 1950s,” Linton said.

In late April, as Linton and Troxler were preparing for a trade-related trip to China, they described for the class what they hoped accomplish – “selling hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural products” to the world’s fastest-growing economy. Representatives from the state’s forestry, pork, soy, tobacco and poultry industries accompanied the dean and commissioner on the trade mission.

Troxler told the class that he would celebrate his birthday in Beijing. In preparation, Linton asked the students to sing “Happy Birthday” to Troxler. At the March 18 NC Ag Awareness Day in downtown Raleigh, Troxler had asked hundreds of ag supporters on the Capitol grounds to sing “Happy Birthday” in honor of Linton’s birthday.

When Troxler and Linton returned to class two weeks later, they shared photos and told students about the trip to China: traveling aboard a high-speed train and seeing high-rise concrete buildings across the country, unoccupied and awaiting masses of new residents.

The group also visited the Chinese com-

pany that bought North Carolina-based pork producer Smithfield Foods and Murphy-Brown and attended a groundbreaking ceremony for an NCDA&CS facility in Shanghai. They were pleased to make headway in resolving some trade issues around N.C. agricultural products.

Linton said that the class attracted a diverse group of students, whose interests and experience included animal and plant science, agribusiness, commercial agriculture and local foods. The diversity led to dynamic and engaging discussions, especially on controversial

issues, like genetically engineered crops.

“I don’t think we had a single class that finished on time…and the students stayed,” Linton said. “We came in the class with an agenda, but quickly that agenda got turned into a very free-flowing conversation.”

Linton and Troxler both say they will continue to teach this class. “We’re both really busy people, but we’re committed to doing this. We’ve enjoyed it,” Linton said.

Of the students in the spring class, at least 25 percent want to pursue a future in produc-

tion agriculture, Linton said. He hopes that all students gain greater knowledge of the partnerships that keep N.C. agriculture profitable.

“I hope students come away with an understanding of how important agriculture is, not only to North Carolina, but also to the United States and the world,” he said. “I hope they come away wanting to be in agriculture and wanting to stay in agriculture, and knowing how important it is to communicate that message to others.”

– Natalie Hampton

March summit celebrates economic value of agriculture in North Carolina

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even eastern North Carolina counties produce 20 percent of the state’s agricultural output, accounting for a multi-billion-dollar chunk of the industry and nearly 40,000 jobs.

It’s impressive, said Dr. Blake Brown, professor of agricultural and resource economics, not only in terms of volume, but also variety.

Edgecombe, Greene, Johnston, Nash, Pitt, Wayne and Wilson counties, according to Brown, are part of “one of the most agriculturally intense areas of the United States,” with significant production of pork, tobacco and sweet potatoes, among other crops.

“Just 10 years ago, sweet potatoes were considered a seasonal product,” Brown said during the Wilson Regional Ag Summit in March. “Now they’re a year-round product, and consumption is on the rise.”

At the summit, he delivered a state-of-theindustry report on the seven-county region to a crowd of nearly 500 farmers, industry leaders and citizens. The event was hosted

by Scott Farms Inc., one of the largest sweet potato producers in the state.

The five-generation family farm operates on about 7,000 acres, producing sweet potatoes, tobacco, wheat, soybeans and corn. In 2015, the Scotts expect to raise 1,100 acres of flue-cured tobacco and nearly 2,500 acres of sweet potatoes. They also process sweet potatoes and recently opened a new state-ofthe-art packing line.

“One of the things that makes our business excel is that we have the ability to grow the product, market the product, process the product and sell it,” Sonny Scott said. The new facility has enabled the family to signifi-

Courtesy Scott Farms

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Joint venture: Troxler and Linton partner to teach agribusiness course

Nearly 500 farmers and industry leaders gathered in March at Scott Farms in Wilson County for the Regional Ag Summit.

cantly expand the capacity of their operation (throughout the United States and overseas) and enhance their ability to accurately grade and sort sweet potatoes.

Summit participants toured the pristine facility during the event, after hearing from Brown, CALS Dean Richard Linton and North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

“This region of the state is all about innovation and moving agriculture forward,” Linton said. “Today we are celebrating the economic value of agriculture and its potential as we move into the future.”

North Carolina is the nation’s leading producer of sweet potatoes, he said, and now there are exciting new opportunities to create value-added products from the crop, including French fries and pet food.

College researchers have played a pivotal role in the development and success of the

crop, Linton added, by creating better varieties, implementing advanced production and storage practices and developing value-added products.

“The economic future of agriculture in North Carolina could not be brighter,” Linton said. “The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is proud to be a partner with this industry.”

Brown echoed this message during his talk.

In a presentation loaded with agriculture statistics for each of the seven counties, Brown reported on everything from acreage to income, explaining the data and offering recommendations to the growers. His underlying message: This seven-county region has a globally competitive agriculture industry that encompasses a number of different crops and value-added products, with sweet potatoes as the rising star.

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“The other thing that is exciting to me is the relationship between the industry and NC State University. We’re all pulling in the same direction.

“If we’re going to feed a monstrous world population by 2050, we’ve got to have agricultural research, and I believe that efforts like the Plant Sciences Initiative at NC State will carry us forward, as well as improved production techniques, variety development and technology. This is one of the most exciting times to be involved in agriculture and agribusiness in North Carolina.”

– Suzanne Stanard

Extension-trained volunteers assist local apple industry

Dee Shore

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hen Jean Marie Saltz decided to take over her family’s sixth-generation apple orchard in Henderson County, she saw it as a way to provide local people with fresh local produce while allowing herself to get back to something she had loved since childhood – being outdoors, surrounded by delicious Fujis, Ginger Golds and Galas.

The only problem was that her father and grandfather, who’d guided the farming operation for decades, had passed away. Who, she wondered, could she turn to for answers to all her questions about farming?

Saltz was a registered nurse when she heard about a North Carolina Cooperative Extension program offered nowhere else in the country: the Master Pomology Volunteer Program. Through a $75 course, she could

Bill Metts (left) and Ken Olson volunteered in the Master Pomology Program by working at the research orchard.

spend 30 hours learning about fruit trees from County Extension Director Marvin Owings and other experts. She would also receive a comprehensive book with science-based information on growing quality fruit. In return, she’d have to spend at least 40 volunteer hours at a two-acre research orchard.

“I saw a newspaper article about the program, and I said, ‘I’m signing up. Life is all about learning something, and if you don’t learn something differ-

Jean Marie Saltz (right) took the course in fruit trees led by Extension’s Marvin Owings (left).

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ent every day, then what’s the point?’” Saltz recalls.

Scores of others had gone before Saltz in completing the Master Pomology program, which Owings started in 1986 and conducts every three or four years. These volunteers’ contributions at the orchard have benefited an industry worth between $24 million and $30 million to the county each year, Owings says.

In 2014 alone, the volunteers contributed more than 1,360 hours of work, valued at nearly $28,000.

The test orchard, or variety block, represents more than 100 varieties of apples, peaches and nectarines. When Owings first became a horticultural agent in Henderson County in 1985, apple growers convinced him of the need for such an evaluation site where new and old varieties could be tracked under local growing conditions. He knew he’d need help with the program, and he looked to Extension’s Master Gardener Volunteer program for inspiration.

“The course has proven to be very beneficial to the participants, to the Extension Service, and to the commercial apple industry of Henderson County,” Owings says. “The results of our variety block findings are published in the local apple production newsletter, and about 92 percent of growers surveyed said they found the results very useful in helping them decide which new varieties to plant.”

The Master Pomologists track all major, and even seemingly minor, occasions in the test orchard – from when each tree is planted to when it begins to bloom, when and how much fruit the trees bear and how well the fruit does when it’s stored.

Volunteer Bill Metts puts it this way: “Our most important product out of here is data.

We keep track of everything.”

Not only do the volunteers follow the trees’ lives and productivity, they also note the trees’ susceptibility to diseases and insects. They prune and train the trees, and they follow tedious procedures to cross breed varieties, in hopes that the offspring will be superior to the parents. And, said volunteer Ken Olson, they conduct postharvest tests to determine the pH, sugar and starch content of the fruit, plus they rate its taste, appearance and storage ability.

And each Labor Day weekend, the volunteers bring their favorites to the three-day North Carolina Apple Festival to have thousands of participants evaluate them.

The festival results, along with the volunteers’ findings in the orchard, influence growers’ decisions about which varieties they grow, Owings explained. For example, he expects growers to begin showing more interest in Senshu, whose taste 2014 festival-goers preferred by a 10-to-1 margin over Honey Crisp, the perennial favorite that also happens to be one of the most difficult varieties to grow.

While helping the industry is a primary goal for the Master Pomology program, the volunteers have varied motivations for participating. Some simply enjoy spending time outside, learning and serving others. Others participate because they want to better enjoy fruit trees they have on their property. Bill Metts started with that intention but became so hooked that he has continued volunteering for 15 years, even though he no longer has fruit trees. He also has spread what he’s

learned to others by establishing a small orchard of apples, peaches, plums and cherries for children at a local orphanage.

Still others, such as Saltz and Trey Enloe, have changed careers to farming and want to learn state-of-the-art production methods.

Like Saltz, Enloe had grown up in a family that had long been involved in the apple industry.

But he decided to try something new when he went to NC State University for college, majoring in engineering. He worked in that field for seven years, until his grandfather passed away in 2013.

“I was on the fence about what I wanted to do. I didn’t really enjoy a cubicle and all that stuff, so I figured I’d give farming a shot,” Enloe says.

When he told people that he planned to take the pomology course, some discouraged him. “A lot of people said, ‘You are wasting your time. You know all that stuff,’” he says.

“But that hasn’t been the case at all.”

Enloe, who serves as president of the Blue Ridge Apple Growers Association and on the

board of the state apple association, says his family farm has been “kind of traditional”: “We didn’t use a lot of plant growth regulators and things like that – not near to the extent you could use some. But here, I’m learning about the science behind what they affect and have been able to see the advantages of some and would stay away from others. And I’ve been successful at grafting.

“So, yes, I’ve definitely taken things away from the class that are important to our farm.

It’s all about efficiency, and if I can learn ways to save a dollar here or there,” he adds, “then it’s worth it.” Saltz agrees. “It’s been a good experience all around. It has been nice coming out here and seeing how they recommend doing things today versus how my granddaddy did it,” she says. “The most important thing I learned is to respect the tree, how to take care of the tree, and that it’s OK to prune to get new growth coming in. I grow fruit, not wood.”

– Dee Shore

Hundreds turn out to celebrate Ag Awareness Day

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arch 18 was a historic day, as an estimated 1,600 people turned out at the state capital in downtown Raleigh to celebrate and raise awareness of agriculture in North Carolina, a $78 billion business.

Ag Awareness Day was organized by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, N.C. Farm Bureau, N.C. State Grange and N.C. A&T State University’s School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Growers and agribusiness leaders from all over the state were encouraged to come to Raleigh and share the good news about the economic value of North Carolina agriculture and new efforts to grow agriculture to a $100 billion industry for the state.

Elected officials from Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler to Gov. Pat McCrory addressed the crowd.

“We have the best entrepreneurs in the world right here in this audience, the people who understand the markets, the people who understand hard work, the people who understand strong work values, the people who have

business ethics,” McCrory told the crowd. “These are the people right here of North Carolina, the people of agriculture. The agriculture community is leading the Carolina comeback, and I want to thank you for your hard work.”

McCrory shared his “strategy to lead the agriculture One of the 1,600 attendees at Ag Awareness Day stops by the Extension comeback of North booth at the state capital.

Carolina,” including “filling the skills gap” by training new farmers, our high schools, our community colleges and developing tax strategies that work for agriour universities.” culture and developing environmental regula“Agriculture is leading the way – it is the tions that make sense.

No. 1 most important industry in North Caro“Who is the next generation of agriculture lina,” McCrory said. “You are the most imporin North Carolina, when the average age of tant people in North Carolina.”

N.C. farmers is 57?” he asked. “We need “We all recognize that agriculture is the young people to get into agriculture, through No. 1 industry in North Carolina,” said House

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“I hope you will leave here today with the understanding of how critical the agriculture sector is to your community,” Brown said. “At NC State, we remain focused on the sector and how significantly it impacts North Carolina’s economy.”

Troxler described the success of the agriculture industry in the seven-county region as “symbolic of what we’re trying to do throughout North Carolina,” and he encouraged the farmers in attendance to continue working hard to meet the state’s goal to grow agriculture to a $100 billion industry.

“There are a million reasons not to be in Raleigh today,” Troxler said, commenting on the beautiful weather. “But I hope you’ll go back home and tell the folks that aren’t here that if we have another one of these in the future, they really need to take the time and come and spread the work about agriculture.

It’s really important to do this.”

– Natalie Hampton

NC State explores promising pest-control strategy with high-impact potential for sub-Saharan Africa

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treatments for protecting seed pieces – plant parts used to propagate crops that aren’t grown from seeds – against nematodes. And several of sub-Saharan Africa’s most important food sources, including potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes and cassava, are sown with seed pieces.

Wrap and plant got its start in 2012, when Drs. Julie Willoughby and Steve Lommel received initial funding via the Grand Challenges Explorations’ call for proposals to help protect crops from stresses such as pest infestations.

Such infestations cause close to $160 billion in worldwide crop damage each year.

Willoughby, a former NC State assistant professor in the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science, and Lommel, director of NC State’s North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, pulled together a multidisci-

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n NC State University agricultural research project that started with a high-technology nanoparticle solution to food security problems has gone decidedly low-tech. And in doing so, the project has won a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative.

The grant will allow university researchers to further study and develop a simple technique they call “wrap and plant.” Not only could the method help smallholder farmers reduce pest problems, it also could increase food security and spawn new industries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The method involves wrapping seed pieces in chemically treated, biodegradable paper as a way to reduce crop damage from parasitic worms known as nematodes.

Right now, farmers have virtually no effective

NC State University graduate students Abdus Salam and Mandi Burns discuss with Dr. Saad Khan the banana fiber-based paper designed to protect key African crops from nematodes.

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plinary team of university scientists from plant pathology, fiber and polymer science, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and toxicology to quickly vet their ideas for helping smallholder farmers manage nematodes.

The scientists tested four types of paper containing low rates of the commercially available nematicide abamectin; they found that the paper cut nematode populations but didn’t inhibit plant growth or root development in greenhouse-grown plants.

They also found that an inexpensive paper made from banana fibers worked best. The paper was produced by a senior design team of Textile Engineering and Technology students using NC State’s Forest Biomaterials Laboratory.

Meanwhile, the scientists also explored whether plant virus nanoparticles could be used to deliver the nematicide. And they were surprised by what they discovered.

“What we found was that just adding the compound to the paper was more effective than adding the compound to the virus and then adding the virus to the paper,” said Dr. Jing Cao, who worked on the project as a fiber and polymer graduate student.

And that meant a simpler, more practical and cost-effective solution, explained Dr. Tim Sit, a plant virologist and principal research scientist in the Department of Plant Pathology.

Sit is among three leaders of a team that won a follow-up grant to further develop the wrap-and-plant method. The others are the lead principal investigator Dr. Charles Opperman, a nematode expert and professor of plant pathology, and Dr. Saad Khan, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

The team will test the technique in field trials at a central North Carolina research station while they work with collaborators and interested growers in sub-Saharan Africa to conduct similar trials there. Meanwhile, at NC State, Khan will explore the best methods for impregnating banana paper with a nematicide while also tweaking the release of the compound from the paper. Right now, the researchers envision a prototype paper roll with perforated sections, much like toilet paper.

The team is focusing on nematodes because they not only reduce crop yields but also leave crops vulnerable to other damaging

pathogens and to drought. Thus, they reduce the amount of food available to smallholder farmers’ families and cut the farmers’ chances of having surplus food to sell to local markets.

But while the focus is on nematodes, the team believes the wrap-and-plant technique could help farmers with other food-security problems by delivering other types of pesticides, biological control agents and fertilizers to farm fields.

As Opperman notes, “The simplicity of wrap and plant is the beauty of it. Theoreti-

cally … anything that can absorb into the paper, we can apply. So you could customize solutions to whatever your local problem is.

And that’s a big deal.”

Lower pest populations and higher yields aren’t the only outcomes that the researchers predict. They also believe that their research could lead to the creation of local paper-making industries. Once they get more evidence that the wrap-and-plant method is effective under real-world conditions, the scientists will

work with African companies and individuals interested in producing the paper.

“With this Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, we have two years to develop the product,” Opperman adds. “But it’s not just about developing a product that will raise yields, it’s about developing an industry around it that provides new opportunities for the people of sub-Saharan Africa.”

– Dee Shore

Study helps farmers along Dan River make decisions following coal ash spill

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hen 39,000 tons of coal ash entered the Dan River in 2014 from a ruptured pipe at a Duke Energy steam plant near Eden, government agencies quickly rallied to address drinking water and environmental concerns.

Will Strader’s mind, though, was on the farmers who grow crops and graze cattle along the river banks.

Strader, then an area agricultural agent with North Carolina Cooperative Extension, had received calls from downstream farmers in Caswell and Rockingham counties wondering about the impact of potentially toxic trace elements such as arsenic and mercury would have on their operations.

The farmers wondered, Would the coal ash make it unsafe to irrigate their crops from river water? Was water from the river safe for cattle to drink? And would they be able to continue farming if the river flooded its banks and deposited ash on crop and forage land?

“You could tell the farmers were concerned about the long-term viability of the land, and their concerns were legitimate. They needed answers quickly,” Strader recalled.

The spill occurred in February, a time when many farmers are planning what to plant for the summer growing season.

“One of their biggest questions to me was, ‘Can we use the river water to irrigate?’ They said, ‘If we can use the water, we are going to plant corn,’” Strader said, “‘but if we can’t use the water to irrigate, we are going to go with soybeans and another crop.’”

For answers, Strader reached out to NC State University’s Department of Soil Science, where faculty experts were just wrapping up

a three-year study of how metals are bound in coal ash and how fast they dissolve out. That study was funded by the Tennessee Valley Authority, following the largest U.S. coal ash spill ever, an accident that occurred at the TVA’s fossil plant in Kingston in 2008.

Dr. Dean Hesterberg, William Neal Reynolds professor of soil science, used the knowledge and experience At their Williams Hall lab, Rob Austin and Dr. Dean Hesterberg study he’d gained while coal ash samples. They collected more than 500 soil samples and 200 working on the TVA crop-tissue samples from locations along the Dan River. study to guide the intensive Eden study local, state and national news media outlets. with Dr. Matt Polizzotto, assistant professor, Cautioning that flooding or drought could and Dr. Carl Crozier, professor and Extension change the conditions measurably, the respecialist. searchers included in their assessment practiUsing water-quality trend data from both cal considerations for farmers who planned to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency irrigate with Dan River water: Farmers should and Duke Energy – data that proved to be monitor water-quality information sources, consistent – the scientists issued a report in such as those hosted by the EPA, they said. mid-April that delivered good news: The river They should avoid irrigating when total metal water was suitable for irrigating crops and as concentrations or total suspended solids – the drinking water for livestock. solid particles floating in water, including ash The report’s findings were conveyed to area particles and soil particles eroded into the river farmers and key federal and state agencies, – are elevated above water-quality standards. and they garnered widespread coverage by

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Becky Kirkland

Speaker Tim Moore. “It has kept the state going through the great recession that we’ve had since 2008. Every one of us has to eat.

If we don’t have homegrown agriculture, we don’t have a sustainable economy.”

Commissioner Troxler thanked those who came to Raleigh and invited everyone to enjoy a barbecue sandwich provided by Farm Bureau before heading over to talk with legislators.

28 perspectives

workshops March 12-15 at the fairgrounds and on the NC State campus. Student Career Days also included a career fair where students could network with industry representatives from the nation’s major landscape companies and interview for jobs after graduation.

Among the hands-on skills in practice were landscape design, irrigation techniques, plant identification, and skid-steer, back-hoe and truck and trailer field use, as well as the arboriculture workshop where Burnette practiced his tree-scaling.

Burnette competed in the arboriculture climbing event, scored according to the climber’s form shown in accomplishing tasks and time getting to the treetop bell. Meanwhile, fellow CALS horticultural science major Max Alff competed in the event’s throwing portion, which measures a climber’s proficiency in hoisting a ball (sandbag) attached to a line that carries the rope up and over a crotch in the tree, where branches meet the trunk, and allows the climber to attach rigging to the saddle (belt and leg harnesses) that will secure his ascent. (The roping skills are important as arborists do not use spikes in climbing for tree care and maintenance.)

Burnette, a sophomore from Oxford, and Alff, a junior from Jefferson, are both also graduates of the CALS Agricultural Institute

The CALS team gathers at the N.C. State Fairgrounds grandstand area, after the plant installation competition, one of the biggest events of the PLANET activities.

tions; Avery Bartlett-Golden, third in maintenance cost estimating; Tracy Thomasson, seventh, plant problems diagnosis; Max Alff and Alex Burnette, seventh in arboriculture; Will Edwards, seventh in 3-D exterior design; Stormie Holish, eighth in sales presentation; and Justin Morgan, ninth in exterior landscape design.

Ivy said that many lead sponsors commented favorably on the location, agreeing that “using the N.C. State Fairgrounds allowed us to have all events in close proximity.

Some even said this was the best location.”

– Terri Leith

Barbecue camp brings university meat science to consumers In a tall oak at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, CALS student Alex Burnette practices for the PLANET arboriculture climbing competition.

(AGI), where they learned tree-scaling in Lee Ivy’s landscape management course.

“These students are emerging professionals who will go to employers with extensive practical skills,” said Ivy. “When students exit college with a degree in horticulture or landscaping, as well as a certification from PLANET, and the skill sets needed for the real world, it’s a winning combination. They arrive at an employer ready to work.”

Ivy, lecturer in the CALS Department of Horticultural Science and AGI coordinator of the associate’s degree in applied science, and Horticultural Science colleagues Lis Meyer and Dr. Barbara Fair worked with PLANET to plan NC State’s hosting of the event.

“Our Horticultural Science Department is uniquely equipped to host such an event,” Ivy said. “Our faculty has heard about our competition team for so long that, when asked to help, they didn’t hesitate.”

Meyer is also grateful for the “tons of support” from within the department, including faculty, staff and students. “We have 25 undergraduate students from both the Ag Institute and the four-year degree program in Horticultural Science competing on the team, and four graduate students who have been assisting in planning the event,” she said, as she also applauded the participation of the local green industry, including the NCNLA (North

A

first-of-its-kind workshop series may have been called North Carolina Barbecue Camp, but its topics went beyond the state’s traditional Eastern and Lexington styles, as presenters delved into the cuisine of other national barbecue hot spots such as Memphis, Kansas City and Texas.

The event featured panel discussions, demonstrations and sumptuous meals that started off with a North Carolina-style pig picking and included beef and pork sausage, brisket and more.

NC State University’s Meat Extension Specialist Dr. Dana Hanson organized the two-day event, along with the North Carolina Meat Packers Association.

“Barbecue is a hot topic among food trends, and the camp was designed to capitalize on that as a teachable moment,” Hanson said. “We wanted to build on barbecue’s popularity as a way to help educate consumers on how to prepare muscle foods so that they are not only safe but also taste good.”

While North Dakota State and Texas A&M universities regularly offer barbecue camps, this was NC State’s first for adults, Hanson said. Three similar but shorter camps for 4-H’ers ages 8 to 18 are taking place this spring and summer in Raleigh, Tarboro and Fletcher.

The adult camp took place Friday and Saturday May 15-16 at the university’s Meat Processing Laboratory and its Beef Education Unit. The 30 barbecue aficionados who attended the event included backyard cooks,

Dee Shore

L

ike a Madagascar lemur, NC State University student Alex Burnette nimbly maneuvered to the far end of a spindly treetop branch, seemingly oblivious of about 40 feet of space between him and the ground, focused only on where the tree’s branches could take him. He was not in Madagascar, of course, but at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, where his saddle-harness rigging and ropes kept him secure in the tall oak as he prepared for an arboriculture competition. It was all part of the 39th annual PLANET Professional Landcare Network’s Collegiate Landscape Competition and Student Career Days.

PLANET is the national trade association representing landscape professionals. Arborists and landscapers are part of a green industry that has an $8.6 billion economic impact in North Carolina, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

NC State’s Horticultural Science Department in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hosted this year’s renewal of the annual competitive training and career recruitment event that has been characterized as the “Olympics of landscaping.” More than 850 college students from 65 of the nation’s top horticulture and landscape programs, including four from North Carolina, came to Raleigh to compete in 28 competitive events and

Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association) and Bland Landscaping, “In addition,” she said, “faculty from Alamance Community College and students from its team have been involved in co-hosting one of the biggest competitive events of the week, the plant installation event.”

The NC State team acquitted itself well in the competition, finishing 15th overall, while noteworthy individual competition results included: Avery Blevins, first place in tractor loader backhoe operation; Nathan Gantt, third in small engine repair and fifth, along with Max Alff, in landscape maintenance opera-

Becky Kirkland

Top-notch: NC State hosts national ‘Olympics of landscaping’

Courtesy Lee Ivy

They should ensure that irrigated water comes from near the river’s surface rather than from its bottom. And they should test area agricultural soils and crop tissues annually.

Now, a follow-up study that Hesterberg and soil science colleagues have embarked on will help farmers, by providing additional assurances about the health of the soils on which their livestock and crops depend. Soil Science and Crop Science colleagues collaborating on the project include Drs. Matt Polizzotto, Travis Gannon and Wayne Robarge, as well as Rob Austin, Chris Niewoehner, Allison Sams, Kim Hutchison, Matthew Jeffries and Matt Church.

While the scientists had to base their first study on assumptions about the soil concentrations of trace elements – often called heavy metals – before the spill occurred, the second study began with collecting more than 500 soil samples along with more than 200 crop-tissue samples. That sampling gave the researchers a much more precise picture of the background concentrations of 13 trace elements at different locations along a 30mile stretch of the Dan River.

Over two years, with Duke Energy funding, Hesterberg and his crew will be continuing to sample both soils and crops to get an idea of whether the levels are changing, what those changes mean for the farmers’ crops and livestock and whether the changes can be linked to the spill.

Hesterberg, who spends most of his time focusing on molecular-level soil chemistry, said that he found being able to apply his expertise to address such a pressing practical concern particularly rewarding. And Strader noted that the farmers were grateful to have the answers they needed to sustain their livelihoods.

Strader, now serving as county Extension director for Rockingham County, continues to be involved in community recovery efforts following the spill. As he put it, “There was a lot at stake here.”

“Because of the study,” he said, “farmers along the Dan River found comfort in knowing that they could plant and irrigate their crops and that millions of dollars of farmland could remain productive in agriculture. And in an area where agriculture is the No. 1 industry, that’s important for everyone.” – Dee Shore

Dr. Dana Hanson (standing left) conducts a sausage-making lesson.

barbecue cook-off competitors and aspiring restaurateurs who came from various walks of life – farmer, electrician, caterer, Extension agent and medical biller, among them.

After Hanson’s introduction, barbecue writer and local TV favorite Bob Gardner of The Pit in Raleigh and Durham kicked off the camp with a talk on what he called the “the food of celebration and the food of politics,” its history, various types of sauces and 21st century trends.

Then the participants suited up in plastic gowns and caps to enter the laboratory in two groups. NC State Meat Lab Manager Travis Tennant used a whole hog, as well as various packaged beef cuts as he discussed which work best for barbecue, while Hanson and Bryan Bracewell of the famous Southside

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Dee Shore

Travis Tennant (left), NC State’s Meat Laboratory manager, explains to North Carolina Barbecue Camp participants the various cuts of pork and which work best for barbecue.

Market in Elgin, Texas, demonstrated how to make beef sausage. That sausage went on to become part of the next day’s lunch.

Friday’s events concluded with a pig picking and talk on the history of beer and barbecue.

The next day, most participants got up early to join in a sausage biscuit breakfast sponsored

by Neese’s Sausage, May’s Meat and Carolina Packers at the Beef Education Unit, part of the university’s Lake Wheeler

Road Field Laboratory.

Saturday’s formal sessions focused on various barbecuing equipment and pit styles;

building a good fire; grading, trimming, preparing then taste testing briskets for their tenderness, juiciness, flavor and overall appeal; and taking the guess work out of barbecuing.

Finally, Executive Chef Eddie Wilson of NC State’s Talley Student Center discussed and demonstrated what Hanson called “chuckwagon cooking” – creating side dishes in Dutch ovens – before events wrapped up with bluegrass, a social and, of course, a barbecue dinner.

Based on the positive response from participants, Hanson intends to begin offering the camp annually, likely on the weekend following the university’s spring graduation.

“For our maiden voyage, so to speak, things turned out very well,” Hanson said.

“Just about everybody said they had a great time and learned a lot.” – Dee Shore

“I was really excited that Cayla wanted to take the class,” Leathers said. “Every week she would try a new recipe, and she would read labels everywhere we went, scrutinizing everything. I am a diabetic, so it’s good for me to learn different ways to eat healthier.”

Bridges and the other participants made two recipes each week then took home groceries to make the meals at home.

“One of the unique things about the Cooking Matters for Teens curriculum is the extreme food makeover,” Cooke said. “Participants pick their favorite recipe, and they decide over the course of six weeks, based on what they’re learning, how to adapt that recipe to make it healthier.”

During the last week of the class, Cooke said, the teens compete against each other in

teams to prepare their recipes, which are then judged by a panel of experts.

“We made tacos,” Bridges said. “They were good. We used ground turkey, wholewheat tortillas, lettuce and cheese. My favorite part of the class was trying new things.

I had lots of stuff that I’d never tried, like avocado and horned melon.”

NC State students work in groups of five to teach each the Cooking Matters class. There are two chefs, a nutritionist, a class manager and a food runner.

The students who taught Bridges’ class in fall 2014 were senior nutrition majors Thomas Adams, Kristen Bochicchio and Sarah Wilson; Susane Sommer Damasceno, a master’s student in nutrition; and Emily Riddle, a junior nutrition major. Kerry Jones, a senior human

biology major (with a minor in nutrition) supported the team as community liaison.

“The beauty of the Cooking Matters curriculum is that it allows for engaging the participants in learning through encouraging them to tell stories and share experiences,” Cooke said.

“Our students are learning how to be nutrition educators, and they’re also learning how to involve their participants in a real way.”

As part of the service-learning program, students attend Goodell’s lectures and then go to Cooke’s lab for application of what they’ve learned in the classroom.

“They’re learning knife skills, for example, before they teach them to kids and teens,” Cooke said. “They do a lot of practicing before they get into the real-world instruction setting.”

– Suzanne Stanard

Strategic efforts boost CALS in minority student rankings Partnership gives CALS students opportunity to teach Cooking Matters classes arla Leathers is famous for her banana pudding. It’s loaded with the good stuff – sweetened condensed milk, whipped cream, vanilla wafers. The Raleigh mom brings it to every family gathering, and it disappears quickly.

So when her daughter Cayla Bridges, 12, came home from a Cooking Matters class talking about a healthier way to make banana pudding, Leathers was skeptical.

“When she showed me the recipe, I thought there is no way this can be good,” Leathers said. “It had unsweetened applesauce and yogurt. But I agreed to try it since she wanted to make it for me. Surprisingly, I really liked it.”

This moment was one of many that spurred Leathers to write a letter to Natalie Cooke, a postdoctoral teaching scholar in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. Cooke is program director of A PACKed Kitchen, a service-learning program that helps deliver the Cooking Matters classes.

Here’s how it works: The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is the lead partner in North Carolina for Cooking Matters, Share Our Strength’s nutrition education program. Cooke and Suzie Goodell, associate professor of nutrition science, partnered with the Inter-Faith Food 30 perspectives

Courtesy Suzie Goodell

C

The Cooking Matters class participants and instructors display their healthy tacos and tortillas meals.

Shuttle and Share Our Strength in 2009. Since then, NC State students have been teaching Cooking Matters classes in the community as part of their involvement in A PACKed Kitchen.

A PACKed Kitchen helps the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle teach Cooking Matters classes by training their A PACKed Kitchen volunteers and coordinating and financing their Cooking Matters classes, which are offered for free each fall at a variety of community partner sites throughout Raleigh.

To date, the program at NC State has involved more than 100 student volunteers and

reached nearly 300 community participants.

Bridges was one of 12 middle school students from three different Boys and Girls Clubs who participated in a Cooking Matters for Teens class at the Urban Ministries’ Open Door Clinic last fall. Her class was designed to give young people hands-on experience cooking nutritious meals and learning how to make healthy choices.

Bridges excelled in her class, earning the “most likely to become a chef” award at the end of the semester.

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abriya Dobbins remembers her surprise the August day in 2013 when she entered her first animal science class at NC State University.

“I looked around, and I was one of maybe four black people in a class of 100 to 200 people,” recalls Dobbins, who came from a predominantly African-American and Hispanic community in Fayetteville to major in animal science and social work. “It was very shocking to me, and I questioned whether I even belonged there.”

But in the coming months, as she took on a leadership role in student club, earned a highly competitive fellowship, clarified her career goals and won a paid, summer research internship, Dobbins came to realize that she does, indeed, belong in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences – as do a growing number of minority students.

Recently released rankings from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education show that NC State has moved into the nation’s Top 10 when it comes to graduating minority students in agriculture. And as CALS’ Assistant Dean for Diversity, Outreach and Engagement Lisa Guion Jones notes, “This is something to celebrate, because five years ago NC State was ranked number 21 in the nation for graduating minority students in agriculture,

agriculture operations and related sciences at the baccalaureate level.”

Since becoming assistant dean in 2008, Dr. Jones has led a series of strategically planned efforts aimed at increasing the retention and success of under-represented minority students, and she has her sights set on NC State cracking the Top Five in university rankings for minority students in agriculture by the year 2020.

One of the first things she did as assistant dean was to set up a diversity council, and that council helped Jones create the college’s first strategic plan for increasing diversity.

These efforts helped inform CALS’ overall 2013-2020 strategic plan, which lists fostering “an inclusive and diverse environment where faculty, staff and students can reach their full potential” as one of 12 key goals.

Jones says the research that went into the strategic planning effort for diversity has proven particularly helpful, because it helped her design programmatic efforts beyond academics – things such as internships, professional development workshops and mentoring – to enhance minority student success.

“The (higher education) literature was clear that for the success of minority students, there are non-cognitive variables

that are just as critical as the more cognitive variables – because if they’ve gotten accepted into your institution, they’ve got what it takes intellectually to be successful,” Jones says.

“It’s some of the other variables that make a difference when it comes to enhancing retention and graduation rates.”

Jones believes that revamping a course she teaches has been a plus for students.

Called the Freshman Advancement Seminar, or USC 110D, the course is targeted to minorities and first-generation college students. It teaches time management, test-taking and study skills as it exposes students to many of the resources available to help them during their college careers. A university study found that those who took Jones’ redesigned course had higher grade point averages (GPAs) and retention rates than did similar students who didn’t take the course. “The students were very similar in terms of their GPAs and their SATs coming into the university, but those who took the course ended up with higher retention rates and higher GPAs,” she says.

Beyond the first year, Jones invites all minority students who have GPAs below 3.0 to meet with her and map out plans for their academic success. That sometimes includes tutoring – something that can carry a stigma among minority students, Jones says. “I talk

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to the students, and I also link students up with other students who’ve gotten tutoring, because they can help break down the myths that surround tutoring.”

Jones also helps connect students with CALS faculty members offering research internships and with opportunities for study abroad, scholarships and fellowships. And she has held training sessions for faculty members interested in serving as mentors to minority students.

“Role models are so critically important.

The literature is clear that minority students are more likely to emulate role models they can identify with, who understand their culture and perhaps may have faced similar challenges of being a minority in a predominantly white institution,” she says.

Because CALS has such a small number of minority faculty members, Jones makes it a point to show these students that “their role models don’t have to look like them. And I tell them about my mentor – Dr. Ed Boone,” she says. “He was the opposite of me – an older white male from a much higher socioeconomic background – and yet he was my mentor.”

Students, too, can be important mentors, Jones says, so she has worked to strengthen and expand opportunities for peer interaction

32 perspectives

among minority students. Jones collaborated with Dr. Warren Sconiers, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Entomology, and Dr. Ben Reading, assistant professor of applied ecology, to launch the first chapter of the national Ecological Society for America Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS) at NC State. And Jones is adviser to the university’s chapter of MANRRS, or Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences.

Veronica Mbaneme, a CALS and College of Engineering alumna and Ph.D. candidate in biological and agricultural engineering, has served as the MANRRS chapter’s president since its relaunch two years ago. In that role, she has been a mentor for several undergraduate students, helping steer them to campus resources, encouraging them to reach out for help and greater opportunities, and lending an ear when they need someone to talk to. She’s also helped organize professional development and academic enrichment workshops featuring accomplished minorities involved in science.

Another way that Mbaneme has worked to enhance minority students’ experiences is by using her role as vice president of external affairs in the NC State University Graduate

NC State releases first agromedicine dictionary

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n the 1980s, Dr. Ernest Hodgson of NC State University and colleagues recognized the need for a program that would merge the disciplines of agriculture and health to serve the needs of those working in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The result was a program known today as agromedicine.

Though retired for 12 years, Hodgson, professor emeritus and former head of NC State’s Toxicology Department, and other colleagues have released the first Dictionary of Agromedicine, available online. The dictionary will provide agromedicine practitioners with a common language for their field and help further define agromedicine as a discipline of its own.

The dictionary is available through the website of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Applied Ecology at http://agromedicinedictionary.ces.ncsu.edu/.

This first-ever dictionary for agromedicine includes 2,200 terms, and the editorial committee invites those in the field to propose additional entries.

Interpreted broadly, agromedicine represents the field of occupational health for those who work in farming, forestry and fisheries, said Dr. Greg Cope, co-editor of the dictionary, who was recently named William Neal Reynolds Professor in applied ecology. Agriculture and related occupations are among the most dangerous.

In the 1980s, agromedicine was a new idea in the field of agriculture and toxicology, driven largely by concerns over pesticide pollution, as defined by the Clean Water Act. Hodgson, then head of the Toxicology Department, recalls traveling around the state with Dr. Billy Caldwell, retired NC State crop science professor and Cooperative Extension associate director, and Dr. Paul James, a physician at East Carolina University.

The three met with professional groups, commodity groups, hospital leaders and other medical personnel about the need to develop a program in agromedicine. Hodgson recalls that some were interested and others were not. Ag-related illnesses and injuries are not

Becky Kirkland

Dee Shore

Sabriya Dobbins says that college efforts to boost minority success have helped her gain selfconfidence, career direction and more.

Student Association and as member of the University Diversity Advisory Council to address minority student concerns and issues.

Having a more diverse college is important for a number of reasons, Mbaneme says.

Students need to be prepared to interact and thrive in a nation and a world made up of people of different backgrounds, she says, and that preparation can happen in colleges that promote diversity. Not only that, she says, being able to learn from peers and faculty members with different experiences opens students to new ways of looking at things and of solving problems.

Mbaneme says that being able to lead MANRRS and serve as a peer mentor have been important, rewarding steps toward her goal of becoming a university researcher and professor.

“You definitely get where you are on the backs of others, and at some point you need to help someone else make it, too. I think that’s important,” she says. “When we do that, I feel like we’ll see an increase in ethnic diversity in the student body, the faculty and the administrative staff. … It takes a community.”

Jones agrees. “Diversity doesn’t just happen in the Office of Diversity,” she says. “I conceptualize, design and lead the efforts, but it takes a whole system of support.”

For Dobbins, that support system has included Jones, Mbaneme, USC 110D and MANRRS. They’ve all had a role, she says, in helping her find her place within the college, in strengthening her self-confidence and in encouraging her to pursue NC State’s prestigious Caldwell Fellowship, which she received last year.

“I had a hard transition – it was very daunting. But I have found that at this big university, I have a little community of people who are behind me every step of the way,” says Dobbins, who will follow in Mbaneme’s footsteps this fall as president of the campus MANRRS chapter – and in giving back to the CALS community. “I definitely feel more confident in myself and what I have to offer.”

– Dee Shore

Dr. Ernest Hodgson, center, worked on the agromedicine dictionary with Dr. Greg Cope, left, and Julia Storm. The dictionary can be seen on the screen in the background.

uncommon to medical professionals in rural areas, who understood the need for an agromedicine program.

The effort led to the establishment of the N.C. Agromedicine Institute, a partnership of East Carolina University, NC State University and N.C. A&T State University. The institute collaborates with many state and community partners, including N.C. Cooperative Extension. The institute’s mission is to promote the health and safety of those who work in agriculture, forestry and fishing through research, intervention and prevention, and education and outreach.

When asked how long it took to develop the dictionary, Hodgson responds, “Forever.

Basically, I came to the conclusion I wasn’t going to finish it in my lifetime. I was lucky enough that Greg Cope was willing to get involved. Then Julia Storm and the editorial committee got involved.”

Hodgson was also editor of the Dictionary of Toxicology, now out in its third edition.

Holding the rights to that dictionary helped with toxicology terms that Hodgson wanted to add to the agromedicine dictionary. The agricultural terms were more challenging, Hodgson said, and so he turned to an editorial committee for support.

The project moved along quickly after the editorial committee was in place. NC State

faculty on the committee are, from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Julia Storm and Dr. Catherine LePrevost, applied ecology; Ted Feitshans, agricultural and resource economics; Dr. Mike Waldvogel, entomology; and from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Drs. Ronald E. Baynes and Barrett D. Slenning, population health and pathobiology.

Other editorial committee members represent East Carolina University, the N.C. Division of Public Health and the N.C. Agromedicine Institute.

“The Agromedicine Institute is a systematic partnership between the land-grant and medical institutions to address the occupational and environmental health and safety issues for people who work in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. That is really the key that binds everybody together,” Cope said.

Annually, the institute offers an agricultural medicine course, originally developed in Iowa. Many of the terms in the dictionary are also topics that are taught in the course, which is offered as a combination in-person and continuing education course through East Carolina University.

“The course is intended not only for nurses and those who want to become AgriSafe Network-certified nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers, but also we’ve had extension agents take the course, we’ve had other health and safety professionals, industrial hygienists,” Storm said.

Institute Director Robin Tutor-Marcom said the dictionary will be a great asset to the field of agromedicine. “The dictionary will be an invaluable tool going forward for both students and professionals working in the field,” she said. “Many thanks are due to Dr. Hodgson, other faculty members and community partners who assisted in making the dictionary a reality.”

Technical expertise for making the dictionary an online resource was provided by N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Mike Vysocka and Rhonda Conlon and web designers Neil McCoy and Shane McCoy. – Natalie Hampton

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Heather Wilcox

noteworthy

ALUMNI

Keeper of the kingdom: Training rhinos is all in a day’s work for this NC State alumna

Heather Wilcox

t’s been an exciting spring at the Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World, where NC State University grad Heather Wilcox is an animal keeper. In February, two new baby rhinos – a boy, on Feb. 1, and a girl, on Feb. 18 – were born at the Animal Kingdom, which is also celebrating its 17th anniversary. The male is “our first fourth-generation rhino,” says Wilcox, whose duties include training rhinos in behaviors to aid in their health and well-being care.

Wilcox, who is an advocate lead trainer for two white rhinos and a spotted hyena, came to the Orlando park in 2012. And it’s been an experience-packed three years: At first she worked nights at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, working with some 30 species of animals. Then she cared for hippos in the Little Ituri Forest exhibit, part of the Kilimanjaro Safaris. She has also been on staff in the park’s Asia area, working with tigers.

Now in the east savannah region of the safari, she focuses on and leads the training for the southern white rhinoceros and spotted hyena, but also can be called upon to train or care for cheetahs, lions, warthogs, ostriches and yellow-billed storks, as well as giraffes, zebras, addax, bontebok and slender-horned gazelles – not to mention “a lot of additional responsibilities and projects I have added to

Wilcox leads the training of the southern white rhinoceros at the park.

34 perspectives

Becky Kirkland

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These warthogs live on the east savannah of the Animal Kingdom.

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Heather Wilcox works with “everything from carnivores to hoof stock to birds.”

my routine and project time,” she says.

As a child, Wilcox would often travel with her mother from their Pinehurst home to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, where her mother volunteered. Her affinity for animal care would lead her to NC State, where she earned her 2011 bachelor’s degree in zoology, a curriculum then housed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She also has experience in shark research, in breeding areas south of Naples, Florida, where she netted and tagged sharks and sawfish.

“I always preferred carnivore species, always had cats as pets, and that evolved as an interest into bigger cats,” she says.

Now, she says, “I like the diversity of my area, everything from carnivores to hoof stock to birds. They have their own personalities for sure. Some are more willing and easier to train, some more reactive to food.”

She works four 10-hour days a week.

“Our first two days are late days where we

will come in around 8 a.m. and work until 7 p.m. These hours will change as daylight extends later into the night,” she says. “Our last two days of our workweek we open and work 5 a.m. until 4 p.m. The park doesn’t open until hours later, and most of our guests have no idea we have already been working and watching the sun rise each morning!”

Her basic duties include the general care, feeding, cleaning, medicating and well-being observations of the animals in her collection.

“We do training for each of our animals to some extent,” she says.

She also is a point animal keeper in charge of processing fecal samples for lion, zebra, white rhino and giraffe, to support endocrine research for breeding programs with these species and track their cycles.

“It is very tough to pick a favorite animal that I work with because the species are so different and there are different things I appreciate about each of them. I have to say that

the rhinos have really surprised me, and I didn’t think I would enjoy them as much as I do.

These animals face so many challenges in the wild, such as poaching, so I am thankful I have the opportunity to bond with these amazing animals and share that passion,” she says.

“Hyenas are new to Animal Kingdom, and I have also really enjoyed establishing a training program for them and am constantly amazed by their intelligence and curiosity,” she says. “The hyenas are not yet available for the public to see. That happens next year in a night safari program.”

The behaviors she and her group train are to aid in medical procedures or maintain behaviors which allow easier examinations of certain areas on the animal.

“For example,” she says, “with our rhinos we train open mouth behaviors to examine the teeth and inside of the mouth.” Also, she says, the rhinos are trained for voluntary blood draws, “when they line up and we can draw blood from the inner area of their legs.”

She and her colleagues also train the animals to target a buoy on a stick – to touch it with their lip to earn a reward – a process which helps the staff to move the animals to a desired spot or align them for a physical exam.

“Sometimes they’ll be excited about food, so we work for a gentle touch,” says Wilcox.

“We do everything from scale training (to allow for voluntary weight monitoring) to ultrasound training to vaccine desensitization.

All of our training involves operant conditioning and positive reinforcement.”

And just how do you train the world’s secondlargest land animal? Techniques can include the trainer tapping the animal’s upper lip and blowing a whistle when it hits the desired behavior.

“Rhinos are very food motivated,” Wilcox says. “They know the whistle means food.

They get a lot of hay and grain formulated for them. Alfalfa is given as a treat, but that’s very high-calorie, so it’s just used as a motivation for training or given to nursing mothers.

“Our day consists of lifting a lot of hay bales!”

As for what surprises her about the rhinos, Wilcox says, “It’s neat to see them get up and come over in the morning. They recognize us.

They have big toys – balls called boomer balls – and they push them around in the mud.

There’s also a big brush on a clothesline type thing that they rub against.”

Enrichment is also a huge part of their day, something Wilcox calls “a very essential addition to the lives of animals in captivity. It’s anything we can add to their environment to make it more exciting for them.” It includes anything from wallow maintenance and construction for the white rhinos, to scents or spices, feeder puzzle toys or plants for the hyenas.

So far, Wilcox and her team are working to establish behaviors with animals that had no prior training before coming to the park.

These activities include getting the animal to calmly eat off a meat stick, to target to a buoy on a stick “to move them around and examine their bodies,” to stand “which also lets us examine their underside,” and to sit “for scale training and voluntary weights.”

The training comes very much into play when moving the animals to desired locales.

“They stay in a barn, in stalls, at night, and some like to stay out in their section of the savannah,” Wilcox says. “But generally they like to come in, because they get their grain at night. We bang three times on the metal door, which cues them to come in 45 minutes before sunset. (The cheetah’s cue is the tambourine.) They associate sounds with food and are rewarded when they come in.”

When it comes to overall animal care, every facet is monitored at Animal Kingdom, Wilcox says. “The nutritionist oversees all food enrichment. Anything behavioral, the husbandry department oversees; and managers and curators oversee safety.”

Her own journey to Animal Kingdom began with her education at NC State, where, she says, “my classes with my zoology degree built my foundation of knowledge in the field.” Among her favorite courses were endocrinology with Dr.

Russell Borski and animal behavior with Dr. Miles Engell, “which I use every day in my job.”

After graduating, she immediately did an internship with The Conservators’ Center in Mebane for the summer of 2011. “This gave me the opportunity to work with a variety of carnivore species (my initial interest). After my internship ended, I moved to Naples, and I landed a job with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.”

She did field work with Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, aiding in shark research projects in the Gulf and also doing surveys in the Everglades. “I did education outreach programs with the conservancy, as well,” she says. “I worked with them for almost a year, as I built contacts with Disney and traveled to Orlando to interview and become a known face for the company, expressing persistent interest in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.”

The great part about coming into Animal Kingdom as a night keeper, she says, “was that I had the opportunity to learn the entire park and network with every team of animal keepers in every area. I had the chance to assist every team with any overnight medical monitoring or emergency procedures; witnessed so many births overnight for giraffe, impala, rhino, etc., that I lost count; and was on a bottle-feeding team for warthog, impala, Thompson’s gazelles, bontebok and springbok.

“I spent a year on the night team with the challenging schedule before I transitioned to a day team, but my experiences were irreplaceable.”

Now, Wilcox says, “My favorite thing about my job is waking up, going to work and saying good morning to the animals that most people aren’t even blessed to see, much less get to know their personalities.

“Some days I really have to stop and reflect on how lucky I am to have a job I have such a passion for. Every day has a different routine, and although it is a very physical job, it is also a mental challenge – you always have to be careful and aware of everything you do.”

That was certainly true this past April, when Wilcox put in extra hours caring for and bottle-feeding the new baby rhino after his mother rejected him.

“I enjoy that my job will always have more to learn, and the knowledge is limitless – everything from animal husbandry, to research, to guest interaction,” she says. “Sharing my passion is very rewarding.” – Terri Leith summer 2015

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CALS grad Andy VonCanon (right) teaches high-school agriculture. His wife, Brittany Whitmire, is an Extension dairy economist. Together they farm 75 acres near Brevard.

economics and chemistry as a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Their diverse backgrounds, says Whitmire, have helped shape their approach to the farm today. “Andy oftentimes has the big ideas, and I am the more detailed, nuts-and-bolts person,” she says. “I’d say we complement each other well because we have different skill sets.”

When they got out of college and were looking to establish a farm, the local food movement was in its early years. “Originally we were looking for a way to differentiate,” VonCanon says, “and there was this idea that agriculturists could become price makers by selling directly to local customers, whereas for many years they had been price takers: Whatever the stockyard was giving you, that’s what you got for your cattle. Whatever the granary was buying corn for, that’s what you got.”

To keep the farm manageable between them and maintain a satisfying work-life balance, the two sell very little beyond Transylvania County. “We don’t really go much beyond our county borders, except there are a couple of restaurants in Asheville that utilize some of our products, like our honey,” Whitmire said.

What they do produce, they are creative with. On 75 acres – they own 16, rent 50 from her father and lease the rest – they produce

pastured beef that they sell at a local grocery store and offer directly to customers in a variety of forms: whole animals for freezer chests to mixed boxes to single steaks. They also raise nearly 200 turkeys for slaughter at Thanksgiving and produce honey, some of it in tiny jars to an area pottery shop that sells it in a package with hand-thrown pottery jugs.

From April to November of each year, they sell their products – and others from a few like-minded farmers – on Saturday mornings at the Transylvania Farmers Market.

While the farm keeps VonCanon and Whitmire busy, they are highly committed to their careers. And both believe that their farm life has provided them with insights and advantages helpful in their careers.

Whitmire, for example, says her experience helps her relate more to her Extension clientele, both the dairy farmers she serves now and the producers she previously worked with as an Extension associate through North Carolina’s Value-Added Cost Share program.

“I have boots-on-the-ground experience, so I know what it means when you have to figure out ‘What pieces of equipment can I float? What expansions can I make?’ because I’ve had to make those personal decisions for our farm,” she says. Her clients have said they

Busy Bee Farm’s Pure Honey is among the couple’s local foods products.

also see that anybody can do it,” he adds.

“Small-scale agriculture can really happen anywhere. It’s a viable opportunity for almost everybody.”

Indeed, VonCanon has been interested in making sure more and more young people are able to pursue agricultural opportunities. And that, he says, will only happen if the state is able to produce enough middle-school and high-school agricultural education teach-

ers. Right now, there aren’t enough students preparing to be agricultural teachers to fill the demand.

VonCanon had a major hand in helping Brevard College prepare to launch a new agricultural teacher-education program this year.

And he has talked to CALS Dean Rich Linton about the need to expand the one at NC State.

He says he was heartened to learn from Linton about college efforts aimed at expanding pathways for rural North Carolina students to gain admittance to and succeed at NC State.

All in all, he and his wife are optimistic about North Carolina agriculture and agribusiness and are proud to be playing roles in helping shape its future. As VonCanon puts it, “I feel very positive about the state of agriculture. It’s North Carolina’s No. 1 industry, with $78 billion generated every year. I don’t think everybody recognizes that. But my parting message would be that agriculture’s future is bright, and I’m excited to be part of it.”

– Dee Shore

Ph.D. student sheds light on wellwater contamination here and abroad

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C State University soil science alumna and Ph.D. student Elizabeth Gillispie spent January days drilling and sampling for chemicals beneath remote farm fields in Cambodia.

The next month, she visited a high-tech California synchrotron to get a sub-nanometer-level look at her samples.

While the synchrotron “was all microscopes and beams and computers,” she recalled, “it was such a different experience to go from being outdoors in the field analyzing samples, with cows around and chickens running everywhere, to this really scientific, Star Trek-looking way of analyzing samples.”

Then in March she met with Congress members and their staffs on Capitol Hill, explaining her research, the light it sheds on groundwater contamination and the importance of that knowledge to protecting people’s health.

Gillispie found the contrasts in her recent travels striking, fascinating – and perhaps key to her future as a soil scientist.

“I want that mix,” she said – a mix of highand low-tech, of field and laboratory work, of research, outreach and policy.

While she’s undecided about exactly which path her career will take, two things are sure: “I know I want to be able to help and positively impact as many people as I can through water and soil quality,” she said.

“And I hope my career will involve the kind of mix that I’m experiencing now as a student.”

Gillispie is working toward a Ph.D. degree under Dr. Matthew Polizzotto, an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Soil Science.

She also did her work as a master’s student under him, evaluating the reasons for elevated manganese concentrations in the well water of North Carolina’s piedmont.

Now Gillispie is considering the role manganese oxides play in limiting the transport of arsenic in groundwater in Southeast Asia.

Both manganese and arsenic can, at high enough concentrations, cause health problems for people who drink groundwater.

“Whether it’s in Cambodia, where I am studying, or North Carolina, we all rely on clean, healthy water to be healthy people,” she said. “So it’s important for us to know if I’m pulling water from an aquifer that is sup-

Becky Kirkland

ndy VonCanon and Brittany Whitmire call their family farm near Brevard “Busy Bee” – and what a fitting name it is. The two keep bees and raise cattle, turkeys and forage crops, all the while holding busy off-farm careers in agriculture.

He’s a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumnus who teaches high school agriculture, and she’s the new dairy economist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service at NC State. Together, they farm about 75 acres, helping fill consumers’ growing demand for local food.

While the husband and wife have the drive to contribute to the growth and success of North Carolina’s agricultural community in common, they say that much of their farm’s success likely lies with the fact that they are able to blend what’s different about them: their very different childhood experiences with agriculture.

VonCanon grew up with what he calls a romantic idea of agriculture. Though raised in the town of China Grove, in North Carolina’s piedmont, he fondly recalls days visiting and playing at his grandparents’ farm. Then in high school his passion for farming was sparked by a teacher who helped him understand the vital importance of agriculture to society.

Whitmire grew up with more of a dirt-under-your-fingernails experience helping out on her family’s farm, parts of which she and VonCanon now own and work. The farm’s been in her father’s family for nearly 150 years. For the first two generations, it was a subsistence farm, until her grandfather began making a profit with his dairy operation. Then her father and uncle switched to raising replacement heifers for nearby dairies, while her uncle grew burley tobacco.

The two were brought together when they each were elected to serve in 2000-01 as state officers for the North Carolina FFA Association, a student organization for those interested in agriculture and leadership. At the time, he was pursuing an agricultural education major and poultry science minor as a North Carolina Teaching Fellow at NC State, graduating in 2004, while she was studying

Courtesy Brittany Whitmire

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value the fact that she has firsthand knowledge and experience, “not just an academic experience of what I think they are going through.”

VonCanon, on the other hand, sometimes hires students as farm hands so they’ll learn more about what it’s like to work on a farm, and he uses the farm as a field trip site. One day this spring, for example, he brought his Animal Science II students to the farm to learn what’s involved in processing chickens they had raised.

“I know that the facts and the figures and the multiple-choice questions that we might associate with standardized tests will fade over time. But I guarantee that every single student in that class is never going to forget the day they came to Mr. VonCanon’s farm and processed birds,” he says.

“It was a great experience. Not only do they value a little bit more what it takes to produce a chicken and appreciate agriculture for the hard work that’s involved, but they can

Courtesy Brittany Whitmire

Business and Busy-ness: Brevard couple manage part-time farm with full-time careers in agriculture

Liz Gillispie pauses near Williams Hall, site of her ongoing research in groundwater contamination.

posedly clean … what is the likelihood of it, over time, becoming contaminated? Are you at risk? Will you be at risk? And how can you prevent risk in the future?”

Gillispie is studying two Cambodian aquifers that are near each other, one with levels

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38 perspectives

of her interview with Perspectives, she was training to run her first marathon.)

Gillispie also makes time to contribute to the community, whether it’s by serving as president of the soil science graduate student association, helping Boy Scouts earn merit badges or working with others to create a calendar celebrating the International Year of Soils.

While Gillispie’s passion for soils and for science is decidedly strong, it’s relatively new.

Gillispie, shown here working with school children, often makes time to contribute to the community.

GIVING

The George and Rhoda Kriz $4.5 million estate gift will fund multiple faculty-support endowments

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Courtesy Liz Gillispie

of arsenic that are undetectable and the other with arsenic levels above drinking water standards. Her goal: to quantify the potential for contamination of the clean aquifer, both from sediment beneath the aquifer and from groundwater in the neighboring aquifer.

While she pursues her studies, she’s also interested in making sure that stakeholders have access to findings and other information to help them make decisions about using well water. During her master’s project, she had numerous opportunities to reach out to various audiences, including well drillers, academics, local residents, geologists, hydrologists and environmental health specialists.

As a doctoral student, she’s expanded her reach to yet another audience: elected officials. As a winner of the Future Leaders in Science Award from the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America, she earned a trip to Washington, D.C., this past spring to undergo training in policy, communication and advocacy and to visit her congressional delegation.

As Gillispie prepares for her future as a soil scientist, she believes it’s important to focus on more than her graduate research and class work. It’s also important, she said, to find balance among personal interests such as spending time with family and friends, being outside and staying physically fit. (At the time

noteworthy hen NC State University Professor Emeritus Dr. George Kriz and his wife, Rhoda Kriz, both retired from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1999, they had already created the George J. and Rhoda W. Kriz Faculty Study Leave Endowment in the college. Now more than 15 years later, the Krizes are not only updating that endowment, but they are creating three more to support CALS faculty and their activities.

On Feb. 20, at a signing ceremony and reception hosted by Dr. Steve Lommel, CALS associate dean for research, the couple endorsed four memoranda of understanding for a large estate gift of $4.5 million to establish permanent endowment funds. These will benefit CALS faculty and the N.C. Agricultural Research Service (NCARS) and will fund a professorship in the CALS Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE), as well as several traditional agriculture distinguished professorships.

Addressing the more than 50 guests in attendance, including the Kriz family, Lommel said of the four endowments, “This is an important announcement for the college but particularly for research. George and Rhoda know where the university needs funding.

“We believe this commitment is the largest by former faculty and staff in the history of CALS.” The first agreement, between the Krizes and the N.C. Agricultural Foundation Inc., created the George J. and Rhoda W. Kriz Faculty Enrichment Endowment, to be used for faculty salary supplements and/or start-up equipment for new faculty members; it is intended to be a means to attract stellar faculty members.

The second agreement, also with the foundation, for the George J. and Rhoda W. Kriz

Faculty Study Leave Endowment, renews the prior such endowment to provide funds for study leaves for CALS faculty members to enhance their research effectiveness.

The third and fourth memoranda of understanding were between the Krizes and the Board CALS faculty will benefit from endowments created by Dr. George J. and of Trustees of the Rhoda W. Kriz.

Endowment Fund of NC State University.

CALS administration. He started the animal These established the George J. and Rhoda waste program at NC State and facilitated W. Kriz Distinguished Professorship in Biologifield days at various research stations for cal and Agricultural Engineering, as well as numerous commodities and farming programs. the creation of distinguished professorships, He retired as the longest-serving associate each called the George J. and Rhoda W. Kriz director of agricultural research at a landDistinguished Professorship, to be awarded grant university. to professors working within traditional agriDuring the signing ceremony the couple culture departments. Such CALS departments also made a “big check” presentation to Dr. include Agricultural and Extension Education; Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, CALS crop sciAgricultural and Resource Economics; Animal entist, the 2015 recipient of the Kriz Faculty Science; BAE; Crop Science; Entomology; Study Leave award. Schroeder-Moreno, who Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences; directs the college’s agroecology teaching Horticultural Science; Plant and Microbial program, planned to use the funds to travel to Biology; Prestage Poultry Science; and Soil Croatia to study agroecology techniques there.

Science.

“Study abroad is a life-changing opportuGeorge Kriz retired as CALS’ associate nity,” said Schroeder-Moreno as she thanked director of the NCARS, and Rhoda Kriz was the Krizes. “What I learn there will change my program assistant in the college’s Plant Disresearch and teaching and what I can give to ease and Insect Clinic in the Plant Pathology my students here.” – Terri Leith Department. George served from 1965 to 1973 in the BAE Department, where he was associate head of Extension, before moving into

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Marc Hall

Becky Kirkland

Gillispie has been studying the roles manganese and arsenic can play in causing health problems for people who drink groundwater.

A native of Alexandria, Virginia, she started her undergraduate studies at the University of Mary Washington in hopes of earning an English degree. Along the way, though, she switched her major to psychology.

Then, while holding an internship with the U.S. Navy’s Director of Ocean Engineering, she learned to scuba dive and, along the way, realized how much she loved working out-ofdoors. A fellow Mary Washington student and scuba diver convinced her to consider environmental sciences. She crammed in the needed classes and, a year and a half later, finished with a bachelor’s degree in environmental geology.

“Now I am absolutely in love with what I do, and it really was by chance that I got into this field,” she said.

As she prepares for her career, Gillispie said she knows she’s in the perfect place to do that.

“I always heard NC State was one of the best soil science programs in the nation, but I didn’t believe it until I came,” she said. “And now to be able to work here and to be given the experiences NC State has given me, I’m better off than I ever would imagine I’d be in, say, five years from now. So I can only imagine what more time here is going to give me.”

– Dee Shore

Terri Leith

A rosy day for the 2015 Gala in the Garden

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provided by event pianist Roger Lehman, with Bob Graves performing as Dessert Reception DJ. Jill Adams of the A.E. Finley Foundation served as the 2015 gala honorary chair, and Anne Clapp as gala event chair, with Weathington hosting the event. NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Richard Linton were also on hand to support the event.

– Terri Leith

Guests browse through silent auction tents at the 2015 Gala in the Garden.

Terri Leith

approximately 500 other shrubs and perennials will complement the roses.

“The new Finley-Nottingham Rose Garden was built thanks to the generosity of the A.E. Finley Foundation’s $125,000 gift,” he said. “Many of the roses were donated by Witherspoon Rose Culture, which will also

A young visitor prepares to tour the newly installed Finley-Nottingham Rose Garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum.

be assisting in the maintenance of the rose collection.”

Along with being a destination area for arb visitors, the garden will also play its part in the JCRA’s research and education mission: “We will be evaluating the roses for their suitability, pest tolerance, disease resistance and other desirable traits for the piedmont of North Carolina and the greater southeastern United States,” Weathington said.

r. Todd Klaenhammer rarely is at a loss for words.

Considered to be the world’s foremost researcher in the field of starter cultures and probiotics, Klaenhammer is used to speaking to audiences all over the globe about the groundbreaking work taking place in his laboratory at NC State University.

But on a sunny Friday in May, standing at a podium in the Hunt Library in front of an audience of his students, colleagues and peers, Klaenhammer was gobsmacked.

The Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professorship in Probiotics Research had just been announced, during a break in an afternoon symposium celebrating Klaenhammer’s career.

A surprise to Klaenhammer, the $1 million endowment will support the activities of a full professor specializing in probiotics research within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. Members of the North Carolina Dairy Foundation’s Sweet Acidophilus Committee, operating under the auspices of the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation Inc., will fund the endowment with income generated by royalties.

During the presentation, Brant Johnson, one of Klaenhammer’s current graduate students, presented him with a book containing copies of the first page of every single one of Klaenhammer’s publications.

“I’m extremely honored and humbled for this recognition, and emotionally grateful for all the excellent work driven by many

Becky Kirkland

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Colorful spring finery is always on display at the annual arb gala.

40 perspectives

countless botanicals for sale, but also an amazing array of eclectic choices, such as art objects, garden needs and décor, handmade quilts, gourmet picnic baskets, pottery, NC State Wolfpack-themed kitchenware, jewelry, birdhouses, wine collections and brunch with garden writer Brie Arthur, to name a few.

A main food tent and roaming servers offered gourmet morsels to guests, followed later by NC State Howling Cow ice cream at the evening Finale Program and Dessert Social. Music for the afternoon activities was

New endowments created honoring Klaenhammer’s legacy in probiotics research

Terri Leith

verything came up roses the first weekend in May: From the arrival of a new “English Rose,” Princess Charlotte, to a run for the roses by Kentucky Derby winner American Pharaoh, to the JC Raulston Arboretum celebrating the newly installed Finley-Nottingham Rose Garden at its annual gala.

The weather was rosy, as well. Recent unseasonably cold temperatures finally gave way to a picture perfect day May 3 at the JCRA, NC State University’s renowned public garden and horticultural teaching, extension and research resource that is home to the largest and most diverse collections of landscape plants adapted for use in the Southeast.

This year’s gala theme was Stop and Smell the Roses, in commemoration of the completion of the Finley-Nottingham Rose Garden.

That garden has been moved south of its previous location and enlarged with more planted areas, added architectural elements, new path designs and bench areas and other scenic spots for guests to enjoy.

The garden currently holds 100 roses and will ultimately hold 150, according to Mark Weathington, JCRA director. “Once they are established, we expect about 3,000 blooms per day during peak season in mid to late May and again in late September,” he said, adding that

The Gala in the Garden is the JCRA’s largest fundraising event and one that is looked forward to eagerly each year by gardening enthusiasts from near and far. Proceeds enable continued evaluation and support of new plant material, child and adult educational opportunities and continuation of other programs as the JCRA supports the state’s economy through green industry partnerships and community outreach.

When not touring the grounds, gala guests visited six auction tents, featuring not only

Dr. Todd Klaenhammer (left) receives a book of the first pages of each of his publications, from his graduate student Brant Johnson.

extremely talented scientists and professionals in our research and administrative groups over 37 years,” Klaenhammer said.

He had organized the May 15 “Career Celebration Symposium” as a gathering of alumni who trained at NC State on the subject of lactic acid bacteria, bringing in colleagues from NC State, Japan, Ireland, Canada and the Netherlands. Little did he know what was in store for that afternoon break.

And after the shock of that announcement, the hits kept coming.

At an evening reception at the Roy Park Alumni Center, the Todd R. and Amy E. Klaenhammer FBNS Graduate Award Endowment in Food Microbiology and Functional Genomics was announced.

The endowment – which has raised more than $56,000 at press time – was created as a surprise for Klaenhammer by his colleagues, former students, family and friends to provide awards for graduate students in the FBNS Department who are working in an area of food microbiology or functional genomics.

In 1978, Klaenhammer joined the college as an assistant professor. In 1993 he was recognized as a William Neal Reynolds Professor, and in 2001, he was named a Distinguished University Professor with appointments in the FBNS Department, the departments of Microbiology and Genetics, and the Functional Genomics Program.

Klaenhammer’s research team has published more than 280 articles on dairy lactic

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tics and also abate colon cancer and colitis.

Klaenhammer was elected as a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA). In both ADSA and IFT, he was awarded their highest honors, the Borden and Nicolas Appert awards, respectively. He was elected into the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. The Board of Governors of the UNC system in 2009 awarded Klaenhammer’s group the prestigious O. Max Gardner award for the most outstanding research in the university system.

Officials break ground for new 4-H camp building

Now he is on phased retirement, which in his words means, “I have two years left to figure out how to work at 50 percent time.”

Knowing that his legacy will be perpetuated by these two new endowments is a dream come true, Klaenhammer said.

“My hopes for both the endowment and scholarship are that these incentives will attract and support excellent faculty and students working with the beneficial microbes that preserve our foods and positively impact our health,” Klaenhammer said. “Our laboratory banner is ‘get cultured – eat bacteria,’ and I believe this is a scientific field that will continue to explode in the future.”

– Suzanne Stanard

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n unconventional indoor groundbreaking ceremony Feb. 13 marked the start of construction for a camp auditorium and learning center that an NC State University official said would be the crown jewel of Millstone 4-H Camp, in North Carolina’s Sandhills region.

Despite cold weather, more than 100 people – including 4-H alumni, leaders, donors and NC State University administrators – gathered at the Ellerbe camp for the groundbreaking for the $1.5 million State Employees Credit Union 4-H Learning Center and Cole Foundation Auditorium.

Scheduled to be completed in September, the privately funded building will provide 3,500 square feet of air-conditioned space for camps, retreats, conferences and workshops, said N.C. 4-H Camping Specialist David Herpy. Hobbs Architects of Pittsboro designed the facility.

The space will include an auditorium seating more than 150 people, a hall of leadership honoring former state 4-H program leaders, a 4-H archive and conference room, a catering kitchen and more.

State 4-H Program Leader Dr. Mike Yoder opened the groundbreaking ceremony in a screened-in building where participants gathered around portable heaters and drank hot chocolate to keep warm. He noted that the 320-acre camp was constructed in 1938 and opened the following year.

Dr. Richard Linton, dean of NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said that the auditorium and learning center would deepen the camp’s impact.

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tributed to the overall Convington research and extension endowment, including commitments signed April 15 by representatives of BB Hobbs/ Netafim, East Coast Equipment LLC, First Citizen’s Bank, International Paper Co., Pratt (Jet Corr) Inc., Robert & Wade Glover Farms, the W.A. Boyette family, Southern Produce Distributors and Wells Fargo & Co. Hill also recognized Clay T. Strickland Farms and Triple J Produce for creating new endowments.

The signing ceremony and dinner took place at the Wilson Agricultural Center, where Hill said that it’s no accident that North Carolina is the nation’s leading sweet-potatoproducing state. Rather, he said, it’s due to

Dee Shore

C State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ research and extension work on sweet potatoes got a big boost April 15, as leaders in the sweet potato industry and associated endeavors gathered in Wilson to celebrate reaching their $1.3 million goal for the Henry M. Covington Endowment.

But as the SweetPotato Commission’s Campaign for Excellence reached its endowment goal, campaign chairman and grower Kendall Hill challenged the group to aim for $2 million as he made his second gift of $25,000.

Hill, who served as master of ceremonies for the celebration, noted that 36 founding endowments of $25,000 or more had been con-

On April 15, these company representatives signed commitments to the Henry M. Covington Endowment for sweet potato research and extension work at NC State University.

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industry members’ ingenuity and hard work; leadership of the SweetPotato Commission, including executive director Sue JohnsonLangdon and board members; a partnership with the college; and a shared commitment to the future, as evidenced by the campaign.

Dr. Steve Lommel, the college’s associate dean and director of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, noted that no other agricultural industry has created an endowment equal in stature to the Covington Endowment and that the funding would help keep the industry strong.

“The sweet potato industry has always been a model for other agricultural industry groups, and this is another example of your leadership,” he said.

The endowment is named for an NC State University Extension horticulture specialist who was affectionately known as “Mr. Sweet Potato.” Serving with the university from 1948 to 1974 and active with the industry through his death in 2004, Henry Covington contributed to incredible growth and success in the early sweet potato industry in North Carolina.

During his career, North Carolina sweet potato yields more than doubled and the state emerged as the nation’s leader in sweet potato production. – Dee Shore

McKinley Wooten, CALS Dean Rich Linton, Neal Cadieu Jr. and Dr. Joe Zublena break ceremonial ground for the SECU 4-H Learning Center and Cole Foundation Auditorium.

“The building marks a new era for Millstone and for the North Carolina 4-H camps,” Linton said, “and will become the crown jewel in a family of buildings that will touch our state’s youth, families and citizens with a variety of new programs and opportunities that can be offered for the community.”

Following Linton’s and Yoder’s remarks, representatives of two major donors, the State Employees Credit Union Foundation and the Cole Foundation, presented oversized checks. Neil Cadieu Jr. contributed the Cole Foundation’s check for $250,000, while SECU

Becky Kirkland

Industry advances sweet potato research and extension

Becky Kirkland

acid bacteria and their bacteriophages, as well as probiotic cultures and their genomic traits. Led by Klaenhammer, the group determined the three core mechanisms by which lactococci defend themselves against bacteriophages. The research group spearheaded efforts to sequence beneficial lactic acid bacteria and determined and published the complete genome sequences of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus gasseri to reveal many genetic traits underlying probiotic mechanisms.

Using genetic tools developed by the Klaenhammer team, modifications to lactobacilli have been used to develop oral probiotics that could deliver vaccines and bio-therapeu-

State 4-H Leader Mike Yoder called the groundbreaking for the State Employees Credit Union 4-H Learning Center and the Cole Foundation Auditorium a “milestone” for Millstone 4-H Camp.

Foundation Board of Directors’ chairman McKinley Wooten gave a check for $750,000.

Wooten quoted Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, former Morehouse College president, as saying, “We have no guarantee that when we train a man’s mind, we will train his heart; no guarantee that when we increase a man’s knowledge, we will increase his goodness.

There is no necessary correlation between knowledge and goodness.”

However, Wooten added, 4-H helps make that correlation for young people through its four-pronged emphasis on head, hands, heart and health.

Following speeches, Cadieu, Wooten, Yoder, Linton and Dr. Joseph Zublena, director of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, of which 4-H is a part, came together to turn gilded shovels in a dirt mound placed on a stage inside.

Afterward, they went outside to the building site to pose for photographs while other groundbreaking participants joined in an indoor reception.

Millstone is one of three North Carolina 4-H camps and centers. The others are Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Educational Center and the Eastern 4-H Center. – Dee Shore

summer 2015

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Look What You’ve Achieved!

Thanks to you, it’s been an outstanding — and record-setting — fundraising year for CALS. Your generosity led to donations exceeding $64 million!

That includes nearly $7 million for the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative. And a boost for sweet potatoes came with a $12.4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Your generosity is making many important projects possible. It’s helping rural students get access to a great education at NC State. It’s improving the growth and care of food animals.

It’s creating the next generation of ag leaders for our state, nation and world.

And it’s changing the way we’ll develop and raise plants for our growing global population.

Thank you for your support. Together we’re building a stronger economy and quality of life — and meeting the grand challenges of tomorrow today, at home in North Carolina, in our nation and around the globe.

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NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID RALEIGH, NC PERMIT #2353

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Campus Box 7603 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7603

Growing Ag Awareness

CALS Dean Richard Linton greets one of 1,600 people who came to the state capital to attend Ag Awareness Day and celebrate efforts to grow the state’s agriculture industry to $100 billion by 2020. (Story, page 25) Becky Kirkland