"Building a Local Food System for York County" is the topic when Rob Wood of Spoutwood Farms in Glen Rock, Pa., speaks at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14, at Penn State York. The free program, sponsored by the Penn State York Agricultural Science Club, is in the Community Room of the Joe and Rosie Ruhl Student Community Center and is open to the public. The Agricultural Science Club invites speakers to the campus to talk about topics related to animals and farming.
Wood will discuss the differences between locally grown organic crops and those that are imported to the supermarket. Most of our food usually comes from California or Florida, but increasingly it is imported from China, Mexico and even South America, South Africa, or New Zealand. The average fruit or vegetable travels about 1,500 miles to reach your plate with less than 1 percent of food coming from York Country Resources. (more)
Not all wines are created equal; neither are all wine tasters. A wine expert's acute sense of taste may mean that expert ratings and recommendations are irrelevant to wine consumers who were not born with the ability to discern small differences in a broad range of tastes, according to a team of international researchers. "What we found is that the fundamental taste ability of an expert is different," said John Hayes, assistant professor, food science, and director of Penn State's sensory evaluation center. (more)
A free public lecture titled "The Good Bugs: Why Agriculture Needs Microbes" will take place at 11 a.m. on Feb. 4, in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The speaker will be Marilyn Roossinck, professor of plant pathology and biology at Penn State. (more)
It's getting tougher all the time to be a farmer, and managers of small agricultural operations have to be increasingly efficient, clever and resourceful just to stay profitable. But "agritainment" may help farmers improve their bottom lines, according to agricultural business experts in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. (more)
A science- and energy-based program focusing on Pennsylvania counties with natural gas exploration and production, and developed by a multidisciplinary team of Penn State researchers, is part of a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). (more)
Three student organizations in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences raised a record amount through their annual "Penny War" fundraiser, and their contributions will be used to alert agricultural professionals and their families to a potential health problem. (more)
The College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State will sponsor a two-day symposium examining the science and culture of Ukraine, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 on Penn State's University Park campus. "Diverse Landscapes of Ukraine: A Celebration of 20 Years of Independence" will assemble speakers from universities in the United States, Ukraine and from around the world to address seminal topics in agriculture, environmental resources, language and culture. (more)
As more people move to rural areas, farmers and nonfarming residents have become next-door neighbors, and nuisance odors from farms have become a problem. Watch a video about Penn State's Odor Assessment Lab to find out how researchers are working to calculate odor levels so they can determine and share effective odor-reduction practices. (more)
A community garden in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pa., is set to become part of Carver's Secret Garden. Carver's Secret Garden is a 4-H educational outreach program of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The program was initiated by Dauphin County cooperative extension to address the specific needs of urban and inner-city youth. To see a video about the effort, visit http://live.psu.edu/youtube/zbzB6aX1uyw online. (more)
Nearly 1,000 kilometers north of Norway stands an impressive vault. Dug deep below the permafrost into solid rock, so far north that four months out of the year the sun doesn't shine, the vault contains some of mankind's most precious resources, preserved at a constant minus-8 degrees Celsius. What lies inside? Gold? Irreplaceable art or fundamental human knowledge? No. These treasures are tiny, modest, unassuming: seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is home to nearly half a million specimens from around the world and the most well-known example of a practice called "seed banking." So what is seed banking, and why is it important? (more)
