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COLLEGE NEWS
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DISPLAYS AND VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR IOWA FFA LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
The 75th Iowa FFA Leadership Conference will be held in Ames on April 7 and 8. It's been 61 years since the conference has been in Ames and FFA members need your help to make it successful. The event coincides with VEISHEA and the Ag Council wants to showcase the college with displays in the Memorial Union and other College of Agriculture events during the two-day event. Sixty-five judges also are needed for a career development event to be held on April 7. Contact: Beth Foreman, 4-4548 or bforeman@iastate.edu.
COLLEGE TAKES PART IN WASHINGTON D.C. VISIT
Council on Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching (CARET) representatives from Iowa are attending the group’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. that began Sunday, March 2. Iowa’s CARET representatives are Connie Greig of Estherville, Donald Latham of Alexander and Joyce Neill of Corning. Dean Catherine Woteki and David Acker, assistant dean, national and global programs, accompanied the CARET representatives. Their trip includes visits with elected officials and agriculture staff members in Congress. A report on benefits from research, teaching and extension programs at Iowa State will be distributed at the meetings. A "Science on the Hill" poster session and reception on Tuesday, March 4 will include a display on the Food Safety Consortium, in which Iowa State participates.
WOTEKI HONORED FOR ENRICHING AGRICULTURE
Catherine Woteki, College of Agriculture dean, is among 60 individuals and institutions in the United States to be honored for enriching agriculture across the Americas. The Inter-American Institute of Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) named the honorees as a part of its 60th anniversary celebration. Woteki was recognized for her leadership in food safety and trade regulations during her term as USDA undersecretary for food safety. Arnel Hallauer, retired agronomy professor; agricultural research pioneer George Washington Carver; alumni Henry A. Wallace and Edward Knipling; and Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug are others with Iowa State or Iowa connections who are honored for significant contributions to agriculture. The IICA is the specialized agency for agriculture and rural well-being of the Americas. It has 34 member states, offices in every one of them and headquarters in Costa Rica.
ANIMAL SCIENTIST NAMED COUNTY CATTLEMAN OF THE YEAR
Gene Rouse has been named 2003 Cattleman of the Year by the Story County Cattleman's Association. Rouse raises purebred Red Angus cattle on his farm near Huxley. He became an extension beef specialist in 1971 after earning a doctorate in animal breeding at ISU. In 1981, he assumed teaching responsibilities and has been the professor-in-charge of the beef teaching farm since 1982.
HARMON INDUCTED INTO RURAL BUILDERS HALL OF FAME
Jay Harmon, an associate professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering, was inducted into the Rural Builders Hall of Fame last week at the National Frame Builders Association conference. Harmon joined ISU in 1993 as an extension livestock-housing specialist. He led the development of standardized swine building plans and programs on ventilation, manure management and other aspects of livestock systems design. In 1995, he started an annual educational conference, the Iowa Farm and Frame Builders Conference, to help rural builders learn innovative building techniques. He began his career in 1989 at Clemson University and investigated the causes of farm structure failures in the wake of Hurricane Hugo.
STUDYING THE RISKS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS
Independent, publicly funded programs at universities and government laboratories are critical to addressing issues surrounding genetically modified agricultural products, says Catherine Woteki, dean of ISU’s College of Agriculture. “The main issue should be the adoption of effective, science-based methods that ensure pharmaceutical crops can be produced in a safe, responsible, well-managed and environmentally friendly manner that safeguards Iowa's agricultural resources,” she says. A new project is designed to provide science-based risk assessment for genetically modified non-food crops. Learn more in "Agriculture in Action."
DEADLINES AND REMINDERS
March 3: Final deadline for approval of new experimental courses for summer session
March 5-6: John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture, Frances Moore Lappe presents "Food, Farming, Fear: The Power of Ideas to Create the World We Want," 2:30 to 4 p.m., rooms 220-240 Scheman Building; town meeting, 2 to 3:30 p.m., March 6, 10 South Gilbert, Iowa City
March 6: Dairy Science Club raffle drawing for a basketball signed by the ISU men's basketball team to support the Alison Ciancio Memorial Scholarship, tickets are $1 in 123 Kildee through March 5
March 7: Agriculture and the Environment: Research and Technology Update for Water and Air Quality, 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Scheman Building
March 13: Block & Bridle Club Cake Auction, 5:30 p.m., Iowa Farm Bureau Pavilion and 2310 Kildee Hall
March 17-21: Spring Break
March 21: National Ag Day
March 25: Application deadline Center for Integrated Animal Genomics Competitive Grants Program
March 31: Deadline for 2003 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture nominations, http://www.leopold.iastate.edu
April 22: Science in Agriculture Day
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COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
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WRITING TIPS TO COUNTER E-MAIL IMPATIENCE
E-mail has ushered in a new era of informality in business correspondence, says Mark Wallace, English professor at George Washington University. Along with paying less attention to standard rules of grammar, e-mail users have become more impatient. Users expect instant access and easy comprehension. They want all the information in a couple of sentences. Writers must take care to articulate details clearly. To do this the information should be organized into subheads to guide the reader. Put issues at the beginning, be concise and limit information to one page. (Writing that Works, April 2002)
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INFOGRAZING
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NEWCASTLE DISEASE SESSION SET FOR TUESDAY
"Exotic Newcastle Disease and the California Outbreak" is the title of a presentation Dr. Darrell Trampel, professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine, will make Tuesday, March 4. Faculty, staff and students are invited to the departmental seminar scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in 1226 Veterinary Medicine. The disease threatens poultry, ranging from a sudden onset of death in the most dangerous form to coughing and wheezing found in the more mild forms. It has spread from backyard flocks to commercial flocks in California, and also has been found in Arizona and Nevada.
LECTURE DEALS WITH COMMUNICATING SCIENCE
A university lecture titled “Science and Society Dialogue: Fifty Years after Snow's Two Cultures, It is time to have a Conversation” will be delivered Tuesday, March 4 by Neal Lane of Rice University. In 1959, C.P. Snow published “The Two Cultures” in which he argued that a communications gap had formed between the scientists and humanists in England and that this gap was dangerous for society. Lane is university professor of physics and fellow of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Lane served as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Clinton. The lecture begins at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room, Memorial Union.
GRANT WRITING SEMINAR DEADLINE APPROACHES
March 20 is the deadline for a two-day seminar on writing competitive grants and proposals taught by Karen Piconi of Persuade and Publish International. The seminar dates will be March 28 and April 4. Another one is scheduled for May 15-16 with a deadline of May 5. Iowa State's Office of the Vice Provost for Research will consider requests from eligible principal investigators to partially cover participant fees. Contact Sreeparna Mitra, 4-1538 or mitra@iastate.edu, for more information.
BIOTECH RESEARCH PROPOSALS DUE MARCH 28
March 28 is the deadline for research proposals to the Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology Alliance (IMBA) focusing on corn and soybean research. The IMBA has two programmatic objectives: enhancing profitability of the American agriculture and food sector by improving the quality, safety and affordability of agricultural and food products, and maximizing the benefits of agricultural biotechnology for the domestic agriculture and food sectors, and ultimately the American public, while simultaneously addressing potential environmental and consumer risks. The alliance is particularly interested in funding socioeconomic research that yields new concepts, methods and tools.
ORGANIC STANDARDS SATELLITE BROADCAST MARCH 21
A satellite broadcast on the National Organic Agriculture Standards will be March 21. Washington State University Cooperation Extension and the Washington State Department of Agriculture are offering this satellite broadcast for extension personnel, state and national certification staff, consultants and others involved in the production of organic commodities. The broadcast will present the basic requirements of the USDA's National Organic Standards, and describe how the new regulations affect organic producers. The program will be aired from 10 a.m. to noon, Pacific Time.
NASA TASK BOOK DEVELOPED
NASA divisions produce research task books annually to promote a better understanding of NASA-supported research. The Office of Biological and Physical Research and its Fundamental Space Biology Division, Bioastronautics Research Division and Physical Sciences Research Division has compiled its task book of peer reviewed research activities supported for FY 2002 online.
DRINKING WATER MICROBIAL RISK GRANT APPLICATIONS SOUGHT
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking applications proposing innovative approaches for estimating microbial risk in drinking water. The deadline is July 10. Research is being sought in two areas: the development of indices or classifications to characterize microbial risk and epidemiological studies of ground water or surface water-based systems.
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EXTERNAL VOICES
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WHAT’S IMPORTANT
"Weather is not as important as good soil, and good soil is not as important as human harmony." -- Chinese proverb
Next issue: March 10 Deadline: March 7
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AG ONLINE
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EDITORS
Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu, and Brian Meyer, bmeyer@iastate.edu
Phone: (515) 294-5616 Web site: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/
SUBSCRIBE
Ag Online, the newsletter for faculty and staff in Iowa State University's College of Agriculture, is e-mailed every Monday. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag Online subscribe" to edadcock@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe, send "Ag Online unsubscribe."
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