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COLLEGE NEWS
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COLLEGE HELPS WITH FFA CONFERENCE
The College of Agriculture is playing a major role in the 2004 Iowa FFA Leadership Conference that began today, April 5, on campus. The college is cosponsoring a barbecue tonight at the Farm Bureau Pavilion in Kildee Hall. Students involved with Ag Council, Ag Ambassadors and college clubs will help guide tours of several campus facilities. The college recruitment exhibit is one of several displays at the conference career show. The Department of Agricultural Education and Studies faculty and staff help coordinate the skills competitions.
MANRRS CHAPTER HELPS MAKE CONFERENCE A SUCCESS
The Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) national conference March 25-27 in Des Moines and on campus was a success for the college, the ISU MANRRS chapter and individual members. Iowa State graduate student Aaron Jeffries, agronomy, was elected the national organization’s graduate president. Graduate student Toshiba Traynham, food science and human nutrition, was elected the MANRRS Region V graduate vice president. About 30 Iowa State MANRRS student members were involved at the conference, including chairing or serving on committees, presenting, competing in contests and volunteering.
HORTICULTURE CLUB TO SELL LILIES THIS WEEK
The Horticulture Club will be selling lilies Wednesday through Friday, April 6 to 8. They will be on sale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday in the Curtiss Hall rotunda, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday in the Horticulture Hall atrium. Contact: Jason Haegele, jhaegele@iastate.edu.
SEBRANEK NAMED FELLOW FOR FOOD SCIENCE WORK
Joe Sebranek, University Professor of animal science, has been elected a fellow by the Institute of Food Technologists in recognition of his contributions to the field of food science and technology. The honor will be presented July 13 during the group’s annual meeting.
CARTER RECEIVES DISTANCE LEARNING HONOR
Richard Carter, director of the Brenton Center, received the Innovator Award from the Iowa Distance Learning Association during the group's annual conference last week in Ames. The award is given for contributions made to distance learning through teaching, program design and development, innovations in methods, technique and technology, and advocacy.
AG COMM ON APRIL 13: IMPROVING COMMUNICATION MATERIALS
The next AgComm workshop will be April 13 on ways to make communication materials more useful and understandable. The “Assessing Documents and Testing Communication Materials for Usability” session will begin at noon in Room 9 Curtiss Hall. A light lunch will be provided. RSVP to Cheryl Abrams, 4-5872 or cabrams@iastate.edu.
CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, FOOD AND THE ENVIRONMENT THIS WEEK
College faculty and students are invited to participate in the Women, Food and Environmental Ethics Conference scheduled for Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10. There is no fee to attend. The conference will include sessions on international perspectives of food production and consumption, eco-feminism, urban food production and Midwestern cuisine. The conference is sponsored by the College of Agriculture, ISU’s Bioethics Program, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences International Programs and Women’s Studies. Contact: Karen Kessel, anthropology, 4-5599 or kkessel@iastate.edu.
ENTOMOLOGIST CONTRIBUTES TO MADAGASCAR BOOK
Greg Courtney, entomology, is one of more than 200 scientists who contributed to a new book, “The Natural History of Madagascar.” The 1,700-page book covers many of the unique organisms created by the island’s isolation. Courtney wrote a chapter on a group of aquatic flies called net-winged midges. The flies are associated with waterfalls and torrential streams, and their immature stages are highly adapted for life in rapidly flowing water. The book was featured in a recent article in the New York Times, which said the two scientists who edited the book worked to keep the language accessible to nonscientists.
EDUCATIONAL PLAN PROMOTES PRAIRIE PRESERVE
Students in an agricultural education and studies class are developing an educational plan for the Pohl Prairie Preserve, also known as the Ames High School Prairie, this semester. The preserve is a portion of original prairie as it existed before Iowa's landscape became devoted mainly to agriculture. The class is working to help create an educational plan for the use and preservation of the prairie. The AgEdS 524 class, which is taught by Nancy Grudens-Schuck, has organized and conducted community meetings, produced a brochure and will be posting a website. One student produced an original song for the course. Bruce Bearinger, extension education director for Buchanan County, who is taking the class as a distance education course, produced an original educational song about the loss of prairie in the Midwest. The song and lyrics are available online.
NASA WEB SITE FEATURES IOWA STATE CENTER
The NASA Food Technology Commercial Space Center was established at Iowa State in 1999 to develop foods and food-processing technologies that enhance space missions and advance commercial food products. Early this year, the center launched a new educational offering on its Web site designed specifically for kids. A College of Agriculture news story about the site was featured recently on the NASA headquarters website.
ISU SEED LAB RECEIVES QUALITY ASSURANCE CERTIFICATION
The Seed Testing Lab in the Seed Science Center has reached a first-in-the-nation milestone. It is the first seed-testing laboratory on a university campus to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification.
TAPPING LOCAL FUNDS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
“There’s money in them thar hills,” declared gold prospectors in the Old West. The words were different but the message was the same at a meeting March 29 in Ames as 175 community leaders, economic developers and foundation leaders gathered to discuss ways to encourage Iowans and former Iowans to give something back to their hometowns. Details in "Agriculture in Action."
BLUE GRASS FARMER RECEIVES OUTSTANDING ALUMNI AWARD
David Petersen, a farmer from Blue Grass, was the 2003 ISU Agricultural Business Outstanding Alumni award recipient. Petersen received the award March 6 at the annual Ag Business Club banquet. Petersen began farming in 1980 after graduating from Iowa State with bachelor of science degrees in ag business and dairy science. This is the first time the award has been given to an alum working in production agriculture. Petersen and his wife Amy own and operate Majestic-Manor Dairy, which includes a 105-cow dairy herd and a genetic seedstock and replacement heifer business. In 2002, Petersen was the first recipient of the Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture given by the Leopold Center.
TREE STEWARD PROGRAM OFFERED IN CENTRAL IOWA
In May and June, ISU Extension is offering the Iowa Community Tree Steward Program in Polk County. The program is intended for citizens and professionals who wish to learn more about trees and tree care. The course consists of six hands-on classes that cover tree identification, tree selection, landscape planning, pruning, planting, disease and insect management and hazard tree assessment. More information: http://www.forestry.iastate.edu/ext/icts.html. Contact Chris Feeley, 4-6739 or cfeeley@iastate.edu.
DEADLINES AND REMINDERS
April 15: Sigma Alpha basket online auction bidding deadline, noon
April 22: Protecting Our Food Supply: Food Safety and Security Workshop, Adventureland Inn, Altoona, more: http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/404/safety.htm
April 22: Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products risk assessment symposium, Comfort Suites
April 29: Connect with Iowa, College of Agriculture faculty visit to Manning
April 30: Deadline for registering for the College of Veterinary Medicine Pet Pig Symposium May 11-13: Science and policy workshop, Global Agricultural Science and Policy Initiative, contact: Clare Hinrichs, 4-5154 or hinrichs@iastate.edu
June 4-6, contact: Janean Berhow, 4-3837 or jaberhow@iastate.edu
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COMMUNICATION KIOSK
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KEEP SPAM OUT OF EUDORA’S IN BOX
For those who use the Eudora e-mail system, a filtering system to sort junk mail will help reduce unwanted messages. Eudora uses two criteria to score junk mail. The first filters by keywords. SpamWatch uses filtering to look for certain words that are frequently found in junk mail. The second filters spam headers. The Iowa State network uses a system called x-perl-mx, which adds scores to the headers of your incoming email (those can be changed by going into the windows menu under filters). To change other settings, go to settings in Eudora and set up your junk mail filter. More information can be found at: http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/spamwatch.html
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INFOGRAZING
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PROPOSALS SOUGHT FOR IOWA STATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM
April 16 is the deadline for faculty and staff to propose ideas to advance entrepreneurship at Iowa State. The one-time grant opportunity may include curriculum, program, business development, mentoring, entrepreneurship awareness or other innovative concepts. Faculty and staff may submit more than one proposal. The maximum award for a single grant is $10,000. The program is funded by the Kauffman Foundation and administered by the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship. Contact: Judi Eyles, 4-6532 or eyles@iastate.edu.
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EXTERNAL VOICES
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KNOWING IS NOT ENOUGH
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German playwright (1749-1832)
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MARGINALIA
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ISU GRAD STUDENT BRINGS CORN TO IRAQ
College of Agriculture student Clint Turnbull, who is stationed in Iraq with the National Guard, brought a little taste of Iowa to the war-torn country by growing a crop of sweet corn for his comrades. He harvested a crop of 350 ears last November that was enjoyed at a barbecue at his base. Turnbull was at Iowa State working on his doctorate in corn breeding before his tour of duty began. His wife, Stacie, is a graduate student in agricultural education and studies. Des Moines Register columnist John Carlson featured Turnbull’s farming feat in the Sunday, April 4.
Next issue: April 12
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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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