Chris Langdon, a shellfish biologist at the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, continues his research to help protect Oregon’s $70 million oyster industry by genetically improving oysters, making them larger, tastier, and more resistant to increasingly acidic oceans. Since 1996, his work has led to growths in commercial yields of up to 35%, injecting an estimated additional $4.5 million per year into the Northwest’s seafood economy.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/build-better-oyster
Michael Behrenfeld will lead a NASA-funded research project investigating phytoplankton blooms—the foundation of the marine food web. He will test the idea that warming oceans will have previously-unforeseen impacts on marine ecosystems.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/release/2015/01/why-do-plankton-bloom-answer-could-force-rethinking-ocean%E2%80%99s-food-web
A new study, led by Taal Levi (Fisheries and Wildlife), suggests that changing climate patterns may be altering the transmission of certain pathogens, including the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2015/feb/climate-change-may-affect-tick-life-cycles-lyme-disease
Plant pathologist Luisa Santamaria teaches plant disease prevention to agricultural workers. Since 2011, Santamaria has reached about 500 Spanish-speaking workers from 25 nurseries through a grant awarded by the USDA and NIFA, helping to keep Oregon’s $745m nursery industry healthy.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/growing-educated-workforce
Regional Approaches to Climate Change is a 5-year, $20 million project funded by NIFA. John Antle is leading the Modeling component of the project, which will use climate data and crop simulation models to assess impacts and adaptation in Pacific Northwest wheat-growing systems.
https://www.reacchpna.org/
Oregon State University’s fermentation science program has received a $1 million gift from a San Antonio-based beer company, making OSU the first university in the nation with a working research winery, brewery, and distillery.
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2015/apr/oregon-state-receives-1-million-gift-research-brewery
Food Science and Technology students collaborated with Bridgeport Brewing Co for a special 30th anniversary release. Their resulting ale won the gold medal at the European Beer Star competition in Germany, beating over 1400 commercial entries.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/student-entrepreneurs
AgSci researchers have developed a commercially viable strain of dulse, a fast-growing seaweed, that contains twice the nutritional value of kale and, perhaps more importantly, tastes like bacon. The very concept of a superfood alternative to bacon has landed this story on the webpages of CNN, TIME, and ABC News, shining the national spotlight on OSU’s Food Innovation Center (FIC) in Portland. Jason Ball, a food researcher at the FIC, is experimenting with dulse-based products ranging from trail mix and rice crackers to smoked dulse popcorn peanut brittle. Chris Langdon, the OSU professor and aquaculture researcher who patented the new strain of dulse, originally developed the seaweed to feed abalone, an edible sea-snail. The effort to commercialize the plant has been a collaboration led by Chuck Toombs, a professor in the College of Business, who is currently working with students on marketing strategies, with hopes of retailing dulse food products this fall. In January, Langdon’s new strain of dulse was recognized as a “specialty crop” by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which has led to new grants to fund further research. Culinary seaweed has enormous potential for growth as an industry in Oregon.
Food Science, economic development, industry, interdisciplinary, research, experiment stations
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/17/tech/dulse-bacon-flavored-seaweed/
http://time.com/3960421/seaweed-bacon-dulse-kale-super-food/
OAP, Summer 2015
