Category: Strengthening Impact Throughout Oregon and Beyond
In its first full year, the Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems established an endowment and raised $230,000 for specific projects through grants, gifts, foundations, and private donations.
Researchers at Malheur Experiment Station are studying Camelina as a source of income for farmers during drought years. Camelina, a source of omega-3 fatty acids and an alternative jet fuel, requires little nitrogen or irrigation.
http://www.cropinfo.net/AnnualReports/2014/2014-036-Camelina.php
Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center is the site of a new, bond-funded research and teaching facility, being built in collaboration with Blue Mountain Community College.
Nine branch stations now offer learning experiences to students working with faculty mentors in fields ranging from entomology in agroecosystems to product development at the Food Innovation Center. In addition, internship programs at North Willamette and several other stations offer research experience to high school students.
http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/academics/internships/branch-experiment-stations-internship-program
Research at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center and experimental plots near campus continue to provide important R&D for the rapidly growing organic blueberry industry, which increased from 2 percent of Oregon’s blueberry market to 20 percent in the past 8 years.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2015/02/exploding_blueberry_industry_p.html
The Summer Ag Institute is a continuing education course that provides a hands-on pedagogical experience for Oregon educators. Since it began in 1989, more than 500 teachers have completed the weeklong program and earned OSU graduate credits. As 10% of Oregon’s economy, the agriculture industry generates $29 billion annually and creates over a quarter million jobs. Agriculture accounts for 60 percent of exports, and Oregon farmers produce more than 230 major crops. Successful farming requires knowledge in many disciplines, from biology and engineering to law and economics. And with the demands of a growing population and changing climate, education is more crucial now than ever.
Teachers have a choice of two sessions of the Summer Ag Institute, one on either side of the Cascades. The eastside experience, based in Union, includes Columbia Basin wheat ranches, timber operations, seed farms, and cattle ranches. The westside experience, based in Corvallis, showcases the Willamette Valley’s cornucopia of fruit, nuts, vegetables, microbreweries, and Christmas trees. The program gets teachers outdoors in the field, testing, tasting, and learning about agriculture first-hand.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/winter-2013/q-how-can-kids-learn-where-food-comes
The Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems is an outgrowth of the OSU Extension Small Farms Program. It expands the program’s work with small farm production and marketing to encourage collaboration that supports the growth of sustainable agriculture and local food systems in Oregon.
Lauren Gwin, the center’s associate director, brings expertise as an OSU food systems specialist focusing on supply-chain logistics and regulatory issues. She also coordinates the national Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network. Gwin points out that the center is leading OSU’s engagement with small-scale, sustainable farming and local food economies. This work reflects a national trend to build more collaborative, locally based food economies. A 2010 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service showed that direct-to-consumer marketing amounted to $1.2 billion in sales in 2007 nationwide, and it is growing.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2014/small-farms-and-community-food-systems
The new Center for Agricultural and Environmental Policy helps decision makers make sense of complex policies such as the Farm Bill, and assess the impacts such policies have on agricultural economies, rural economies, and the environment. JunJie Wu is thedirector of the center and editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2014/centering-policy
AgSci provides much of the R&D that has helped grow the industry from a handful of iconoclastic entrepreneurs to more than 400 wineries and an annual economic impact approaching $3 billion.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2014/oregon-wine-research-institute
Dan Arp, Dean of CAS, commissioned a series of white papers to explore issues surrounding genetically engineered (GE) organisms, a more precise term than GMOs. The papers, drafted by CAS faculty, are intended to provide the public with information form multiple scientific perspectives.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/winter-2015/examining-genetically-engineered-crops-many-angles
