News & Information
A variety of workshops and demonstrations will provide valuable information to forest-products professionals who attend the 2013 Forest Products Equipment and Technology Exposition, June 7 to 8 at Penn State's Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs. Known as Timber 2013, the bi-annual trade exposition is hosted by the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association.
The Penn State Product Development team, a group of students in the food science department, recently was named one of three finalists in the Dairy Research Institute New Product Competition.
Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has recognized five faculty members for outstanding undergraduate teaching. The awards were presented at a recent collegewide ceremony.
A Penn State student team recently placed sixth at the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest in Wisconsin.
The impact that natural-gas development in deep shale formations has on rural Pennsylvania roads will be the focus of a free, Web-based seminar offered by Penn State Extension.
The Pasto Agricultural Museum will be open for two upcoming public events that bring the Ag Progress Days grounds, where it is located, to life this spring.
A Web-based Penn State Extension course designed to help beginning and experienced beekeepers gain the knowledge they need to be successful has been recognized for online excellence. Beekeeping 101 was named an official honoree in the 2013 Webby Awards. The course was one of 11 honorees in the Education category.
Robert Van Saun, professor of veterinary science in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has been selected to receive the college's 2013 Excellence in Academic Advising Award.
One of the world's most mysterious insects is about to invade the skies over wooded areas in eastern Pennsylvania and other states, but an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences says it's not a cause for alarm. Residents of 17 Pennsylvania counties soon will see an emergence of periodical cicadas, commonly but mistakenly called 17-year locusts.
Penn State Extension will offer a Web-based seminar focusing on low-impact development, a stormwater-management strategy designed to mitigate the impacts of increased runoff and resulting pollution.
Mike Lohr early on knew exactly what he wanted to be. When he was a kid, he called it a "bird scientist." Now he knows the proper title is avian ecologist. The 2005 Penn State alumnus currently is involved in a groundbreaking conservation project at the Ka'ena Point Coastal Reserve in Hawaii.
Bonnie Ford, quality assurance laboratory specialist in Penn State's Department of Food Science, recently accepted the 2012 Dairy Laboratory of the Year Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Milk, Food, and Environmental Sanitarians. Ford is responsible for the operation of the Berkey Creamery's Dairy Testing Laboratory.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Recently released reports about the frequency of foodborne illness -- commonly known as food poisoning -- show that the risks have not changed much in recent years, according to an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
With populations of wild and domesticated pollinators, such as honeybees, in decline, some of the world's foremost scientists in the field will converge on Penn State this summer to discuss the latest research aimed at understanding and overcoming challenges to pollinator health. Hosted by the Center for Pollinator Research in the College of Agricultural Sciences, the second International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy will be held August 14 to 17 at The Nittany Lion Inn.
A community, environment and development major who is a Schreyer Honors College student has been named the outstanding senior in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences Class of 2013.
Changing the way a plant forms cellulose may lead to more efficient, less expensive biofuel production, according to Penn State engineers. "What every biofuel manufacturer wants to do is to get to the sugars," said Jeffrey Catchmark, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. "But the structure of cellulose itself can be an obstacle."
Edward Jaenicke, associate professor of agricultural economics at Penn State, will give a lecture, "Report from a USDA/ERS Research Sabbatical: Organic Price Premiums and Healthy Food Choices" from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, May 3, in 215 Armsby Building.
The new livestock identification program recently launched by the federal government should not place a significant burden on producers in Pennsylvania or the East, according to an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Environmental resource management might sound like a white-collar desk job to most, but to Tyler Yost, it is much more. Last summer he studied abroad in Germany, where he had the opportunity to put his Penn State education to practical use.
"The most affordable foods, the most inflation-resistant foods, the most accessible foods are the least healthy foods. ... When you marry this information to the information on what our policies do at the farm level, it's hard to escape the conclusion that what Americans are overeating is exactly what we're incenting our farmers to produce." -- David Wallinga, senior adviser in science, food and health at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. Wallinga delivered the 2013 M. E. John Lecture on April 19 in the Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building on Penn State's University Park campus. His talk, titled “Growing Health: A Vision for U.S. Food and Agriculture Policy,” was sponsored by the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education, and by the College of Agricultural Sciences.
