CAFNR
April 27, 2021
An Entrepreneurial Passion
A background in agriculture, a degree in animal sciences from the University of Missouri and an entrepreneurial passion helped Elaine Martin launch Blue Cedar Beef in 2019. Martin and her husband, Brendan, saw a problem in their local community – and came up with a solution. “We had been selling halves and whole beeves to family, neighbors and friends for several years but kept getting requests for smaller quantities of beef,” Elaine said. “I combined that idea with the fact that you can get nearly anything today shipped to your doorstep. Why not get quality beef shipped to your doorstep…
April 15, 2021
Q&A With Katie Crider
Why did you decide to come to the University of Missouri and major in food science and nutrition? What do you enjoy about the program itself? The field of study? My decision to come to the University of Missouri was a fairly easy one after I visited campus and met with the CAFNR staff. Everyone I met was very friendly and made me feel very welcome. Originally, I was an animal sciences major; however, that was very short-lived when I realized that field was not for me. I quickly switched to hospitality when I discovered that I liked working with…
April 1, 2021
Keeping Missourians Up to Speed
Lifelong learning. It’s an essential part of Agriculture and Environment Extension’s goal of doubling the value of Missouri agriculture by 2030 while sustaining the state’s natural resources. It’s a bold goal where lifelong learning meets real people. When Ron Brown was approached to check out the Missouri Master Gardener Extension Program, he thought the opportunity to expand his already extensive gardening knowledge would only help as he worked in his home garden and a community garden in Ferguson, Mo. Ron Brown has worked in gardens throughout his life. Halfway through his time in the Missouri Master Gardener Program, the director…
March 12, 2021
Q&A With Cindy Greenwood
What are your job duties/job responsibilities in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources? I am the Executive Assistant in the School of Natural Resources. I provide support to our Director, Dr. Patrick Market. I handle his calendar, work with faculty on promotion and tenure, annual reviews, faculty hiring/interviews, event planning, and I am the Building Coordinator for ABNR. I also am a member of the Director’s Staff Advisory Team in SNR and Co-Chair of the CAFNR Staff Council. How long have you worked in CAFNR? I started in SNR on June 1, 2015. Previously on campus, I worked…
Feb. 12, 2021
CAFNR Welcomes New Faculty
Our college has welcomed new faculty members each fall, but we have expanded our faculty welcomes to the spring, so that relevant introductions can take place at the beginning of each semester. The College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri is proud to welcome new faculty members who are ready to immerse themselves in teaching, research and Extension as integral parts of furthering our land-grant mission. Our four new faculty members bring expertise in their fields, and will be representing three of our six divisions: Animal Sciences, Applied Social Sciences and Plant Sciences. Our college…
Feb. 9, 2021
A State-of-the-Art Instrument
Faculty in the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) Department of Biochemistry recently received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to bring a state-of-the-art instrument to the MU campus – a Chirascan V100 circular dichroism (CD) spectrometer. The spectrometer is a widely applicable biochemical method for probing the secondary and tertiary structures of proteins, and nucleic acids in solution. The instrument will be housed at the Molecular Interactions Core, located in the Bond Life Sciences Center on the MU campus. It will be available for users across Mizzou on a fee-per-use basis. The new…
Jan. 25, 2021
Planting New Seeds
Heike Buecking, professor and head of the Biology and Microbiology Department at South Dakota State University (SDSU) College of Natural Sciences, has been named professor and director of the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR). Buecking’s appointment is effective April 1, 2021. Buecking has held the department head position at SDSU since early 2020; she previously served as associate dean for research and scholarly activity in the College of Natural Sciences at South Dakota State. She has served as a professor in the Biology and Microbiology Department since 2015,…
Dec. 14, 2020
Working to Benefit Society
Pavel Somavat spent four years teaching electrical engineering at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, a land-grant university located in India. Somavat enjoyed the underlying philosophy and offerings of the land-grant system – and when he had an opportunity to take a faculty position at one of the two land-grant universities in Missouri, he jumped at the chance. Somavat joined the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) Division of Food Systems and Bioengineering (FSB) this year as an assistant professor of food science/biomedical, biological and chemical engineering. Somavat taught courses in food science and researched natural food…
Dec. 11, 2020
Q&A With Laura Friedrich
What are your job duties/job responsibilities in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources? I am a student services coordinator — so I always say my job is to help students (and families) get from where they are today to graduation. Whether that’s advising students, helping them change their major, declaring a minor, withdrawing from classes, or reviewing and submitting graduation plans. I’m also the lucky person who gets to read names at graduation. A more fun part is officially awarding the degrees to graduates in the college based on their submitted grad plans. How long have you worked…
Dec. 7, 2020
After the Deluge
Historic flooding along the Missouri River in 2019 has left many still repairing damage this fall. Jim Crawford and his team repairing damage in fall 2020 from flooding that occurred in spring 2019. Cold, snowy weather in early 2019 set the stage for significant flooding in northwestern Missouri as spring approached, said University of Missouri Extension state climatologist Pat Guinan. “The flooding got off to an early start in mid-March when an unusually strong and moisture-laden late spring-like storm system dropped 1-4 inches of precipitation—mostly rainfall—over a two-day period across southeastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, northwestern Iowa and much of…