CAFNR

Aug. 20, 2020
Focused on a Safe and Comfortable Return
As the University of Missouri prepares to open its doors for the 2020 fall semester, the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) has spent the past four months making sure the return for its faculty, staff and students will be done safely and according to the Show Me Renewal Plan. An academic operations team comprising one individual from each of CAFNR’s six divisions, and led by Bryan Garton, senior associate dean and director of academic programs, worked nonstop on making sure CAFNR could host as many in-person classes as possible. “This is an unprecedented time, not only…

Aug. 17, 2020
Meeting His Goals
When Ronald Revord joined the University of Missouri last year, he arrived with lofty goals in mind. Revord wasted no time in getting to work, either. Revord spent his first three months on the job working on and submitting a grant proposal to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) focused on establishing a participant network to characterize genetic variety and ancestry of chestnuts in the Midwest. While Revord’s main goal was to complete the grant proposal and submit something he was happy with, his proposal was strong enough to earn him a grant for nearly $1 million. The…

Aug. 14, 2020
Gardeners Make Community Impact
Those who have planted gardens feel that they have “done something for the good of the whole world,” wrote American author Charles Dudley Warner in 1871. For Greene County Master Gardeners Maryfrances DiGirolamo and James Hilburn, gardening has become a way to give back to their community, doing “something for the good of the world.” They use their University of Missouri Extension Master Gardener training to oversee a vegetable demonstrations garden at the Nathaniel Greene-Close Memorial Parks inside the Springfield Botanical Gardens. “They donate all the produce they grow to local food pantries,” said Kelly McGowan, coordinator of Master Gardeners…

Aug. 10, 2020
Keeping Consumers Safe
Produce contamination accounts for an estimated 46% of foodborne illnesses across the United States each year — a serious issue affecting health, the economy and society as a whole. Even in the midst of the current pandemic, safety training for produce farmers is not only vital, but required for many, said MU Extension horticulture field specialist Patrick Byers. To combat contamination issues, the federal Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule requires that many growers receive education and produce safety training, such as that offered by the Produce Safety Alliance through MU Extension. With COVID-19 restrictions on face-to-face training,…

Aug. 6, 2020
Tracking Two Bird Species
Two bird species – black duck and wild turkey – are incredibly important to the regions where they are commonly found. Those species are also well studied; however, there is a period of time during the summer where research is lacking. Mitch Weegman, an assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources, is looking to track both species’ whereabouts during that time frame. Weegman recently received $2.4 million in funding through two separate grants to conduct the research. “I could not be more thrilled to get started,” Weegman said. “These are projects you develop to meet great conservation priorities. To…

July 31, 2020
History in Bloom
Successful efforts by a handful of energetic horticulture students in the late 1970s led to the planning and execution of an ambitious garden project located next to MU’s Agriculture Building. The space was dedicated as the Woodland and Floral Gardens in April 1980. A public celebration to mark the garden’s 40th anniversary and rededicate what remains of the original landscape as the Missouri Woodland Garden was scheduled to be held April 2020, but has been postponed until further notice. Left to right: Kevin Karel and Bill Ruppert, the horticulture students who worked to design and build the Woodland & Floral…

July 27, 2020
An Investment in Animal Reproduction Research
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently announced an investment of $6.2 million in animal reproduction research. Nearly $1.5 million of that investment is coming to the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources’ (CAFNR) Division of Animal Sciences. A total of 14 awards were handed out to 11 institutions, with CAFNR earning three of the awards. “This is an incredible achievement and showcases how strong our Division of Animal Sciences continues to be,” said Shibu Jose, associate dean in the CAFNR Office of Research. “We’re proud of…

July 7, 2020
CAFNR Faculty Earn 2020 President’s Awards
Each year, the UM System President’s Awards are presented on behalf of President Mun Choi to faculty members across the four universities of the UM System. These highly competitive awards recognize faculty who have made exceptional contributions in advancing the mission of the University. President’s Award recipients will be recognized at a Board of Curators meeting on their university campus, as well as at a faculty awards event hosted at their home institution. This year, the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources had three faculty members earn President’s Awards: Thomas Spencer, Chung-Ho Lin and Randall Miles. Thomas Spencer…

June 22, 2020
An Extraordinary Honor
For more than 30 years, the University of Missouri System and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa, have been collaborating through the University of Missouri South African Education Program (UMSAEP). The focus of the partnership is to advance mutual understanding between the institutions’ faculties and foster cooperative research, teaching and service projects – and for decades UMSAEP has delivered on the goal of aiding South Africans disadvantaged by their government’s former apartheid policies. Researchers in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) have played an important role in the partnership, including…

June 22, 2020
An Entrepreneurial Spirit
When Kamal Yadav came to the United States from India in 1961, he had never seen snow before. Working toward his master’s degree in biochemistry at the University of Missouri, Yadav stepped out of his apartment early one snowy morning during his first semester and didn’t make it very far before slipping and hurting his back. The injury forced Yadav to miss several classes, which caught the eye of his PhD advisor George B. Garner. Garner found where Yadav lived and went there right away to check on him. Yadav appreciated his advisor’s visit – and was shocked when Garner…