Stories

June 30, 2020
Deserved Recognition
While the in-person version of the 2020 National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) Student Marketing Competition and Conference was cancelled, several members of the Mizzou NAMA team still earned awards and scholarships via an online version in late spring. The Mizzou NAMA team was one of six teams to win recognition for its written executive summary for the Student Executive Summary Competition. Within that competition, students develop a business proposition with a service description that includes a strategy statement, as well as goals, objectives and assumptions. The team conducts a market analysis, while looking at trends and potential. They also put…

June 23, 2020
MU Faculty Part of Gene Editing Task Force
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) recently announced an 11-person Gene Editing Task Force, which includes two individuals from the University of Missouri: Bhanu Telugu (associate professor) and Londa Nwadike (food safety state specialist, MU Extension). The 11-person task force is comprised of scientists and industry leaders who will map out recommendations for regulating this emerging genomic technology in animal agriculture with appropriate safeguards and procedures.

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…

June 22, 2020
An Outstanding Recognition
Each year, the Mizzou Alumni Association Student Board selects 39 outstanding seniors for its annual Mizzou ‘39 Award. Mizzou ‘39 recipients are chosen for their academic achievement, leadership and service to Mizzou and the community. In the spirit of service that was the cornerstone of the 1839 founding of the University of Missouri, the award is presented each spring. This year, the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources had four students receive the Mizzou ‘39 Award, two within the Department of Biochemistry – Devesh Kumar and Michaela Thomson. Devesh Kumar As a Columbia native, Kumar knew all that…

June 15, 2020
Matthew Lucy Receives ADSA Award of Honor
The American Dairy Science Association® (ADSA®), the international organization of educators, scientists and industry representatives who are committed to advancing the dairy industry, recently announced the winners of professional and student awards for 2020. Matthew Lucy, professor in the Division of Animal Sciences, received the ADSA Award of Honor. The award recognizes unusually outstanding and consistent contributions to the welfare of the Association or distinguished service to the Association. The award is primarily for services to the American Dairy Science Association.

June 11, 2020
Q&A With Teresa Davis
What are your job duties/job responsibilities in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources? My role is to support Christopher Daubert, CAFNR’s Vice Chancellor and Dean, and work collaboratively in a professional and friendly way with internal and external constituents to assist the dean and our college in furthering the mission and vision of CAFNR’s strategic plan “Drive to Distinction.” There is never a dull moment! How long have you worked in CAFNR (and at MU)? I began working at Mizzou in 1997 in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. I moved to the Office of…

June 8, 2020
An Educational Experience
For 14 straight years, Robert Sites has led University of Missouri students to Thailand for an educational study abroad experience focused on biodiversity and conservation. The 3-week program, which takes place over winter break, coincides with Thailand’s dry season – the best time of the year to be in the country for biodiversity and conservation projects. When Sites, a professor of entomology in the Division of Plant Sciences, joined the Thailand Study Abroad program in 2001, it was tough for him to imagine the experience turning into what it would eventually become. “I got involved with the CAFNR Thailand study…

June 3, 2020
Fighting a Financially Taxing Pathogen
A unique collaboration between plant biologists and biochemists is looking to tackle the most financially taxing pathogen in the soybean industry. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most detrimental and costly pathogen affecting soybean production in the United States, with more than $1 billion lost annually due to SCN infection. Management of this pathogen relies on the use of SCN-resistant soybean cultivars, a strategy that has struggled in recent years due to nematodes showing resistance to those cultivars. Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Georgia recently published a paper related to an underutilized source of resistance…

June 2, 2020
Harvey James Receives Richard P. Haynes Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in Agriculture, Food, and Human Values
Harvey James, professor of agricultural and applied economics, and associate director in the Division of Applied Social Sciences, was recently honored with the 2020 Richard P. Haynes Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in Agriculture, Food, and Human Values from the Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS). The award honors persons, who in their careers, have made outstanding contributions towards realizing the goals of the AFHVS through research, teaching, extension, public service or public policy. Nominations highlighted the impact of James’ research about fairness, trust, conflict, democratic governance and morality and his courses that focus on the ethical dimensions of agriculture…