Digital Commons Network^™

Genome Wide Association Mapping Of Grain Arsenic, Copper, Molybdenum And Zinc In Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Grown At Four International Field Sites, Gareth J. Norton, Alex Douglas, Brett Lahner, Elena Yakubova, Mary Lou Guerinot, Shannon R.M Pinson, Lee Tarpley, George C. Eizenga, Steve P. Mcgrath, Fang-Jie Zhao

Dartmouth Scholarship

The mineral concentrations in cereals are important for human health, especially for individuals who consume a cereal subsistence diet. A number of elements, such as zinc, are required within the diet, while some elements are toxic to humans, for example arsenic. In this study we carry out genome-wide association (GWA) mapping of grain concentrations of arsenic, copper, molybdenum and zinc in brown rice using an established rice diversity panel of ~300 accessions and 36.9 k single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The study was performed across five environments: one field site in Bangladesh, one in China and two in the US, with …

Nutrient Management And The Chesapeake Bay, Douglas Beegle

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States with a very large and diverse watershed. The health of the Bay related to pollution from nutrients and sediment has been in decline for many years. Agriculture in the watershed is one of the major contributors of nutrient and sediment pollution to the Chesapeake. The cause of the nutrient pollution from agriculture has usually been thought to have been the result of mismanagement of nutrients on farms. Consequently, the approaches to solving the problem have focused almost exclusively on changing farm management. As a result, significant progress has been …

Climate Change Mitigation Policies: Implications For Agriculture And Water Resources, George B. Frisvold, Kazim Konyar

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

This study examines how the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) would affect U.S. agriculture with special reference to water resources. The bill's cap and trade provisions for greenhouse gases would significantly raise fertilizer, irrigation pumping, and other energy-related costs. By 2030, it would reduce U.S. irrigation water use by >11 percent and fertilizer use by >18 percent with positive implications for water conservation and quality. Carbon offset provisions create financial incentives for farmers to sequester carbon by planting trees on cropland, reducing agricultural production and raising prices. Because sequestration potential differs by region, most of the …

Climate Change Impacts On Agriculture And Their Effective Communication By Extension Agents, Annette A. James, Noel M. Estwick, Audrey Bryant

Journal of Extension

Agriculture is an important sector of the U.S. economy, contributing at least $200 billion to the economy each year. It is considered to be one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change and represents a key sector for international trade. Climate change is a global problem with widespread effects and implications. This phenomenon could make it more difficult to grow crops, raise animals, and catch fish in the same ways and same places as in the past. Therefore, it is critical that climate change messages are communicated effectively by Extension agents to farmers and the farming community.

Cultivate Fall/Winter 2014, Utah State University

Cultivate Magazine

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology: Can The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership Reconcile Eu And Us Differences On Gmos?, Claude Chereau

Economics & Business Analytics Faculty Publications

The US and EU have announced negotiations for a free trade agreement to be completed by end of 2014. While tariff barriers between the two entities are limited, their trade is encumbered with non-tariff barriers (NTBs), one of them being their diverging approach to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the agriculture and food industries. The US operates from a science-based perspective while the EU relies on the precautionary principle. This paper reviews the developments of GMOs in both the US and EU and draws on measures outlined in international organizations and recent trade agreements to explore options for the US …

Cultivate Spring/Summer 2014, Utah State University

Cultivate Magazine

No abstract provided.

Creating A Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila Suzukii (Matsumura), Fruit Puree Diet To Facilitate Integrated Pest Management Techniques, Lynn Marie Gusman

Theses & ETDs

Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), is an invasive fruit fly of Asian origins. It uses a serrated ovipositor to lay eggs in soft-skin fruit such as strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and caneberries, causing fruit to rot early. Because of this damage, it has been deemed an economically important pest that must be controlled by Integrated Pest Management practices. The goal of this study was to determine if different fruits impact the fecundity and overall success of SWD. To rear large numbers of SWD to facilitate testing, we designed puree diets from strawberries and grapes for ease of rearing and fungus …

Setting The Table For Urban Agriculture, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article provides context for the various roles that law plays in the cultivation of urban agriculture. This article first reflects on how popular support for the development of a legal framework that promotes urban agriculture is rooted deeply in American agrarian traditions. The article then notes the palatable tension between the rhetoric in support of urban agriculture and the modes of urban law and planning that dominated the twentieth century. It considers how various approaches to urban planning have facilitated or thwarted urban agriculture and surveys recent legal developments designed to accommodate and encourage urban agriculture projects as alternatives …

Beta Diversity Of Urban Floras Among European And Non-European Cities, Frank A. La Sorte, Myla F.J. Aronson, Nicholas S.G. Williams, Laura Celesti-Grapow, Sarel Cilliers, Bruce D. Clarkson, Rebecca W. Dolan, Andrew Hipp, Stefan Klotz, Ingolf Kühn, Pter Pyšek, Stefan Siebert, Marten Winter

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Aim- Cities represent an ideal study system for assessing how intensive land-use change and biotic interchange have altered beta diversity at broad geographic extents. Here we test the hypothesis that floras in cities located in disparate regions of the globe are being homogenized by species classified as invasive (naturalized species that have spread over a large area) or as a European archaeophyte (species introduced into Europe before ad 1500 from the Mediterranean Basin). We also test the prediction that the global influences of European activities (colonization, agriculture, commerce) have supported this outcome.

Location- One hundred and ten cities …

Producing A Past: Cyrus Mccormick's Reaper From Heritage To History, Daniel Peter Ott

Dissertations

"Producing a Past" explores how the false "fact" of Cyrus McCormick's 1831 invention of the reaper came to be incorporated into the American historical cannon. From 1884 to 1932, the McCormick Harvester family and their various affiliated businesses created a useable past about their departed patriarch, Cyrus McCormick, and his role in producing civilization through advertising and the emerging historical profession. The McCormick narrative of the past which was peddled in advertising and supported in scholarship justified the family's elite position in American society and its monopolistic control of the harvester industry in the face of political and popular antagonism. …

Carbon Farming In Relation To Western Australian Agriculture, Robert Sudmeyer, Jackson Parker, Tanmoy Nath, Ananda Ghose

Bulletins 4000 -

Carbon farming activities need to return multiple economic and environmental co-benefits to be attractive to land managers. This bulletin summarises concepts underlying carbon farming, how Australia accounts for greenhouse gas emissions and the potential for Western Australian land managers to participate in, and benefit from, carbon farming.

A Biocultural Perspective On The Transition To Agriculture In Ukraine, Jordan Kenneth Karsten

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The development of agriculture and its spread around the globe is one of the most consequential events in the history of our species. The transition to agriculture is associated with many cultural developments, such as craft specialization, urbanization, and the creation of social hierarchies. Many social theorists believe that these changes associated with the adoption of farming were beneficial to the human condition, however, not all agree. The goal of this research is to evaluate the impact of the adoption of agriculture on human health. To do this, bioarchaeological analysis is employed, comparing the skeletal and dental health of Mesolithic …

Uneven Ground: Figurations Of The Rural Modern In The U.S. South, 1890-1945, Benjamin S. Child

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

New modernist studies has opened wide the discussion about what modernism means, when it begins, and, compellingly for the purposes of this project, where it occurs. Exploring intersections between modernization, modernism, labor, and segregation in the agricultural South, this dissertation demonstrates how the effects of nascent industrialization, emergent technologies, and "modern" thought are animated by figures and spaces associated with--or performing--versions of rurality. The project is divided into three major sections. In the first, I suggest that the contradictions of African American life in the post-Reconstruction world are parsed in the period's literature through the presence of a veiled georgic …

Prospect Meadow Farm : Clients Perspective Of Beneficial Farming Acitivities, Frank J. Bayles

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This paper explores beneficial therapeutic effects of farming activities for program participants at Prospect Meadow Farm in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Prospect Meadow Farm, owned and operated by Servicenet is a therapeutic farm serving individuals with developmental and mental health conditions. This research is important because it challenges the orthodox conventions of psychiatric treatment in the United States. Furthermore, it is the first research done at Prospect Meadow Farm. The literature provides a historical context of the progress, missed opportunities and collaboration between blossoming professional occupations. Psychiatry, Occupational Therapy and Social Work occupations seem historically intertwined in progressing foundational theories related to …

Origins Of The Classical Gene Concept, 1900–1950: Genetics, Mechanistic, Philosophy, And The Capitalization Of Agriculture, Garland E. Allen

Biology Faculty Research

In the period of “classical genetics” (roughly 1915–1950), the common view of the gene was mechanistic—that is, genes were seen as individual, atomistic units, as material components of the chromosomes. Although it was recognized early on that genes could interact and influence each other’s expression, they were still regarded as individually functioning units, much like the chemists’ atoms or molecules. Although geneticists in particular knew the story was more complex, the atomistic gene remained the central view for a variety of reasons. It fit the growing philosophy of mechanistic materialism in the life sciences, as biologists tried to make their …

Encouraging Teacher Change Within The Realities Of School-Based Agricultural Education: Lessons From Teachers’ Initial Use Of Socioscientific Issues-Based Instruction, Amie Wilcox, Catherine W. Shoulders, Brian E. Myers

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Calls for increased interdisciplinary education have led to the development of numerous teaching techniques designed to help teachers provide meaningful experiences for their students. However, methods of guiding teachers in the successful adoption of innovative teaching approaches are not firmly set. This qualitative study sought to better understand how school-based agricultural education teachers decide to adopt or discontinue a teaching innovation when introduced through ready-made lesson plans, which is currently a common practice of teaching method integration in school-based agricultural education (SBAE). Constant comparative analysis unveiled themes within the reactions to the teaching method’s use, as well as how teacher …

Farm Business Management: A Localized Analysis Of Financial Tools Utilized In Agribusiness, Abby L. Lamothe

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

An International Survey Of Aquaponics Practitioners, David C. Love, Jillian P. Fry, Laura Genello, Elizabeth S. Hill, J Adam Frederick, Ximin Li, Ken Semmens

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Aquaponics, a combination of fish farming and soilless plant farming, is growing in popularity and gaining attention as an important and potentially more sustainable method of food production. The aim of this study was to document and analyze the production methods, experiences, motivations, and demographics of aquaponics practitioners in the United States (US) and internationally. The survey was distributed online using a chain sampling method that relied on referrals from initial respondents, with 809 respondents meeting the inclusion criteria. The majority of respondents were from the US (80%), male (78%), and had at least a high school degree (91%). The …

Effects Of Ground Flaxseed Supplementation On Animal Production And Milk Fatty Acid Profile In Organically-Certified Lactating Jerseys During The Grazing Season, Brianna Jeanette Isenberg

Master's Theses and Capstones

The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of supplementing a pasture-based diet with ground flaxseed (GFLAX) on milk production and composition, blood parameters, digestibility, ruminal characteristics, nitrogen excretion, methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) production, and income over feed cost (IOFC). Twenty organically-certified lactating Jerseys were blocked by milk production and days in milk (DIM) and randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments: 1) control (soybean meal and ground corn grain as 10% of total diet dry matter (DM) or 2) GFLAX as 10% of total diet DM. Treatments were top-dressed onto a 25% mixed grass-legume baleage, …

Tennessee Ag Insider, A Guide The The State's Farms, Food, And Forestry, 2014 Edition, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Tennessee Ag Insider

No abstract provided.

Assisting Occupational Therapists In North Dakota: An Agricultural Resource Guide, Teresa Bunn, Caitlin Layden

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Within the state of North Dakota, agriculture and farming are of the most essential and influential factors within the state's economy (Rathge et. al 2012). Rural communities are among the medically under-served areas within the United States; establishing the dire need of healthcare services (Hagglund et al., 1998; Schweitzer et al., 2011). A study conducted by Meyer and Fetsch (2006) deduced the four prominent disabilities affecting farmer's engagement in occupations as arthritis, spinal cord injury, amputation, and back injuries. Farmers, and their family members, are also at higher risk for work related stressors which may result in severely disabling conditions; …

Sharing In The Success! Tennessee Agriculture 2013 Departmental Report & Statistical Summary, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Forestry Commission Fy 2013 Annual Report, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Forestry Commission Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Measurments Of Haptoglobin, Serum Amyloid A, Fibrinogen, And Leukocytes To Evaluate Stress In Organically Managed, Pasture-Fed And Conventional Managed, Totally Mixed Ration-Fed Jersey Cattle., Dorothy Ann Perkins

Master's Theses and Capstones

In cattle sub-acute inflammatory disorders are difficult to assess because visual symptoms of diseases are not easily detectable with large numbers of dairy cattle in loose housing. In addition, inflammation is not always followed by leukocytosis in cattle, which makes the use of common blood tests like total white blood cell counts less reliable as a diagnostic tool. More sensitive and objective methods are needed to evaluate health status. Research has been focused on the use of acute phase proteins (APPs) to diagnose acute and chronic illness in cattle, because acute phase proteins respond very quickly when an inflammation event …

Using Vegetation To Reduce Nitrogen Runoff In California Caneberries, Rebecca Riesenfeld

Master's Theses

With a 700% rise in global fertilizer use in the last 50 years, agricultural lands are a significant source of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Record high levels of nitrate-contaminated runoff from agricultural sources in California's Central Coast are affecting drinking water supplies in the Pajaro Valley and increasingly threatening the ecological health of the Monterey Bay. Bands of vegetation strategically planted to control runoff and soil erosion, or vegetative filter strips (VFS), are used in urban landscapes and at some farm peripheries. On-farm vegetative diversity has been promoted for its contribution to biodiversity and pest control. …

The Interaction Of Climate Change, Land Cover, And Political Representation In The Usa, Brady W. Allred, Dirac L. Twidwell, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The difficulties in tackling climate change are inherently complex and primarily centered on political and social values. This is evident in the United States where political divisions and polarizations are fundamental barriers to advancing national policies, which in turn hinder international agreements, mitigation, and adaptation. Within the United States, the vast majority of agricultural and natural resource lands are projected to incur significant climate departures and are represented by the Republican Party. The resources and economic sectors that will be directly affected by climate change are represented by national leadership that is unlikely to accept policies to prevent or adapt …

Alec 397: Media Literacy And Popular Portrayals Of Agriculture—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Annie R. Specht

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

My goal is to disseminate this portfolio as a guide for other instructors who are interested in using media literacy as a guiding pedagogical principle for new courses as well as those who wish to incorporate popular media in existing curricula. My objectives for this Peer Review of Teaching benchmark portfolio are:

1. To produce a detailed overview of ALEC 397-001: Media Literacy and Popular Portrayals of Agriculture with extensive attention paid to text selection (identifying and choosing the proper materials to best enhance student learning outcomes).
2. To assist future instructors interested in media literacy with designing and implementing assessments. Assignment …

Soil Microbial Community Distributions And Disease Suppressiveness In The Coastal Plain Of Georgia, Michael J. Sabula

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study compared the soil microbial communities of three vegetation types in the coastal plain of Georgia: 1. crop land actively in use for agricultural production, 2. transitional grassland in early stages of secondary succession, and 3. pristine unmanaged forest land. Microbial species diversity and quantities of microbial DNA were determined from each of these vegetation types at three separate locations near Statesboro, Georgia. Length heterogeneity PCR(LH-PCR) methods and subsequent analysis of fungal, bacterial, and metazoan communities by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) revealed high within-group similarity by vegetation type, indicating land management intensity and vegetation cover is a strong determining …

Grain Finishing Beef: Alternative Rations, Cattle Performance And Feeding Costs For Small Feeders, Dillon M. Feuz, Jesse Russell

All Current Publications

In a feeding trial at Utah State University during the summer of 2013, it was found that cattle had higher ADG when fed SFC compared to whole corn. However, when the relative cost of SFC and whole corn were considered, feeding whole corn compared to SFC resulted in nearly identical feed costs per pound of gain. Actual and relative costs of SFC and whole corn can and do vary over time and across geographic regions. Therefore, feeders could use the information in this fact sheet to determine which feed will be the most economical for them.