Digital Commons Network^™

Fall 2015

Scientia

Prairie prep; Chicago Wildsounds listens for ecosystem health; Up, up and away; Fulbright Travelogue: Health care in Fortaleza, Brazil; New course explores the Pope's encyclical on the environment; A "scent-sational" career in the flavor and fragrance industry; Lab notes; Paying tribute

The Agricultural Footprints On The Environment, Philip Houtz

Kaleidoscope

Industrialized agricultural systems have given America a convenient and affordable means to supply a surplus of food products to its citizens. Transgenic technology, synthesized fertilizers, advanced pesticides, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and the use of farm machinery have all contributed to humanity’s ability to feed the world’s rapidly growing population. However, the energy-intensive food operation of today may not be as ideal as we assume. Fossil fuels are burned to meet the energy requirements for the continual production of large quantities of fertilizer and to keep farm machines operational. Fertilizer and pesticide runoff from farmland ultimately drains into rivers …

Drought And Nitrogen Effects On Maize Canopy Temperature And Stress Indices, David A. Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

Increased water scarcity due to changing climate, population growth, and economic development is a major threat to the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Western United States and other regions around the world. Management practices, such as controlled deficit irrigation, that seek to maximize the productivity of a limited water supply are critical. When using controlled deficit irrigation, remote sensing of crop canopy temperature is a useful tool for assessing crop water status and for more precise irrigation management. However, there is potential that nutrient deficiencies could compound the interpretation of water status from leaf temperature by altering leaf color …

The 2014 Farm Bill: Farm Subsidies And Food Oppression, Andrea Freeman

Seattle University Law Review

The 2014 Farm Bill ushered in some significant and surprising changes. One of these was that it rendered the identity of all the recipients of farm subsidies secret. Representative Larry Combest, who is now a lobbyist for agribusiness, first introduced a secrecy provision into the bill in 2000. The provision, however, only applied to subsidies made in the form of crop insurance. Until 2014, the majority of subsidies were direct payments and the identity of the people who received them was public information. In fact, the Environmental Working Group’s release of the list of recipients led to a series of …

Influences On Students Choosing Majors In Agriculture, Willa Williams

Theses and Dissertations

With a shortage of agricultural graduates predicted for the United States workforce (Goecker, Smith, Smith, & Goetz, 2010) the purpose of the study was to identify influences on students choosing undergraduate majors in agriculture. Structural equation modeling analysis was used to examine independent variable constructs of student characteristics, environment, learning experiences, and task approach skills from Krumboltz's (1996) social learning theory of career decision making on the decision of students to choose an undergraduate major in agriculture. Variables were identified through previous research in field of study choice in agriculture and data was evaluated from the Education Longitudinal Study of …

Surf-N-Turf, But The Sustainable Kind? The Limits And Potential Of Market-Driven Regulation In Food Production, Zdravka Tzankova, Lauren Gwin

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

This article examines the dynamics and likely effects of NGO efforts at private, market-driven regulation of antibiotics use in US agricul-ture. Such NGO efforts aim to eliminate the routine feeding of anti-biotics to healthy animals for the purposes of prophylaxis and growth promotion. To that end, NGOs are pressing large food retailers, who are some of the most powerful market actors, to demand antibiotic-free meat and to refuse selling meat produced with sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics. Curbing agricultural overuse of antibiotics is critically important for public health because overuse erodes the curative power of antibiot-ics by creating antibiotic resistant animal …

Greening A Drug-Addicted Economy: Can Puerto Rico Ease Away From The Toxic Pharmaceutical Industry To A Sustainably Diverse Economy?, Natalie Galarza

Student Theses 2015-Present

Puerto Rico is not the most well known place to most Americans. The small island in the Caribbean is neither an independent nation nor a state, bur rather a commonwealth of the U.S. Life filled coral reefs surround the coasts, rainforests and lush vegetation cover the land, and an underground cave system and glowing bioluminescent bay fascinate all those that venture to them. These natural wonders as well as the vibrant culture are the primary aspects most people who are familiar with Puerto Rico think of. However, the main sector of Puerto Rico’s economy has nothing to do with any …

Maintaining A Way Of Life: Trials And Tribulations Of Farmers Market Families, Megan M. Lankford

Horticulture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Never before in our nation’s history has there been so many ways for consumers to purchase food. From grocery stores, to super centers such as Wal-Mart and Cosco, convenience stores, online purchases, community supported agriculture (CSA), and farmers markets, Americans have a multitude of venues to choose from. Although many Americans currently purchase their foods from grocery stores, a growing number of them are buying locally at their farmers’ markets and from CSAs. As the sustainability movement takes a greater foothold in the American household, local products and local foods are becoming ever more important and prevalent. Yet with all …

Saccharomyces Boulardii As An Enteric Health Promoter In Broiler Chickens, Caroline Stephanie Philpot

Poultry Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Saccharomyces boulardii is a yeast that has been shown to have a probiotic effect on the gut health of humans, ruminants, and swine by helping to control intestinal homeostasis, preventing pathogens from colonizing, promoting beneficial enzyme production, and by other mechanisms. This trial is designed to test whether the addition of S. boulardii to the diet improves the enteric health of broilers. Forty-eight test pens each containing fifteen birds, a water line, and a hanging feed pan were set up in a commercial broiler house from day eighteen to day thirty-six of the flock. The pens were evenly divided into …

Intake And Digestibility Of Fescue Hay Supplemented With Co-Product Feeds, Omega J. Sanders

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Satisfying an animals' nutritional needs can help optimize performance and keep an animal healthy. Meeting these nutritional requirements is often complicated by the low quality characteristics of hay, requiring supplementation with concentrate feedstuffs to offset this low nutrient density. The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of supplementation with soybean hulls (SH), distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS), or a 50:50 mixture of the two (MIX) on ruminal fermentation characteristics and in situ forage disappearance in lactating and non-lactating ruminally-cannulated cows offered tall fescue hay. For this experiment, a basal diet of tall fescue hay was offered …

Cla-Rich Soy Oil Shortening, Chocolate Paste, And Chocolate Bar Production And Characterization, Elizabeth Sarah Mayfield

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Conjugated linoleic acid-rich soy oil (CLARSO) has been shown to have numerous health benefits, including anti-obesity and anti-carcinogenic properties. This oil was previously used to produce CLA-rich margarine that provided the recommended daily value of CLA and showed physical characteristics similar to commercially available margarine. The objectives of this study were to produce CLA-rich shortenings and analyze their physical properties relative to commercially available shortenings and soy oil control shortenings and to produce CLA-rich chocolate bars and pastes by replacing a portion of the fat with CLARSO and compare the physical properties of these pastes/bars to controls made with either …

A Website Of Agriculturally Related Activities For Elementary Grade Levels, Bailey M. Kirby

Agricultural Education and Communication

The purpose of this project is to develop a website containing agriculturally-related activities designed for the elementary classroom, including kindergarten to fifth grade. This website was created in order to bring agriculture into the elementary classroom and introduce the topic to students at an earlier age because the subject is currently only taught at the high school level. Two activities were created for each grade level and fit into the current curriculums for those grade levels. The website was designed in a way that teachers will be able to continually submit activities to be added to the website at any …

The Impact Of Agriculture On African Civilization In The 21st Century, Andrew S. Targowski

International Journal of African Development

The purpose of this paper is to define the impact of agriculture on African Civilization in the 21^st century. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the African Civilizations. The multifaceted layers of civilizations will be analyzed as interdependent with the agricultural development of African societies. Among the findings are: Sub-Saharan Africa falls short of meeting its agricultural needs. Only one of two individual Africans has access to clean and enough water. Energy and supply of electricity are woefully inadequate and unreliable. Agriculture as a foundation for development and modernization for Africa is too limited. Environmental …

The Optimal Cow Size For Intermountain Cow-Calf Operations, Jesse Russell, Dillon Feuz

All Current Publications

Research has shown that as a cow’s mature weight increases, feed efficiency decreases, as well as reproductive efficiency and other production factors. The purpose of this fact sheet is to illustrate the differences economically between three different cow weights (1,000 lbs., 1,200 lbs. and 1,400 lbs.) on three different resource bases.

Investigation Of An Affordable Multigrain Thresher For Smallholder Farmers In Sub-Saharan Africa, David D. Wilson

Open Access Theses

As the global population rises, food security is among the most important grand challenges of our time. While agriculture has significantly developed in parts of the world, other parts are severely underdeveloped, inhibiting agriculture productivity, which is a necessary component of the solution to the food security challenge. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in particular, has seen little growth in productivity, something that has been correlated to its low agricultural mechanization. One barrier to mechanization in SSA, where the average farm size is less than 2 Ha, is the cost of farm equipment. This leaves many farmers with just basic tools to …

Cultivate Spring/Summer 2015, Utah State University

Cultivate Magazine

No abstract provided.

Cultivate Fall/Winter 2015, Utah State University

Cultivate Magazine

No abstract provided.

Giving Slaughterhouses Glass Walls: A New Direction In Food Labeling And Animal Welfare, Zak Franklin

Animal Law Review

Modern industrial animal agriculture and consumer purchasing patterns do not match consumers' moral preferences regarding animal welfare. Cur­rent production methods infiict a great deal of harm on animals despite widespread consumer preference for meat, dairy, and eggs that come from humanely treated animals. Judging by the premium pricing and market shares of food products with moral or special labels (e.g., 'cage-free,' 'free range,' and 'organic'), many consumers are willing to pay more for less harmful products, but they are unable to determine which products match this preference. The labels placed on animal products, and the insufficient government oversight of these …

Small And Closed Vs. Large And Open: Some Lessons From Comparing Cuban To Colombian Agricultural Development, Bernd Reiter, Brandon S. Huson, Maria A. Gonzalez

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Comparing the experiences of selected Latin America and the Caribbean countries and their trajectories over the past 15 years offers rich insights into the dynamics and causes for not meeting the 2015 MDGs. They also offer clues for post-MDG strategies. Central to achieving sustainable growth are government policies able to support small and medium- sized farms and peasants, as they are crucial for the achievement of several goals, centrally: to achieve food security; to provide a sound and stable rural environment able to resist external (financial) shocks; to secure healthy food; to secure local food; and to protect vibrant and …

Bowman V. Monsanto Co.: Bellweather For The Emerging Issue Of Patentable Self-Replicating Technologies And Inadvertent Infringement., Christopher M. Holman

Faculty Works

The inherent tendency of patented seeds to self-replicate has led to fears that farmers might face liability for inadvertent patent infringement. To address the perceived problem, some have proposed severely limiting the availability of effective patent protection for self-replicating technologies. Typical examples include denying patent rights to "second generation" self-replicating products, and even broadly declaring such technologies ineligible for patent protection. The fact is, lawsuits against inadvertently infringing farmers remain of largely hypothetical concern. However, changes in the market could soon render such lawsuits a reality. In addressing the resulting policy concerns, Congress and the courts have at their disposal …

Silvopasture In The Northeastern United States, Joseph Nathan Orefice

Doctoral Dissertations

Silvopasture, the sustainable integration of livestock and trees on the same unit of land, may have the potential to contribute to agricultural productivity in the Northeastern United States and concurrently encourage the ecosystems services which trees provide. Extremely little is known regarding the ecological characteristics of silvopastures being utilized, their social and economic drivers, or their agricultural productivity. Silvopasture characteristics, management, and reasons for use were documented through a purposeful sample of silvopasture practitioners in New York and New England. Results document the functional role of silvopastures on regional farms. This research also investigated the ecological and production dynamics of …

Tennessee Ag Insider, A Guide The The State's Farms, Food, And Forestry, 2015 Edition, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Tennessee Ag Insider

No abstract provided.

Employment, Unemployment, And Underemployment In Africa, Stephen S. Golub, Faraz Hayat , '14

Economics Faculty Works

This chapter documents and analyzes the predominance of informal employment in Africa and shows that lack of demand for labor rather than worker characteristics is the main reason for pervasive underemployment. Integration into the global economy and exports of labor-intensive products are vital to boosting the demand for labor in Africa. Africa has some potential to become competitive in light manufacturing, but the most promising avenue for export-led growth of employment in many African countries is agriculture, including traditional cash crops such as cotton, coffee, cocoa, and groundnuts. Traditional cash crops, which are the source of livelihood for millions of …

Agriculture/ Graduate Students/ Carlson & Bracke/ Purdue University/ 2014, Jake Carlson, Marianne S. Bracke

Data Information Literacy Case Study Directory

Librarians at Purdue University had the opportunity to develop a semester long data information literacy program to ten students in the College of Agriculture. The program was run as a pilot to test out ideas and approaches in teaching data literacy competencies to students. Topics included high level subjects such as data lifecycles, data management planning, metadata and sharing data, along with practical issues such as file naming conventions, developing a metadata record for a data set and depositing data into a repository. Materials in this case study include weekly lesson plans, slide decks, assignments, an application and other documents …

Seed To Sale: Boundary Work In Mississippi Agriculture, Caroline Canarios

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From production to sale, farm operations thrive on the demanding work of farm labor. However, social research on agriculture does not give adequate attention to issues of labor and work. Through participant observation, interviews, and content analysis, I analyze work from multiple perspectives within Mississippi agriculture. I focus on individuals involved in produce farming in two communities located in Northwest and Southeast Mississippi. I apply the boundary work theoretical framework to my findings, which reveals the complexities of the agriculture sector in Mississippi and illuminates the ways in which individuals not only define themselves but the work they do and …

Industry Career Guide: Agribusiness, Roderick C. Bugador

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Agribusiness is generally the commercial aspect related to agriculture or agricultural activities and its products. The Agribusiness sector is engaged in the production and operations of a farm, the manufacture and distribution of farm equipment and supplies, and the processing, storage, and distribution of farm commodities. The very core of the industry is agriculture, which is supported by the manufacturing sector and service sector. As a whole, the Agribusiness sector is quite diverse as it encompasses input production, farm operations and management, equipment and supplies manufacturing, food/non-food processing, trading, and retailing.

Patterns Of Differential Gene Expression In Adult Rotation-Resistant And Wild-Type Western Corn Rootworm Digestive Tracts, Chia-Ching Chu, Jorge A. Zavala, Joseph L. Spencer, Matías J. Curzi, Christopher J. Fields, Jenny Drnevich, Blair D. Siegfried, Manfredo J. Seufferheld

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The western corn rootworm (WCR, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) is an important pest of corn. Annual crop rotation between corn and soybean disrupts the corn-dependent WCR life cycle and is widely adopted to manage this pest. This strategy selected for rotation-resistant (RR) WCR with reduced ovipositional fidelity to corn. Previous studies revealed that RR-WCR adults exhibit greater tolerance of soybean diets, different gut physiology, and host–microbe interactions compared to rotation-susceptible wild types (WT). To identify the genetic mechanisms underlying these phenotypic changes, a de novo assembly of the WCR adult gut transcriptome was constructed and used for RNA-sequencing analyses of …

World Bank, Agriculture And Policy: A Case Study In Ghana And Ethiopia, Steven Margel

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis tests the effectiveness of the World Bank’s agricultural-aid policy by examining case studies in Ghana and Ethiopia in the period of 2000-2010. Each study examines the policy context, project/program success, overall human development results, and threats to sustainability, of agricultural aid. The primary hypothesis of the paper is that participatory processes and inclusive institutions will prove to be decisive factors. Each case is tested against this political view of aid in addition to three additional images (Destructive, Ineffective, Effective Technical), in order to ensure a comprehensive review.

The Ghana case showed a lack of participation in forming the …

Garden Soils: Reviewing The Viability Of Soil Phosphate Analyses In The Archaeological Identification Of Ancient Maya Kitchen Gardens, Cheryl Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of ancient Maya intensive, intra-site agricultural systems, such as kitchen gardens, has gained new interest in recent years as a valuable way of interpreting numerous aspects of the ancient Maya's daily life (e.g. subsistence and settlement patterns, population growth, diet and nutrition, gender roles). However, while contemporary Maya kitchen gardens can often be easily identified and studied by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, ancient kitchen gardens are usually much harder to identify by traditional archaeological techniques because of their lack of architectural structures and other identifying features. To compensate for this limitation, various forms of chemical testing (primarily phosphate …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Migrant Women Farmworkers' A Qualitative Analysis Of Migrant Women Farmworkers’ Perceptions Of Maternal Care Management, Stacey A. Pilling

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine migrant women farmworkers' views of perinatal care management while working in the fields. Like men, women migrant farmworkers are exposed to many physical, chemical, and biological hazards that pose human health risks. However, women of childbearing age are at an increased risk of having reproductive health difficulties and adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the infant mortality rate among migrant farmworkers is estimated to be twice the national average. Perinatal care is a critical factor in reducing adverse outcomes for perinatal and newborn mortality. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 migrant women farmworkers …