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College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

2012

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Technical Feasibility Of Small-Scale Oilseed And On-Farm Biodiesel Production: A Vermont Case Study, Emily J. Stebbins-Wheelock, Robert Parsons, Qingbin Wang, Heather Darby, Vernon Grubinger Dec 2012

Technical Feasibility Of Small-Scale Oilseed And On-Farm Biodiesel Production: A Vermont Case Study, Emily J. Stebbins-Wheelock, Robert Parsons, Qingbin Wang, Heather Darby, Vernon Grubinger

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This article investigates the technical feasibility of small-scale oilseed production and on-farm processing of biodiesel and livestock feed using primary data from two Vermont farms. Results indicate that small-scale production of sunflowers, canola, and soybeans, and on-farm processing of livestock feed and biodiesel are technically feasible, but yields depend on many factors. Increased local expertise, information-sharing among the farm and Extension communities, and improved access to harvesting and processing equipment can improve productivity and efficiency. Additional experience in seed drying and expeller pressing techniques should reduce fat content in the seed meal, improve meal value, and improve oil production efficiency. …

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Land Use Adaptation To Climate Change: Economic Damages From Land-Falling Hurricanes In The Atlantic And Gulf States Of The Usa, 1900-2005, Asim Zia Jul 2012

Land Use Adaptation To Climate Change: Economic Damages From Land-Falling Hurricanes In The Atlantic And Gulf States Of The Usa, 1900-2005, Asim Zia

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Global climate change, especially the phenomena of global warming, is expected to increase the intensity of land-falling hurricanes. Societal adaptation is needed to reduce vulnerability from increasingly intense hurricanes. This study quantifies the adaptation effects of potentially policy driven caps on housing densities and agricultural cover in coastal (and adjacent inland) areas vulnerable to hurricane damages in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal regions of the U.S. Time series regressions, especially Prais-Winston and Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) models, are estimated to forecast the economic impacts of hurricanes of varying intensity, given that various patterns of land use emerge in the Atlantic …

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Ecosystem Services: The Economics Debate, Joshua Farley Jul 2012

Ecosystem Services: The Economics Debate, Joshua Farley

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to illuminate the debate concerning the economics of ecosystem services. The sustainability debate focuses on whether or not ecosystem services are essential for human welfare and the existence of ecological thresholds. If ecosystem services are essential, then marginal analysis and monetary valuation are inappropriate tools in the vicinity of thresholds. The justice debate focuses on who is entitled to ecosystem services and the ecosystem structure that generates them. Answers to these questions have profound implications for the choice of suitable economic institutions. The efficiency debate concerns both the goals of economic activity and the …

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Genetic Patterns Of Domestication In Pigeonpea (Cajanus Cajan (L.) Millsp.) And Wild Cajanus Relatives, Mulualem T. Kassa, R. Varma Penmetsa, Noelia Carrasquilla-Garcia, Birinchi K. Sarma, Subhojit Datta, Hari D. Upadhyaya, Rajeev K. Varshney, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Douglas R. Cook Jun 2012

Genetic Patterns Of Domestication In Pigeonpea (Cajanus Cajan (L.) Millsp.) And Wild Cajanus Relatives, Mulualem T. Kassa, R. Varma Penmetsa, Noelia Carrasquilla-Garcia, Birinchi K. Sarma, Subhojit Datta, Hari D. Upadhyaya, Rajeev K. Varshney, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Douglas R. Cook

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) is an annual or short-lived perennial food legume of acute regional importance, providing significant protein to the human diet in less developed regions of Asia and Africa. Due to its narrow genetic base, pigeonpea improvement is increasingly reliant on introgression of valuable traits from wild forms, a practice that would benefit from knowledge of its domestication history and relationships to wild species. Here we use 752 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from 670 low copy orthologous genes to clarify the evolutionary history of pigeonpea (79 accessions) and its wild relatives (31 accessions). We identified three well-supported lineages …

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Early Developmental Responses To Seedling Environment Modulate Later Plasticity To Light Spectral Quality, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, John R. Stinchcombe, Johanna Schmitt Mar 2012

Early Developmental Responses To Seedling Environment Modulate Later Plasticity To Light Spectral Quality, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, John R. Stinchcombe, Johanna Schmitt

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Correlations between developmentally plastic traits may constrain the joint evolution of traits. In plants, both seedling de-etiolation and shade avoidance elongation responses to crowding and foliage shade are mediated by partially overlapping developmental pathways, suggesting the possibility of pleiotropic constraints. To test for such constraints, we exposed inbred lines of Impatiens capensis to factorial combinations of leaf litter (which affects de-etiolation) and simulated foliage shade (which affects phytochrome-mediated shade avoidance). Increased elongation of hypocotyls caused by leaf litter phenotypically enhanced subsequent elongation of the first internode in response to low red:far red (R:FR). Trait expression was correlated across litter and …

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Eorganic: The Organic Agriculture Community Of Practice For Extension, Alexandra G. Stone, Danielle D. Treadwell, Alice K. Formiga, John P.G. Mcqueen, Michelle M. Wander, James Riddle, Heather M. Darby, Debra Heleba Jan 2012

Eorganic: The Organic Agriculture Community Of Practice For Extension, Alexandra G. Stone, Danielle D. Treadwell, Alice K. Formiga, John P.G. Mcqueen, Michelle M. Wander, James Riddle, Heather M. Darby, Debra Heleba

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

eOrganic is the organic agriculture community of practice (CoP) and resource area for eXtension. eOrganic's primary community of interest (CoI) is organic farmers and the agricultural professionals who support them. The 250 members of the eOrganic CoP include farmers, researchers, certifiers, and extension/other agricultural professionals. eOrganic's mission is to build a diverse national CoP and use web technologies to synthesize existing information, emerging science, and practical knowledge into information resources and training materials for its CoI. eOrganic strategies to achieve that mission include collaborative publication, stakeholder engagement, community development, projectmanagement, evaluation, and fundraising. eOrganic's public site currently offers 240 articles, …

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Costs Of Food Safety Certification On Fresh Produce Farms In Vermont, Florence A. Becot, Virginia Nickerson, David S. Conner, Jane M. Kolodinsky Jan 2012

Costs Of Food Safety Certification On Fresh Produce Farms In Vermont, Florence A. Becot, Virginia Nickerson, David S. Conner, Jane M. Kolodinsky

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This article addresses the economic costs of good agricultural practices (GAPs) audits of small and medium size farms in Vermont. It focuses on the costs of infrastructure, equipment, and labor required to successfully pass a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) GAPs audit. In-depth interviews and surveys of produce farmers in 2011 revealed that the cost of GAPs certification ranges between $37 and $54 per acre, and an additional 7 hours were required each week during the growing season. Based on this exploratory research, certifying all the farms in Vermont would cost between $228,216 and $3,019,114. Our study explored all the …

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