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Back Matter Agricultural Research Magazine March 2012

Agricultural Research Magazine

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Agricultural Research Magazine

5601 Sunnyside Ave.

Beltsville, MD 20705-5129

Ars National Program For Human Nutrition Monitoring

Agricultural Research Magazine

The ARS human nutrition monitoring program helps watch over the healthfulness of the country’s food supply and diet. This includes determining the food consumption and dietary patterns of Americans as a whole and for a variety of subgroups based on characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, and income.

Unique national resources that contribute to the success of the ARS human nutrition monitoring program include the National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and the national “What We Eat in America” survey, which is the dietary intake survey component of the broader National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, commonly referred to as …

The Third Step—The National “What We Eat In America” Survey, Rosalie Marion Bliss, Alanna J. Moshfegh

Agricultural Research Magazine

In 2010, landmark health legislation— the Affordable Care Act—was passed, leading to a national strategy crossing both private and public sectors and led by the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council of the Surgeon General. The plan is called the “National Prevention Strategy.”

Science-based dietary-intake data from the Agricultural Research Service provides a key foundation for multiple public health policy publications, including the council’s strategy report, published in June 2011. The report cites the ARS national dietary-intake survey data to underscore the ability of everyday people to improve their health through healthy eating and other preventive measures.

Collecting …

The Second Step—Conservators Of The National Nutrient Database, Rosalie Marion Bliss, Joanne Holden

Agricultural Research Magazine

For more than 115 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided data on the nutrient composition of foods in the American diet. Over time, a series of USDA institutions responsible for providing this data evolved, and today the data comes from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), part of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

“Our mission is to ensure that science based nutrient profiles exist for the U.S. food supply,” says nutritionist and research leader Joanne Holden, who heads the Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) at the nutrition center, which is located in Beltsville, Maryland. “We work with other BHNRC, …

The Stealth Sodium Revolution, Rosalie Marion Bliss

Agricultural Research Magazine

Salt has become one of a handful of sensitive nutrients in the public spotlight, according to major food company executives who attended the 2011 National Nutrient Databank Conference in Bethesda, Maryland. The conference is supported annually by the Agricultural Research Service’s Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) and Food Surveys Research Group (FSRG) and other organizations. Both ARS groups are part of the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

Salting is an ancient food-preservation practice still in use today to help preserve some foods. While salt-cured country hams and corned beef are still crowd pleasers, 80 percent of our dietary …

Exporting United States' Whey Products To The Chinese Market, Rebecca Mellema

Dairy Science

The objective of this research project was to determine the potential for the increase of U.S. whey exports to the Chinese market. The research was gathered from various locations including the United States Dairy Export Council as well as Euromonitor International. From this research the amount of whey that the US produces was compared with the amount of whey that China imports, then analyzed to determine the increased amount that can be exported by the US to China. An analysis of the current and historical situation for dairy products in China was also included to help determine the market potential …

Hybrid And Environment Effects On Popcorn Kernel Physiochemical Properties And Their Relationship To Microwave Popping Performance, Jess C. Sweley, Devin J. Rose, David S. Jackson

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to characterize the effect of hybrid and environment on physical and chemical characteristics of popcorn kernels that have shown importance in predicting end-use quality. Three popcorn hybrids grown in three different environments were tested for physiochemical attributes and popping performance. Hybrid had a significant effect on kernel sphericity, time-to-grind, dietary fiber, sugars, and starch. Environment effect alone affected total mineral content. Hybrid and environment main effects influenced test weight, tangential abrasive dehulling device index, thousand-kernel weight, total carbohydrates, and kernel protein content. Oil adherence to the bag averaged 15.8% and was proportional to oil …

Table Of Contents Agricultural Research Magazine February 2012

Agricultural Research Magazine

A New Way To Map Drought and Water Use Worldwide.........4

Multi-Pronged Fight Against Zebra Chip Disease in Potatoes .........8

Step-by-Step Strategies for Restoring Western Rangelands .........10

Battling Problem Pests in Paradise......... 12

A Dose of Selenium That Goes a Long Way .........14

Can a Prairie Teach Us About Agricultural Water Quality?......... 17

Nixing Nitrate Flow From the Farm......... 18

Infrared Heating: Hot Idea for Keeping Almonds Safe To Eat......... 20

Locations Featured in This Magazine Issue......... 23

Almond Hulls: Harvest Leftover May Offer A Health Connection, Gary R. Takeoka, Marcia Wood

Agricultural Research Magazine

Besides yielding about $1 billion worth of healthful, orchard-fresh nuts, California’s annual almond harvest also yields tons of leftover hulls. The hull is the tough, outermost layer that helps protect the shell—and the tasty nutmeat inside the shell—against attack by insects and disease.

Early studies by Agricultural Research Service chemist Gary R. Takeoka and colleagues have shown that hulls are a rich source of several interesting natural compounds that may have new applications for human health.

Using an array of sophisticated analytical techniques, including gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, Takeoka’s team provided new …

Agricultural Research Magazine February 2012

Agricultural Research Magazine

Agricultural Research Magazine February 2012 whole issue

Fighting Nitrate in the Trenches

Forum: It Takes A Satellite To Feed The World, Feb 2012, Charles L. Walthall

Agricultural Research Magazine

It’s ironic that just when Earth monitoring satellites are needed more than ever to address the food and freshwater demands of a burgeoning global human population, we face an impending gap in coverage by the Landsat program. A series of Landsat satellites has been continuously in orbit since 1972, collecting an invaluable time sequence of global imagery that records decades of land-use and land-cover changes. The recent decision by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to provide Landsat imagery free of charge has led to an explosion in applications, enabling unprecedented study of global deforestation, changes in cropping systems and irrigation …

Can A Prairie Teach Us About Agricultural Water Quality?, Ann Perry

Agricultural Research Magazine

One place to figure out how agricultural practices affect water quality is in a crop field that is being converted to native prairie vegetation. In Iowa, natural resource managers are conducting this type of landscape restoration at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City. So this is where Agricultural Research Service soil scientists Mark Tomer and Cynthia Cambardella partnered with colleagues from Grinnell College, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Iowa Geological Survey Bureau (part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources) to describe changes in water quality during prairie establishment.

The ARS researchers work at …

Back Matter Agricultural Research Magazine February 2012

Agricultural Research Magazine

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Agricultural Research Magazine

5601 Sunnyside Ave.

Beltsville, MD 20705-5129

Infrared Heating: Hot Idea For Keeping Almonds Safe To Eat, Marcia Wood, Zhongli Pan, Maria T. Brandl

Agricultural Research Magazine

Crisp, crunchy almonds make a tasty and nutritious snack any time.

In Albany, California, investigators Zhongli Pan and Maria T. Brandl are collaborating in leading-edge studies that explore the use of a still-evolving technology, infrared heating, to help make sure almonds remain safe to eat.

The federal government, the U.S. almond industry, and food safety researchers are keeping an especially watchful eye on Salmonella enterica.

It’s generally thought that almonds are not naturally contaminated with high levels of this pathogen. Nevertheless, all almonds processed for sale in the United States today have to be pasteurized in order to zap …

Gene Helps With Multiple Leaf Diseases In Corn, Sharon Durham, Peter Balint-Kurti, Jim Holland, Matt Krakowsky

Agricultural Research Magazine

Corn is one of the most widely grown crops in the United States, which produces 40 percent of the world crop. But as with all crops, diseases threaten corn production.

Three diseases, southern corn leaf blight, northern leaf blight, and gray leaf spot, all cause lesions on corn leaves. In the U.S. Midwest Corn Belt, northern leaf blight and gray leaf spot are significant problems.

Agricultural Research Service scientists and university colleagues found a specific gene in corn that seems to confer resistance to all three of these leaf diseases. This discovery, published in 2011 in the Proceedings of the …

Nixing Nitrate Flow From The Farm, Ann Perry

Agricultural Research Magazine

When early settlers arrived in the Midwest, they began constructing an underground network of tile drains to channel water away from the soggy prairies, which then became some of the most fertile crop fields in the country. But now when nitrate from soils and fertilizers leaches out of those flourishing fields, the subsoil engineering also facilitates the discharge of nitrates into nearby streams and rivers.

Because these local waterways are part of the vast Mississippi River Watershed, the nitrates are eventually transported into the Gulf of Mexico, where they can feed the development of oxygen-deficient “dead zones.” But nitrate management …

Multi-Pronged Fight Against Zebra Chip Disease In Potatoes, Jan Suszkiw

Agricultural Research Magazine

Thanks to the investigations of scientiststurned- detectives, potato growers in the western United States and abroad now know the identities of the pathogen and insect responsible for outbreaks of the costly tuber disease known as “zebra chip.”

So named for the dark stripes it forms inside afflicted tubers when cut and fried to make chips or cooked at high temperatures for other dishes, zebra chip has caused millions of dollars in production and processing losses since its first reported U.S. occurrence in potato fields near McAllen and Pearsall, Texas, in 2000. The disease, whose above-ground symptoms include necrosis and purplish, …

A Dose Of Selenium That Goes A Long Way, Sandra Avant, J. Bret Taylor

Agricultural Research Magazine

In western parts of the United States where some rugged ranges can only be reached by horseback, ranchers often find themselves saddling up weekly to deliver mineral supplements to livestock grazing in nutrient-deficient regions, especially areas scarce in selenium. The routine is not only time-consuming but also costly, and in some leased-land arrangements, such supplementation practices are prohibited.

Selenium, a trace mineral and component of important selenoprotein antioxidants, is essential for good health in livestock and humans. If the body cannot form these important antioxidant proteins, it predisposes the animal to sickness and eventually death at a young age.

Selenium …

Step-By-Step Strategies For Restoring Western Rangelands, Ann Perry, Roger Sheley

Agricultural Research Magazine

Invasive plants exploit every environmental angle in their favor. So restoring damaged rangelands in the western United States involves a lot more than just getting rid of bad plants and bringing in good plants.

Since 1990, Agricultural Research Service ecologist Roger Sheley has been refining a process for identifying factors that give the undesirable space invaders their territorial edge—and figuring out strategies for restoring a healthy mix of native vegetation for rangelands in need of remediation.

“Killing a weed is like treating a symptom,” says Sheley, who is co-located at Oregon State University’s Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Burns, …

A New Way To Map Drought And Water Use Worldwide, Don Comis, William P. Kustas, Martha C. Anderson

Agricultural Research Magazine

Every month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Center for Climate Prediction has a drought briefing by teleconference to identify the latest drought areas in North America.

ARS scientists Martha Anderson and Bill Kustas are hoping that in a year or so, data from their computer model/satellite package will give evapotranspiration (ET) maps a seat at that briefing. With funding from NOAAand the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), they have developed a modeling system that NOAA will use to generate ET estimates over the continental United States. NOAA will evaluate these ET products to see how well they …