Browse Stories - Page 8

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab is adding two new project managers to the team in Malawi. Norah Titiya Machinjiri Kaula will focus on agronomy and tricot trials, while Wills Mbiriyawaka Munthali will focus on variety trials and seed production. They join Linda Chinangwa, who manages the lab’s social science work in the country.

On a farm in southwest Georgia, the rising sun is just beginning to shine upon acres of lush fall crops growing in neat rows. Migrant workers are hunched over, quickly picking the dew-covered leafy greens destined for grocery stores throughout the country. At the end of a hard day, they head home to a shared house that has been provided to them for the duration of their employment. The next morning, they will wake and return to the fields for another day of work in the elements and finish with a shared evening in the communal housing.

Today, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, in coordination with Governor Brian P. Kemp, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the Georgia Forestry Commission, announced the preliminary estimate of Hurricane Helene’s economic impact on Georgia agriculture is $6.46 billion. This figure represents the sum of direct crop losses, losses to businesses that support agriculture and forestry, losses to workers in those related industries, and estimated recovery and restoration costs that agricultural businesses will face.

Can the brain heal itself after a traumatic injury? Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a promising treatment that could help the brain self-repair, and University of Georgia researchers have received a $3.7 million award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study MSCs’ potential for treatment of traumatic brain injury, or TBI.

Cage free. The term seems self-explanatory enough. Step inside a cage-free poultry house, and the reality is not far detached from the perception. A soft bed of wood shavings or sand litters the ground. Step carefully, as it’s likely you’ll find an egg or two scattered randomly underfoot. And there are chickens everywhere, freely roaming like a crowd at a flea market. Cage-free poultry systems—indoor aviaries that house colonies of up to thousands of birds—offer an improved level of animal welfare for egg-laying hens.

By the end of his first week at 4-H summer camp, fifth grader Cooper Hardy already had many memories of new and exciting experiences. “That was the first time I got in a canoe,” Hardy said. “It was a big deal for me.” Now, 10 years later, Hardy serves as a Georgia 4-H camp counselor at Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton, Georgia. It’s a dream he’s held since the first time he set foot on the sprawling, wooded 1,500-acre campus as a camper.

The University of Georgia community has rallied in the wake of Hurricane Helene, coming together to address damage done to campus facilities while also lending a helping hand to friends and neighbors hit hardest by the storm. While UGA’s main campus weathered the storm with relatively minor damage, the same could not be said for the Tifton campus, where heavy rains and high winds brought down trees and power lines, leaving the campus and surrounding area without power.

Krysta Harden, former United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and current president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, will be the speaker for the 2024 D.W. Brooks Lecture and Awards, an annual event hosted by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. From her parents’ farm in Camilla, Georgia, all the way to Capitol Hill, Harden has been a strong advocate for agriculture.

Caroline Hinton wants to foster a love of learning for all students who walk through her door. As the director of experiential learning for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Hinton helps students connect with their fields of study outside of the classroom. “I find joy and excitement in getting to watch students experience different parts of agriculture and find a place in our state’s own agriculture industry,” she said.

It’s a special moment to step inside Sanford Stadium and walk across that sprawling green field between the hedges. While the grass beneath your feet may not always be your first thought at the Freshman Welcome or Commencement, it is for Gavin Shytle. Keeping the turf safe, healthy, and aesthetically pleasing is the sworn duty of Shytle and his fellow turfgrass management majors. Before athletes even hit the ground running, he makes sure the ground is prepped for them.