WSU Organic Farm Empowers Direct Experience of Food
“The great thing about a CSA is that it teaches our customers how to eat seasonally,” said Brad Jaekel, farm manager at WSU’s organic orchard.
The WSU organic farm funds itself with a Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) program. A CSA is a relationship between the farmer and the consumer, where the consumer purchases a share and in turn receives a box of produce every week. The contents of the box vary with what produce is in season. Shareholders are also given a weekly newsletter with recipes and can pick flowers to make bouquets at the farm. Read more »
Where’s The Beef? Carbon Footprint of Dairy, Beef Cattle Shrinks with Increased Productivity, Says WSU Researcher
Discussion of the environmental impact of animal agriculture is very different when you talk in terms of productivity instead of individual animals, according to one of the newest members of the Washington State University Department of Animal Sciences. Read more »
The Science of Specialty Crops
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Various companies have created different machines with the hopes of using them in orchards in the near future. Oxbo/Picker Technologies have created a machine that has a platform which workers stand on and pick fruit from. The machine sorts apples by size as it moves down orchard rows. Vision Robotics has another new technology. Their machine can take pictures of the trees, allowing orchard owners to watch their fruit develop and be on the lookout for signs of codling moths and other pests. Read more/watch video »
Cutting-edge IPM Gives Washington Growers a Leading Edge
What gives Washington the edge and makes it the number one producer of sweet cherries, fresh pears, and produce 60 percent of apples sold in the United States?
Jay Brunner, director of WSU’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, Wash., started his discussion on pesticide alternatives in tree fruit production and management and their relevance to Washington State University by asking the Agricultural and Food Systems 101 class this question. Read more »
Organic growers to benefit from innovative partnership for joint faculty
Everyone talks about innovative ways for public-private partnerships to work together to grow local food economies.
In Jefferson County, WSU Extension has a new faculty member specializing in organic seed and plant breeding, and outreach. So does the Organic Seed Alliance, a national nonprofit research organization also based in Jefferson County, with offices in Maine and Colorado. Read more »
Healthy Plants. Healthy Industry.
Healthy Environment.
Plant health: It is absolutely critical to the success of agriculture in Washington and beyond. It is intricately connected to the health of the natural environment. It is also core to the mission of Washington State University’s Agricultural Research Center. Read more »
National Rankings for Ag Sciences at WSU
We're number two--and number four, six, seven and eight! Researchers in the agricultural sciences at Washington State University are among the most productive in the nation, ranking in the top 10 in almost every ag-related discipline, according to statistics recently released by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Nov. 15, 2007. Learn more about about the productivity of our world-class faculty.
New on Dan Bernardo's Blog
SCRI Success: A Perfect Storm
This week, we received excellent press coverage of WSU’s success in the second round of the USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) program. WSU research teams were awarded approximately $15 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture SCRI grants aimed at providing research-based solutions to issues facing specialty crops such as tree fruit, wine grapes and potatoes. WSU will receive nearly a third of the $47.3 million awarded nationally, the most of any institution in the country. Read more »
On Solid Ground
Subscribe to our free weekly e-newsletter, On Solid Ground, and stay current with research and new from WSU's College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. In this week's issue: Fruitbots!; Spud Bugs. After you subscribe, you'll receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription; if you don't see it in your inbox be sure to check your junk mail folder and mark it as safe.
Voice of the Vine
Voice of the Vine is a free, bi-weekly e-newsletter covering viticulture and enology at Washington State University. Each issue brings you one or two short articles featuring profiles of researchers, students, and alumni working in Washington's world-class wine industry. Subscribe today! Visit the Voice of the Vine archive. After you subscribe, you'll receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription; if you don't see it in your inbox be sure to check your junk mail folder and mark it as safe.