By Eric Sorensen, WSU science writer
PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University researchers have detailed the role of localized climate change in one of the great mysteries of North American archaeology: the depopulation of southwest Colorado by ancestral Pueblo people in the late 1200s.
By Kate Halstead, WSU Extension
EVERETT, Wash. – Helping people gain the knowledge needed to farm successfully is the focus of two courses in the Cultivating Success series from Washington State University Extension.
By Kate Wilhite, College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences
PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University professor and internationally renowned soil scientist John Reganold received the 2014 Growing Green Award from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Berkeley Food Institute in a ceremony Wednesday in Berkeley, Calif.
By Sylvia Kantor, College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences
SEQUIM, Wash. – Military veterans on the Olympic Peninsula are healing invisible wounds of war by tending the earth. They are part of a trend taking root across the country called agrotherapy, which helps veterans not only overcome difficulties like post-traumatic stress syndrome but also gain skills to help support themselves and their families.
By Sylvia Kantor, College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – Compost produced from urban food and yard waste could be “black gold” to farmers wanting to increase their yields and profits while improving soil and water quality. Washington State University Extension in Snohomish County is exploring how urbanization, long considered a threat to local agriculture, might actually help farmers keep up with demand for local food while recovering a valuable resource from the urban waste stream.
Old-time farming methods that limited farm size demonstrated with horse-drawn plow
EVERETT, Wash. – There are now five million fewer farms in the U.S. than there were in the 1930s. And almost 40 percent of today’s farmers are at least 55 years old.
Consequently, the future and stability of U.S. agriculture depends on recruiting and training of a new generation of farmers.
While interest in small acreage farming and ranching increases each season, many of these new farmers have few opportunities to gain the skills needed for success. “Cultivating Success,” an … » More …
WALLA WALLA, Wash. – You could say John Fouts is helping improve the world, one farm at a time.
A retired Walla Walla County-WSU Extension faculty member, Fouts is one of a number of volunteers helping small-scale farmers in the former Soviet Union improve their livelihoods.
Click the following link to read the full story at the Walla Walla Union Bulletin.
WSU Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center will present ideas about future directions in sustainable food production systems with agricultural experts on Friday, Oct. 22. The forum is free and open to anyone.
The forum consists of two panels, one in Mount Vernon and the other in Pullman, interacting via a live video conferencing feed. “We’re inviting the general public, farmers and students on both sides of the state to participate in the forum,” Lucas Patzek, a crop science graduate student said.
Patzek is one of a group of students based at the WSU Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon … » More …
PULLMAN – Washington’s peppermint producers can make better informed decisions about what to plant and how to rotate their crops, thanks to a discovery by graduate student Jeremiah Dung. The state’s peppermint industry was valued at $36.6 million in 2009.
Dung, who is pursuing his Ph.D. in plant pathology, earned first place in a graduate student paper contest at the Pacific division of the American Phytopathological Society last summer for his work regarding a soil-borne fungus called Verticillium dahliae. He also presented his findings at the regional meeting.
The Pacific division is the largest in the APS and includes members from 13 states.
… » More …
by Brian Charles Clark, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
PULLMAN – An international team of scientists from Italy, France, New Zealand, Belgium and the USA have published a draft sequence of the domestic apple genome in the current issue of Nature Genetics.
The availability of a genome sequence for the apple will allow scientists to more rapidly identify which genes provide desirable characteristics to the fruit and which genes and gene variants provide disease or drought resistance to the plant. This information can be used to rapidly improve the plants … » More …