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A MAgAzi n e of th e AgR icu ltu RAl R eseARc h PRogRAM At noRth cARoli nA AgR icu ltu RAl An D tec h n icAl stAte u n iVeRsitY

> Green fuels: Seeing potential in cattails, agricultural residues

> Food environment affects obesity rates

> Seeking answers to longevity INS

IDE

Agroforestry brAnches out in southeAst AsiA

North Carolina A&T State University

Agricultural Research Program in the School of

Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Dr. Harold L. Martin Sr., Chancellor

Dr. Donald McDowell, Interim Dean, School of

Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Dr. Shirley Hymon-Parker, Associate Dean,

Research

Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, Associate Dean,

Administrator, The Cooperative

Extension Program

Tommy Ellis, Associate Dean, Administration

Produced by the Agricultural Communications

and Technology Unit:

Director: Robin Adams

Writer: Laurie Gengenbach

Editors: Alton Franklin, Cathy Gant Hill,

Laurie Gengenbach

Photographer: James Parker

Graphic Designer: Joshua Loftin

Send change of address and correspondence to:

Laurie Gengenbach

Agricultural Research Program

C.H. Moore Agricultural Research Station

Greensboro, NC 27411

On the cover: Dr. Manuel Reyes examines a

low-cost irrigation system that is being

researched for use in agroforestry.

The map on page 5 originally appeared on

commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:

Association_of_Southeast_Asian_Nations.svg,

and is reproduced in Re:search in complete com-

pliance with terms specified.

5,000 copies of this public document were

printed on recycled paper at a cost of $7,875.00

or $1.58 per copy.

North Carolina A&T State University is a

land-grant, high research institution and

AA/EEO employer.

Distributed in furtherance of the acts of

Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914.

Employment and program opportunities are

open to all people regardless of race, color,

national origin, sex, age or disability. North

Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina

State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture

and local governments cooperating.

Copyright © 2009 School of Agriculture and

Environmental Sciences, North Carolina

A&T State University. Re:search may not be

reproduced unless prior permission is granted

and credit is given.

Vision

Re:

Mission The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences provides

opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to achieve

excellence in the food, agricultural, family and environmental sciences

through exemplary and integrative instruction, and through scholarly,

creative and effective research and Extension programs.

Re:

The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences shall be

a premier learner-centered community that develops and preserves

intellectual capital in the food, agricultural, family and environmental

sciences through interdisciplinary learning, discovery and engagement.

Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi sees a green fuel bonanza in cattails.

12

<

For an online edition of Re:search, visit www.ag.ncat.edu/research/re_search_magazine.html

For video interviews with researchers providing additional information, visit www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html

Mission

3 Post-harvest technologies Post-harvest technologies improve safety and add value to fresh produce.

4 agroforestry An agroforestry project that marries forestry with farming — and scientific research with inter-national development — is beginning to bear fruit.

10 the food environment in n.c. Study shows connections among obesity, fruit and vegetable consumption and access to supermarkets.

12 green fuels Biological engineers with the Agricultural Research Program are seeking ways to make cellulosic ethanol (CE) production commercially viable for North Carolina.

14 miraculous microbes Science might never find the fountain of youth, but a fountain of health could one day be as close as your dairy aisle.

18 making sense New consumer testing lab brings science closer to markets.

20 feed and fowl Researchers from three different disciplines have developed a poultry feed that could improve post-molt egg production and bird health.

23 high tunnels, high Profits Helping farmers transition to organic by using unheated greenhouses.

25 organic markets Study examines retail market for organic food.

26 active Projects A synopsis of projects in the Agricultural Research Program. 1

A magazine of the Agricultural Research Program in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

< 14

Dr. Kofi Adu-Nyako finds a connection between obesity and the food environment in North Carolina.

Experiments with mice yield important findings for longevity in humans.

10>

as the new associate dean for

research for the school of agriculture

and environmental sciences at n.c.

a&t, it is a pleasure to find that one

of my first duties is introducing this

issue of Re:search, where we focus on

the importance of global connections.

we’ve all heard the expression “no

man is an island,” and though it might

seem trite, it is truer than ever.

with the economy in upheaval and

wars still making daily headlines, it is

important to affirm that strengthening

connections is now more important

than ever. making that global connection is the

spirit that lies behind our cover story on agrofor-

estry and rural development in southeast asia.

for the past three years, dr. manuel reyes

has led a team of researchers from around the

world to demonstrate how vegetable farming

can coexist with forestry. this project, funded

by the united states agency for international

development (usaid) is working with more than

30 international partners including the world

agroforestry center

in kenya, the world

vegetable center in

taiwan, virginia tech

and many other top land-

grant universities and

government agencies.

what this dedicated

and creative team

continues to discover

are win-win scenarios:

researchers bringing forth

new, farmer-friendly

technologies and strate-

gies; new markets for

environmentally friendly

indigenous vegetables;

and, perhaps most impor-

tant of all, new relation-

ships and bonds of trust and cooperation that

promise to endure far into the future. interestingly,

one of those relationships is with vietnam, a nation

that the united states spent more than a decade

attempting to vanquish. we were unsuccessful in

that venture, but now are at peace with this nation,

and this project is treating the cashew farmers in

that socialist economy as partners. the investment

in cooperation — in this instance, a mere $1.27

million over three years — is a trifle, compared

to the costs of conflict that so far, have no end in

sight. the impacts are already rolling in and are

described in more detail in the article.

and it is also interesting to note that another

usaid-funded project that emphasized collabora-

tion and cooperation with an international partner

— in that instance, senegal — has yielded allergen-

free peanuts that will benefit not just us at home,

but any company in the world that wants to make

use of the process. work on the patented treatment

for peanuts has moved into the human clinical tri-

als phase, in anticipation of making hypo-allergenic

or even non-allergenic peanuts available to consum-

ers in the near future. another article inside, about

food microbiology research collaborations with

chinese researchers in beijing, is also an example

of research reaching out beyond our borders.

developing international partnerships and

impacts is part of the school of agriculture and

environmental sciences’ five-year strategic plan.

global readiness and global competitiveness are

also at the top of

the agenda for the

university of north

carolina tomorrow

commission report.

developing global

partnerships is a

key agenda of the

agricultural research

Program at n.c. a&t

as well.

even those cynics

who question the value

of science to society

can be won over when

it is pointed out that

every dollar that is

invested in research

today returns at least

$20 in the long term. and that’s just the money

side. far more valuable are security, health and

well-being to the rural and agricultural community

here and abroad, as the stories in this issue illus-

trate. i invite you to peruse these and join with us

in honoring and celebrating the global partnerships

we are developing.

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Dr. Shirley

Hymon-Parker

2

Administrator’s DeskCooperation strengthens economies everywhere

Dr. Shirley Hymon-Parker comes to North

Carolina A&T State University from the

University of Maryland Eastern Shore,

where she has served for the past five

years as professor and chair of the

Department of Human Ecology, and for

the past 11 years as associate research

director of 1890 programs for the School

of Agricultural and Natural Sciences. She

received her Ph.D. in education policy,

planning and administration from the

University of Maryland in 1993; her

master’s in apparel design from Cornell

University; and her bachelor’s from North

Carolina Central University in Durham.

Re:

Nutritionists encourage us to

eat lots of fresh greens and fruits for

good health, but keeping these vita-

min-packed powerhouses free of E.coli

and other pathogens has become a

major issue for produce industries.

Studies under way through the new

Center of Excellence for Post-Harvest

Technologies at the North Carolina

Research Campus could provide solu-

tions. The Center officially opened in

October 2008, and although staffing

is still under way, several studies have

already begun. Dr. Ipek Goktepe, a

food scientist and toxicologist with

the Agricultural Research Program,

foresees access to state-of-the-art

instrumentation at the Center help-

ing to speed up the pace of two of her

food-safety research projects.

In the first of these projects,

Goktepe is developing an all-natural

treatment to protect leafy greens

from E.coli contamination. The new

technology uses modified atmosphere

packaging in combination with harm-

less yet powerful microbes known

as bacteriophages. The packaging is

designed to keep leafy greens fresher

longer, while the bacteriophage treat-

ment is aimed at keeping them safe

from foodborne pathogens.

Bacteriophages (Greek for “bacte-

ria eaters”) are viruses that only attack

bacteria, not human or animal cells.

Although most people have never

heard of these microbes, they are as

ubiquitous in nature as bacteria them-

selves, and safer. Just as we consume

harmless bacteria every day in the

food we eat and the water we drink,

we also consume millions of phages.

These tiny predators are therefore an

ideal candidate for use in food safety

and even medical treatments.

Bacteriophages were discovered

about a century ago, but research in

the United States halted once antibi-

otics were discovered. However, other

nations in Europe and the former

Soviet Union continued research,

and today use phage treatments in

some medicines, and, more recently,

in food safety applications. Now the

United States is catching up. Phage

treatments to protect against Listeria

in ready-to-eat meats have recently

been approved by the Food and Drug

Administration for use here, and food

safety researchers in universities and

biotech firms are exploring other

applications for phages. Medical sci-

ence also has renewed interest in

them, in response to the emergence

of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

“This research is responsive to

consumer demands. Phages are natu-

ral, highly effective and pose no harm

to humans or the environment,” said

Goktepe.

Goktepe’s research has shown

promising results so far. A “cocktail”

comprised of three phages that was

developed by a Baltimore-based bio-

tech firm, Intralytix Inc., began killing

pathogenic E.coli bacteria on lettuce

after only two hours. After 24 hours,

the levels of E.coli were undetectable.

Now Goktepe and her team are aim-

ing at getting the cocktail to begin

work in an even shorter timeframe.

The faster it works, the less likelihood

for cross contamination.

“If it begins working even at two

hours, then we know it will be

effective by the time the prod-

uct reaches the consumer, but

the faster it works, the better,”

she said.

She next plans to experi-

ment with phages in combina-

tion with modified atmosphere

packaging, a technology that

extends shelf-life of fresh foods

by sealing them in pouches

with oxygen and other natural

gases that slow down the res-

piration of fresh produce. The

goal is to find the right combi-

nation of phages and special-

ized packaging that will keep

food safe and fresh for weeks

instead of days.

Strawberry mold

In a second project funded by the

Center of Excellence for Post-Harvest

Technologies, Goktepe is tackling

Botrytis cinere – a mold that plagues

the strawberry industry in North

Carolina and everywhere. The soil-

borne organism causes losses of up

to 20 percent for growers. Although it

attaches to strawberries in the field,

it usually begins doing its damage

after harvest, which means losses to

distributors and consumers as well.

Goktepe and her collaborator,

Dr. Margaret Kanipes, a biochemist at

N.C. A&T, are studying the molecular

mechanism of the mold. Fortunately,

the strawberry genome has been

mapped and is available for purchase

on gene microarray slides which will

enable their team to study the effect

of environmental factors, such as

light, humidity and temperature, on

the mold’s growth during storage.

“If we can understand these

mechanisms at the molecular level,

then we will know how to intervene

to prevent this mold from attach-

ing and growing, and the strawberry

industry will benefit,” Goktepe said.

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@n

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Post-harvest technologies improve safety and add value to fresh produce

3

Dr. Ipek Goktepe is looking at new

ways to extend shelf-life and improve

the safety of packaged greens.

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reye

s@n

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Any farmer will tell you that you can’t grow vegetables in forests. “Too much shade,” they’ll say. “Vegetables need direct sunlight.” Or, “Too much competition. The trees will suck up all the water.” Sounds obvious, right? Not quite, according to data that is emerging from agroforestry research led by Dr. Manuel Reyes, a biological engineer with the Agricultural Research Program. Now, three years into the four-year project, scientists have findings that challenge conventional wisdom about the incom-patibility of vegetables with trees. “We are opening up new horizons in our understanding of agroforestry sys-tems,” Reyes said. “We now have data from four countries in Southeast Asia that support the hypothesis that in certain

vegetable-tree combinations, the yield of vegetables improves more with trees than without trees. That’s pioneering.” Even more surprising are data show-ing that the vigor and yield of some income-producing trees is also improv-ing with the addition of vegetable farm-ing. In particular, Vietnamese cashew trees and some Taiwanese fruit trees grew faster or produced more when interspersed with vegetables. In Taiwan, the yield of some vegetables planted at the same time as fruit trees was twice as high as those in conventional fields. In the Philippines, an experiment in which rows of vegetables were planted perpen-dicular to rows of trees 30 meters apart are showing a “zone of complementarity,” about 6-to-15 meters from the tree line, where most of the vegetables are notice-

4

An agroforestry project that marries forestry with farming — and scientific research with international development — is beginning to bear fruit.

Agroforestry: A Perfect Marriage

5

ably more productive. Tomatoes in that experiment demonstrated 40 percent greater yield than those planted in open fields. In Indonesia, researchers have discovered that a popular indigenous veg-etable, katuk, grows well under trees. There are a couple of explanations, Reyes says: One reason the trees might be doing better is that they are benefitting from the extra fertilizer and water that vegetables require. And one reason the vegetables thrive might be that the trees give shade from the sweltering tropical sun, or return fertilizer to the veg-etables in the form of fallen leaves, or provide a windbreak that reduc-es evapotranspiration and creates a humid microclimate. Whatever the reasons, the new findings have implications for rural economic development, income production, soil conserva-tion, habitat biodiversity, carbon sequestration and water-quality protection in some of the poorest Equatorial regions of the world, where the rural poor eke out a sub-sistence growing chemical-dependent vegetables on steep mountain slopes. In these regions, cash crops that cater to urban, Westernized tastes such as tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbages and lettuce have taken a toll on the environment. Erosion and pesticide runoff has made water quality a costly maintenance issue for downstream cities, and now governments in developing nations are seeking ways to prevent pollution, including agroforestry.

For many years, agroforestry has been seen as an important tool in soil conservation and water-quality improvement, but the bias has always been toward planting trees in combination with grain crops, which makes sense, because grain crops use the most acreage and comprise most of the world’s food. Nobody had thought it was possible to incor-porate vegetables into agroforestry systems. Until now, that is.

“We’re now showing that vegetables and trees can be grown together. That’s new,” Reyes said. “The question now is, can the farmers make any money in the long term? Our economists are analyzing that. We hope to recommend to farmers a tree-vegetable combination that will earn them an income, and equally important, reduce soil ero-sion and provide wildlife habitat.” Toward that goal, the project is also experimenting with indige- nous vegetables, which require fewer chemical inputs and are often more nutritious and require

less management. However, markets for such crops are still under development.

Why agroforestry?

Agroforestry, a technique of growing income-producing trees with food crops to stabilize soil and protect watersheds has been a tool of sustain-able agriculture and international development for many years. The World Agroforestry Center based

Agroforestry experiments are taking place in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, thanks to a USAID project being led by Dr. Manuel Reyes.

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Agroforestry: A Perfect Marriage

The American Water Works

Association says that

for every 10 percent increase

in acres of forest, a

community’s cost for water

purification drops 20 percent.

Federal regulators estimate

it’s at least 20 times more

costly to treat contaminated

water than to protect the

watershed that supplies it.

6

in Kenya was founded in 1978 to pro-mote the practice. Like most devel-opment approaches, agroforestry is driven by the recognition that poverty is often at the root of environmental degradation. Slash-and-burn farming and rainforest destruction are often practiced in undeveloped nations due to economic need, but with dire con-sequences for air and water quality, particularly in light of global warm-ing and climate change. Agroforestry also embraces a systems approach to development that encompasses the human, economic and socio-political. “The philosophy behind the research is multidisciplinary,” Reyes explains. “The questions we have to answer are: is the approach techni-cally feasible? Is it socially accept-able? Economically, can farmers make enough to make it worth their while? Is it environmentally friendly? If the answer to any one of those four question is ‘no’ then it won’t work,” Reyes says.

His project is one of five currently funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under SANREM-CRSP —- Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Collaborative Research Support Program — which steers applied agricultural research from American universities into rural inter-national development. Virginia Tech administers the program for USAID. Reyes’s “Agro-forestry and Sustainable Vegetable Production in Southeast Asian Watersheds (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam)” won $1.27 mil-lion three years ago. The project finds him coordinating the activities of more than 30 scientists encompassing six academic disciplines and 16 universi-ties and development agencies in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. Although the region is far from the U.S., the issues still hit home here. Large-scale chronic poverty is one of the underlying factors contributing

to wars and terrorism, which is one reason — beyond the natural humani-tarian impulse — to engage in interna-tional aid and development. Prosperity and peace usually go hand in hand. Nurturing global relationships in aca-demia is one of the additional benefits of the project, Reyes says. As an expert in watershed model-ing, Reyes never planned a career in international development. But now that he’s heading just such a project, he feels like he’s found his life’s purpose. “This has become who I am now. It doesn’t even feel like work,” he says.

A complex picture

The project is all the more com-plicated by virtue of the fact that it is being researched for three dif-ferent countries, each with its own forest system, and each with its own demands from the farming communi-ty. A one-size fits all approach will not do, Reyes says. In Vietnam, virtually all the farmers grow cashew trees for income, and are interested in vegeta-bles only as supplemental income, or to offset the family’s food purchases and for nutrition. There, they are also experimenting with cacao, which require shade. In Indonesia, where there has been a sudden market developed for tomatoes, lettuce and cabbage, the farming community is rushing to cut its mixed forests to transform into farm fields, with dire consequences for watersheds. “It’s a race against time,” Reyes said. There, farmers might have to be shown that they can earn more by retaining instead of cutting trees, and local governments in urban centers are concerned about the costs of cleaning up pollution from runoff. And in the Philippines, cash crops of tomatoes, lettuce and cab-bage are also in demand by farmers. Yet the good news is that farmers

there are also highly aware of envi-ronmental issues, and might be open to the idea of indigenous vegetables which are higher in nutritional value and require fewer pesticides — although the market for them has yet to be developed. That might change, as food sci-ence becomes increasingly interested in identifying the plethora of phyto-chemicals, micronutrients and other bioactive components that exist in indigenous herbs and vegetables, and also in finding ways to isolate these powerful nutrients and use them in functional foods or nutriceuticals. One indigenous plant that has found a market in the nutriceutical industry, the malunggay tree, caught the inter-est of Philippine farmers several years ago, after a scientist in Reyes’ project introduced a variety that does well on the cooler hillsides. The plant is high in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and contains chemicals that report-edly lower blood pressure, ease arthri-tis pain and confer many other health benefits. Now farmers are so eager to grow it that the researchers have trouble safeguarding it from pilferers on their experimental plots.

Gender also plays a large role in the project. In keeping with the SANREM-CRSP mission, scientists in the team ensure that women are front and center of any new initiative. That’s because women tend to be better at managing income and tend to steer it into the betterment of the family, agency officials have discovered. “They have that connection to the needs of the family,” Reyes observes. “Even though science and technology may seem to hold the solution to pov-erty and pollution, a sensitivity to gen-der is probably even more important, since it is the women who raise and sell vegetables. Furthermore, in many of these countries men tend to domi-nate, leaving out the voice of women. Women need to be empowered.”

Impacts

Although the project is still quite young, it has already sparked positive changes. Even though it was scientists from the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan and World Agroforestry Center who were the first to experiment with agroforestry in vegetable farming, they still had questions. This project catalyzed the World Vegetable Center to conduct its own experiment with fruit trees and vege- tables. That experiment’s results have been impressive. The yield of many vegetables increased, and the fruit trees also benefited. “Before they thought, ‘No it won’t work. It’s not logical,’ ” Reyes said. “Now they have an experimental garden that shows how well it does work.” Dr. M.C. Palada of the World Vegetable Center, one of the scien-tists who came up with the original idea for the SANREM-CRSP project, said amaranth, water spinach and jute increased under trees, but other vegetables decreased, including toma-toes, okra and eggplant. However, the experiments have also shown that there are some species that will toler-ate shading. “So we can say that vegetables are compatible with trees, but it is dependent on species and varieties,” he noted. Palada added that he is confident that vegetable farmers in Southeast Asia, especially those whose farms are located on sloping land, will begin adopting agroforestry systems as a result of the project. Another organization dedicated to distributing labor-saving drip-irrigation kits to impoverished rural regions, the International Development Enterprise, has changed in a couple of respects, as a result of the team’s work. The project sponsored an experiment with drip irrigation on steep slopes, which proved that it isn’t applicable for

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hillsides. Now the IDE includes information in its instruction manual that the kits should not be used on sloping land. It is also researching new technology: a low-cost pressure regulator that might make it possible to irrigate hillside farms. Scientists in the team are optimistic. Agustin Mercado, research manager for the World Agroforestry Centre, Philippines, anticipates that mountain-slope vegetable farm-ers will adopt agroforestry once they learn about it. “This technical innovation (alley cropping) has increased the yields of vegetables up to 50 percent without any additional inputs apart from tree lines every 30 meters,” he said. “Once this information spreads, there’ll be dramatic change

in knowledge, awareness, skills and appreciation about agroforestry among farmers in the uplands of Southeast Asia.” And numerous journal publications and

policy papers will likely come out of the project. Although Reyes is pleased with the aca-demic accomplishments, they are not enough to satisfy him. The real proof of success will be in the improvement of living conditions for farmers in the long term, he says. “That is always my dilem-ma. The ultimate question is how will it benefit farmers? If that doesn’t happen, then this

is just data and we’re just publishing papers and not helping the people that this project is designed ultimately to serve.”

Dr. Manuel Reyes, center, high fives one of the women farmers in Indonesia who has learned to market indigenous vegetables without relying on an expensive middleman. Empowering women is a critical component of the projects, he says, because women tend to use their earnings to improve conditions for the whole family.

Re: in motion www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html

In 2003, World Agroforestry

Center (WAC) technologies

and policies impacted well

over 100,000 farmers around

the world. WAC envisions

that millions of small-scale

farms will plant billions of

trees, thus “greening the

tropics” and improving the

lives of millions of people.

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A row of peppers grows next to shade-loving coffee and trees in this agroforestry experiment in the Philippines.

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Study shows connections among obesity, fruit and vegetable consumption and access to supermarkets.

The food environment in N.C.

the likelihood of becoming obese

might have as much to do with your

access to a large supermarket as what

you eat. so says a study of the north

carolina food environment conducted

by economists with the agricultural

research Program.

in addition to finding a connection

between obesity and the food environ-

ment, the study also suggests that recent

upheavals in the supermarket industry

could be having dire implications for

the health and well-being of individuals,

because it shows that the odds of being

obese are lower for those who consume

five or more servings of fruits and veg-

etables a day, and that doing so is influ-

enced by access to supermarkets. obesity

has been identified as a top health

epidemic in the united states because

it increases the likelihood of developing

diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.

the recommendation of five

servings per day comes from the

united states department of

agriculture’s dietary guidelines

for americans. the good news is

that the number of people eating

that amount has increased in north

carolina from 18 percent to 23 per-

cent in the past 20 years. however,

statistics also show a dramatic

increase in obesity rates in the

state over the same period, almost

doubling from 13 percent in the

1990s to 24.7 percent in 2006. dr.

kofi adu-nyako, an economist with

the agricultural research Program

and the study’s lead author, wanted

to find out if there was a connection

between those obesity rates, the food

environment, and levels of fruit and veg-

etable consumption.

“there is a theory that holds that

apart from the costs, the context in

which consumers obtain food is a con-

straint on their food choices,” he said.

“there are many reasons why more

consumers don’t consume the recom-

mended five servings. some might have

to do with price. some might be cultural;

some might be availability. and some

might be the contextual environment.

that’s what this study examines.”

by applying statistical tools to cen-

sus data and geographical information

systems mapping, adu-nyako and his

team were able to create a picture that

indicates there is indeed a connection

between obesity rates, availability of

large supermarkets, and consumption of

fruits and vegetables.

Many rural counties in North Carolina need more sources of fresh fruits and vegetables, according to a study led by Dr. Kofi Adu-Nyako, pictured above.

for instance, counties in north carolina

with the highest rates of obesity also have fewer

stores that stock fruits and vegetables. this was

seen particularly in the northeastern part of the

state. the study also found a positive associa-

tion between higher rates of fruit and vegetable

consumption and access to large food stores.

in some rural regions, the only stores for many

miles are convenience stores, and they tend not

to stock fresh fruits and vegetables, usually due

to a lack of storage capacity.

“basically, the study confirmed the hypoth-

esis that access to fruits and vegetables is

improved with availability of supermarkets,”

adu-nyako says.

access to fresh produce has especially

worsened over the past decade, following

restructuring, consolidation and competition

from big box stores that has taken place in the

supermarket industry in recent years. winn-

dixie, for instance, which had been a longtime

fixture in north carolina, closed all its stores

in the carolinas in 2005 following financial

difficulties. a few years prior to that, kroger

had already reduced its presence in the state

and now retains only a few supermarkets in

the larger cities. adu-nyako’s study cites a

declining trend in the number of supermarkets

in north carolina, from 2,106 stores in 2000,

compared to 1,884 stores by 2006. in that

same year, the study shows that 18 north carolina

counties completely lacked a large supermarket

(which is defined as one having 50 or more employ-

ees) and many more rural counties have just one.

other researchers have pointed out that the coun-

ties of northampton, gates, bertie, tyrell and hyde

all lack convenient access to a supermarket. for the

poor, elderly or sick in these regions, access to nutri-

tious food is even more out of reach, especially if they

lack adequate transportation.

“in much of rural north carolina, supermarkets

are few and far between,” adu-nyako says.

his study suggests a need for policies or incen-

tives to encourage the development of more supermar-

kets or farmers markets in regions where they are lack-

ing. it also lists possible approaches to improving the

food environment, including transportation subsidies,

technical assistance for smaller stores in designing stor-

age systems for perishable foods and land-use manage-

ment at the local level that limits large concentrations

of fast-food outlets.

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Supermarkets and other large grocery

stores and obesity in North Carolina

Fruit and vegetable servings consumed

per day and obesity in North Carolina

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Where cellulosic ethanol is concerned, biomass is king. Dr. Abolghasem shahbazi, above and below, has dis-covered that cattails could be a promising resource. Meanwhile, Dr. lijung Wang, below, is taking a systems approach to making cellulosic ethanol commercially viable from agricultural residues.

Although the technology exists to convert plant

cellulose into liquid ethanol, doing so is expensive

and the costs have prevented cellulosic ethanol from

becoming a commercially viable transportation

fuel. that is beginning to change, due to the 2007

Renewable fuel standard passed by congress. that

legislation requires the united states to blend 100

million gallons of cellulosic ethanol into gasoline,

annually, by 2010. the goal is to wean the u.s. off

imported oil, create a homegrown industry, and cut

carbon-dioxide emissions. cellulosic ethanol is better

for the environment because it produces just 10 per-

cent of the co2 that is produced by petroleum-based

liquid fuels.

now, virtually every agricultural research univer-

sity, energy company and ag biotech industry is ramp-

ing up research into the enzymes and fermentation

technologies that are needed to make cellulosic ethanol

profitable. cellulose, which gives plants their rigidity

and contains the sugars needed for ethanol, is present

in all plants, but every plant demands a different fer-

mentation technology, which means research is critical.

“everybody’s looking for the most efficient and

productive crop,” said Dr. Abolghasem shahbazi, direc-

tor of the sAes’s Biological engineering Program. “each

state is trying to find its own niche. in the corn Belt,

it’s corn stover (the stalks and leaves of the corn plant).

in tennessee, it’s switchgrass.” And in north carolina,

if shahbazi’s prediction pans out, it could be cattails.

starchy biomass, such as corn kernels and sugar

cane, is best suited for conversion to ethanol. the

technology for doing so is easy, well established,

comparatively low cost, and has made corn ethanol

produced in the united states competitive with liq-

uid fuels from refined oil. But corn has problems as a

feedstock for fuel. it’s a high input crop, expensive to

grow, and leaves a large carbon footprint, which makes

for a poor feedstock from a sustainability standpoint.

furthermore, corn production uses valuable cropland

which might be better used for growing food. in fact,

some economists have theorized that converting land

from food to fuel use is partially to blame for recent

increases in food costs and shortages.

shahbazi observes that cattails, sustainably

harvested from constructed wetlands, could serve as

one feedstock that doesn’t compete for food uses, and

could simultaneously solve several problems for north

carolina’s hog farmers.

currently, hog farms use lagoons to store

and pre-treat waste before spraying it on fields

planted with grasses that absorb

the excess nitrogen and phos-

phorus. this requires substantial

land and poses runoff

problems during rainy

periods, when the

spray fields can-

not absorb all the

excess nutrients.

But Dr. g.B.

Reddy, a

researcher

with the

Agricultural

Research

Program, has

shown that

constructed wet-

lands can handle

animal waste more

efficiently on less acre-

age, while also providing

Biological engineers with the Agricultural Research Program are seeking ways to make cellulosic ethanol (CE) production commercially viable for North Carolina.

Green fuels

13

wildlife habitat and, according to shahbazi’s

prediction, also producing biomass that

could be used as feedstocks for fuel. Reddy

sees constructed wetlands as augment-

ing — not replacing — waste lagoons and

spray fields, because an acre of wetland

loaded with about 45 pounds of nitro-

gen a day can remove about 55 per-

cent of the nutrient, thus reducing the

acreage required for spray fields. he and

other researchers at n.c. A&t and usDA are

also looking into the potential for wetlands to

aid in removing excess phosphorus in swine waste.

cattails from constructed wetlands have potential

for green fuels, shahbazi believes, because his lab was

able to achieve a 61 percent feedstock-to-ethanol

efficiency, which translates into the potential

to extract 160–200 gallons of ethanol per

acre. that compares favorably to corn

stover, which yields about 180

gallons per acre at 60 percent

efficiency.

But shahbazi sees even

greater potential because

the starchy underground

rhizomes rival corn in

their ability to produce

conventional ethanol.

the starch is some-

what similar to

that found in

corn kernels,

and

contains the same volume of sugar per gram.

however, the downside of growing cattails as a

crop is that no equipment has ever been developed to

sustainably harvest it. that represents another research

hurdle, shahbazi says. however, he is optimistic that

the economics will work out favorably and one day,

constructed wetlands will be a commonplace feature

on many hog farms, serving to both clean up waste and

provide for the farm’s fuel needs.

Biomass products

Dr. lijung Wang is another biological engineer with

the Agricultural Research Program who has embarked

on a project to integrate the production of other value-

added products into the production of ethanol. Rather

than concentrating solely on cellulosic ethanol produc-

tion, his project looks more broadly at biomass process-

ing from a systems approach, which makes ethanol just

one of the core products of that process.

“A big issue is production costs,” Wang says.

“Biomass is abundant in nature, so the question arises,

how can we efficiently and economically convert those

abundant biomass sources into commercial transporta-

tion fuels? that’s the problem we’re trying to answer in

this research.”

Wang suggests the answer may include producing

other products in addition to ce within the same pro-

duction environment: activated carbon, which is used

for filtering water and air, and xylo-oligosaccharide, a

sweetener that consumers know as “Xylitol.”

to tackle the problem, he has pulled together

three research institutions in addition to n.c. A&t: —

Alabama A&M, ohio state and Purdue — and usDA’s

Agricultural Research service. the project has multiple

objectives, but in the end, it will create a model for

processing soybean stalks, wheat straw and corn stover

into the three products.

“feedstocks such as these are cheap and abundant

and don’t supplant food,” Wang says. the feedstocks are

also very common agricultural residues in north carolina.

An “integrated process” such as this, one that

makes cellulosic ethanol one end product instead of

the sole end product, should make the processing of

biomass more commercially viable, Wang says.

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Probably the question that is most often asked of anyone who turns 100 is, “What is the secret to your longevity?” The range of responses usually has to do with some combination of hard work, clean living or just plain old good luck. Dr. Salam Ibrahim, a microbiologist and food scientist with the Agricultural Research Program at N.C. A&T, believes one answer lies in the quality of a centenarian’s intestinal microbes, especially those known as bifidobacteria. A study that Ibrahim collaborated on with Chinese food sci-entists in Beijing lends support to that opinion, and could one day lead to products that help people live longer and healthier lives. Thanks to Ibrahim providing his technical expertise on how to isolate and grow the bacteria, food scientists with the China Agricultural University in Beijing were able to secure two strains of bifidus from several healthy 100-year-olds living in the Bama region in China. Bama is a remote farming region near the border of Vietnam that has

been identified as one of the world’s handful of “longevity zones.” It is in the same family as better known regions such as Okinawa in Japan, and the Caucasus region of the nation of Georgia, near Russia, that are popu-lated by hard-working farmers who live exceptionally long lives, and remain healthy and active well into old age. For many decades, these zones have been attracting intense interest from scientists and the general public alike, all of whom are eager to find out the secret of a long and healthy life. The Bama region has one of the highest ratios of centenarians in the world — about 30 in 100,000. To put that in perspective, in the United States, the ratio is 18 per 100,000 according to the 2000 census.

Bacteria and health

Bifidus is one of the most com-mon bacteria in the human gastro-intestinal tract that aids in diges-tion and immunity to disease. The microbes tend to wane in numbers and vigor as we age, so the food and supplement industries are always on

Science might never find the fountain of youth, but a fountain

of health could one day be as close as your dairy aisle.

MiraculousMicrobes

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the lookout for new and improved strains. Those who scrutinize food labels probably know that the dairy industry now commonly includes microbes in the “live active cultures” found in such dairy products as yogurt and kefir (a fermented milk beverage that is similar to buttermilk). Studies have long confirmed that bifidobacteria confer many health benefits by strengthening the immune system, although exactly how they do so is still something of a mystery. Since centenarians have a proven track record for avoiding disease, the research-ers thought it made sense to find out if there was a connection between their intestinal microbes and their immunity. The hypothesis seems to have been correct, because the strains harbored by the Chinese subjects seemed to be especially good at boosting the immune response in mice. The mice that were fed the strains for four weeks showed much higher immune activity in five different indicators of natural and acquired immune system activity. White blood cells were more effective killers, antibody levels were high-er, and lymphocytes, which are cells that fight disease, were produced by the spleen in higher numbers in the bifidus-fed mice. Researchers fed the mice amounts comparable to what a human could be reasonably expected to ingest in a cup of yogurt every day. Ibrahim says the research team’s excitement about the strains is warranted. “That’s the beauty of this study. What makes it so unique is the source of these strains … from healthy 100-year-old Asians. To our knowledge, nobody has ever studied the probiotic bacteria in this age group before,” he said. “Most strains on the market come from animals and don’t have the same functionality,” Ibrahim con-tinued. “That’s one reason we are excited about this research. Probiotics for humans should come from human sources.” The lead researchers in Beijing include scientists from two universities and one dairy company. They have already analyzed the molecular structure of the two strains, and are now conducting trials, inde-pendent of Ibrahim, to test their safety, in hopes of one day making them widely available to consumers, possibly in dairy products or supplements. They also plan to next examine the genetic profile, Ibrahim said. However, he stressed that it will be many years before strains used in the study make it into consumer products — if ever — because they will have to clear many clinical safety hurdles. Food science has been researching probiot-ics and bifidus for at least 20 years, but it is only

Mice exhibited stronger immune systems after being fed a strain of bacteria from healthy 100-year-olds in the Bama region of china.

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recently that scientists have begun zero-ing in on the mechanisms that confer health. Ibrahim cited one study that shows bifidus produces butyric acid and other organic acids, which may inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the gastro-intestinal tract. But as a food scientist, he leaves it to others to research the health mechanisms. His interest is in researching techniques to keep beneficial microbes healthy and vigorous enough to survive laboratory research and industrial processing.

Expert connection

It’s no surprise that the Chinese researchers asked Ibrahim to collaborate. In the food microbiology community, Ibrahim has a reputation as an expert in isolating, growing and stabilizing bifida and other probiotic bacteria for research in the laboratory and for industry. Such knowledge is in demand because keeping the bacteria stable and viable long enough to survive shipping, sales and storage is one of the issues the food industry struggles with, a fact

underscored by a recent study Ibrahim conducted on probiotic supplements purchased from stores and online that showed that many did not contain enough to provide any health benefits at all by the time they reached the consumer. A similar study on yogurt that he pre-sented several years ago to the American Chemical Society and American Dairy Science Association also showed that many yogurt brands purchased from grocery stores did not contain enough viable bacteria to confer health benefits. Ibrahim often consults with industry and the result is better products for consum-ers. For instance, he developed a process for one vitamin company that extends the shelf-life of its probiotic supplement to insure consumers get what they are pay-ing for. The proprietary process involves adding calcium and antioxidants to the fermentation broth, adding amino acids to the growing medium and using an oil to preserve viability. The processes he develops are adapt-able for other microbes as well. For exam-ple, he is currently exploring a process

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to study salmonella in peanut butter. Present techniques don’t keep the salmonella organ-ism viable long enough to study how it is likely

to behave in peanut processing, he says. He’s found a technique to keep it alive in peanut butter so that food scientists can research ways

to kill it. On another front, he is working with Danish researchers on a method to improve the viability of Lactobacillus

reuteri, another health-promoting, though fragile microbe. Regardless of whether a new and improved strain of bifidus from the Chinese study or other research becomes commercially available or not, Ibrahim says the bigger answer to good intestinal health is not found so much in probiotic food or supplements as it is in a good overall diet that includes antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables and especially, milk. Milk has a unique protein which buffers stomach acids and helps probiotic bacte-ria thrive. “I believe that if you eat a healthy diet that includes milk, that will promote the growth of good natural microorgan-isms in your body,” he said.

Dr. salam ibrahim, center, examines a sample, assisted by food microbiology students Ashley Patterson, left, sulaiman omar Aljaloud and Rabin gyawali, right.

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Making senseNew consumer

testing lab brings

science closer to markets.

This is one of the four test-ing stations in the automated Sensory Testing Lab, each of which features a touch-screen computer and colored lights to prevent appearance from biasing testers’ perceptions.

The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences has a modern new sensory testing lab that should help research-ers and area industries that are developing new food products. It is designed to collect data on consumer acceptability of foods or other products based on any attribute, includ-ing flavor, appearance, aroma or texture, and even sound. Complete with a stainless-steel commercial-grade kitchen, touch-screen com-puters, automated data collection through Compusense®five software and four testing stations, the lab is very similar to those found in today’s industrial settings, said Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, professor of food sciences. “Sensory testing is an integral part of the research and development process in any food company. If it doesn’t pass that hurdle, it doesn’t go to market,” he said. The lab represents a vast improvement over the way taste testing in the food sciences curriculum had previously been conducted. That process involved students carting food into the student union and asking for vol-unteers to register their responses on paper ballots. However, modern sensory testing is a precise science, and for results to be consid-ered reliable, the environment in which it takes place must be carefully controlled. Controlling for individual bias is also critical, Ahmedna explained. For accurate results, each taster must receive samples that are identical not only in

Re:

Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna

composition, but in tem-perature and quantity, and receive them in a quiet environ-ment with a minimum of

distractions. To achieve this con-trolled setting, the lab is equipped with a negative pressure ventila-tion system and colored lights to prevent appearance or aroma from biasing the testers’ perceptions. Testers don’t see or talk to techni-cians either. Instead, they enter their opinions on a touch-screen computer at their stations. Samples are delivered to them from the adjacent kitchen through slots in the wall, after they touch a light switch to signal that they are ready.

Sometimes, the instructions are to not swallow, such as when testing a variety of drinks for instance, so a spit sink at each station helps testers to cleanse their palates. Or, when tasting solid foods, testers usually are instructed to chew a plain cracker and swallow water in between samples. A lounge next door will allow them to relax as they are waiting for a turn in one of the booths. A minimum of 30 testers is usually required for a test, but more is better, Ahmedna said. After the data are collected, sci-entists then apply a statistical tool to “scrub” individual bias from the results.

The lab is likely to get immedi-ate use by students enrolled in the sensory testing course in the food sciences program, as well as by researchers who are developing new

food products. But it’s not designed only for food tasting. Other dis-ciplines can benefit from the lab, because it is equipped with software that measures consumer acceptance of products using all five senses — not only flavor, Ahmedna explained. For instance, fashion design and merchandising students can use the lab to learn how to test consumer perceptions of fabric texture, color and weight. Child development or family studies students and researchers can use the kitchen to teach families how to engage young people in preparing wholesome meals that include lots of fruits and vegetables. “It has more applications than just testing food. It provides new opportunities to engage students in all kinds of experiential learning,” Ahmedna said.

19

Dacia Whitsett, wearing pearls, peers through a food pass-through slot in one of the testing stations in photo above. She plans a sensory test with Dana Lucas in bottom photo. The two are graduate students in the Food and Nutritional Sciences Program.

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Feed and fowlResearchers from three different

disciplines have developed a poultry

feed that could improve post-molt

egg production and bird health.

A chicken at the Poultry Research Unit at the A&T University Farm eyes a portion of special feed developed by poultry, mushroom and microbiology researchers.

Three researchers with the

Agricultural Research Program who are

studying the effects of shiitake mush-

rooms on poultry health are doing so

with an increasing sense of excitement.

Dr. Willie Willis, a poultry research-

er, Dr. Omon Isikhuemhen, who special-

izes in exotic mushroom research, and

Dr. Salam Ibrahim, a food microbiologist,

have shown that treating poultry with

shiitake mushrooms can strengthen

animals’ immunity to disease, encourage

the growth of beneficial microbes in the

intestines and reduce the proliferation

of common poultry pathogens, such as

salmonella.

But what has them particularly

encouraged is their latest study of a

new mushroom-based feed that they

developed. The new feed, which they call

“myceliated grain,” could be the solution

to a more animal-friendly way of induc-

ing molting in egg-laying hens.

Molting refers to the process, either

natural or induced, whereby the hen

takes a break from laying eggs after

about a year, sheds feathers and grows

new ones. Egg producers induce molting

in their flocks to rejuvenate the animals

for a new round of egg laying, often by

withdrawing feed for 10 days or more.

However, the practice has always been

problematic, both from a production

standpoint as well as from an animal

welfare standpoint. Withdrawing feed

stresses the hens and makes them more

susceptible to diseases. Meanwhile,

many consumers increasingly see feed

withdrawal as inhumane, and are

demanding eggs from animals raised

according to animal welfare guidelines.

Producers, therefore, are interested

in economically viable alternatives to

induced molting. Myceliated grain could

be one answer.

The three researchers developed

the feed from sorghum that they inocu-

lated with mushroom spawn (the mate-

rial that gives rise to mycelia) which are

the threadlike “roots” that, in turn, give

rise to the fruiting body of the fungus,

otherwise known as mushrooms. But

instead of growing mushrooms, the sci-

entists allowed mycelia to infiltrate the

grain for two weeks, then fed the treated

meal to molting hens. They compared

the myceliated grain-fed group to a con-

trol group that underwent the standard,

feed-withdrawal treatment. The results

far exceeded their expectations.

“The hens that were fed myceli-

ated grain went out of production first

and came back in more quickly, and

laid more eggs than the hens that were

not,” Willis said. Other health indicators

in the grain-fed group were positive.

Salmonella was reduced, and weight

loss was sufficient to induce molting

(about 35 percent) but weight loss was

not as severe in the hens treated with

standard feed-withdrawal. Those hens

lost more than 50 percent of their body

weight.

Scientists tend to proceed cau-

tiously and with a healthy degree of

skepticism — even about their own

discoveries — so it isn’t often that they

will make bold predictions about their

findings, but Willis has been in poultry

research long enough to feel confident

about making one:

“I can almost promise that myceli-

ated grain is going to be the standard

ration used for molting chickens in the

future,” he says.

The experiment involved five

different treatment regimens to 90

single-comb, white-leghorn laying hens

that were 75 weeks old. Hens were sub-

jected either to the standard molting

treatment, or were fed myceliated grain,

or different amounts of myceliated grain

mixed with alfalfa meal or standard

layer rations. The best results were

achieved in the hens that were fed the

pure myceliated-grain rations, although

those that were fed the alfalfa and

myceliated-grain mix also demonstrated

better performance than the control

group in some measures, including

exhibiting lower levels of salmonella.

This isn’t the first of the three sci-

entists’ experiments with mushrooms

and poultry that has shown promising

results. In earlier published studies,

they fed mushroom extracts to broilers

and examined the effect on salmonella,

as well as the effects on a beneficial

microbe, bifidus, which is a probiotic

used in yogurt for humans, as well as in

poultry treatments. As hypothesized, the

mushroom extract boosted the produc-

tion of bifidobacteria in the chickens

and reduced the growth of salmonella.

A similar study revealed that the bifido-

bacteria levels remained high even four

weeks after the treatment ended.

Those discoveries about bifidus

are important, because the bacteria are

seen as a good natural substitute for

subtherapeutic antibiotics, which the

poultry industry is quietly phasing out,

due to concerns about the emergence of

antibiotic resistant bacteria. 21

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Dr. Willie Willis Dr. Omon Isikhuemhen Dr. Salam Ibrahim

“With chickens raised in confinement, you have to

have some kind of treatment to prevent the spread of dis-

ease, so we are looking for safer alternatives to subthera-

peutic antibiotics,” Willis said.

Bifidobacteria is one beneficial microbe that has

been used by the industry for about a decade. The theory

of why they work is that the good bacteria crowd out the

bad bacteria in a process called competitive exclusion.

One product developed by USDA known as

PREEMPT has been on the market

for the past decade or so as

a treatment for chicks.

Mushrooms could

become a prebiotic

treatment, used alone

or in conjunction

with such probiotics

to encourage friendly

bacteria to stick

around in the intes-

tinal tract in poultry or

other animals.

Although mushroom

extracts would probably be imprac-

tical for industry-wide use, the studies

using the substance proved that shiitake mushrooms

enhance poultry health. Now the scientists are delving

deeper in search of a more economic delivery method. The

myceliated grain, while not as potent as extracts, looks

promising, because mycelia are chemically similar to the

mushrooms themselves.

Isikhuemhen is especially interested in discovering

the mechanism whereby the mushroom enhances health.

Research has long demonstrated that medicinal mush-

rooms such as shiitake have antibiotic, anti-viral and anti-

cancer effects, due, it is believed, to the beta

glucan polysaccharides that they

contain. Yet, many questions

remain about how and why

these sugars have such

a beneficial effect on

humans and animals.

“It is one thing

to observe these

interactions,” said

Isikhuemhen. “But as

scientists, we have to

answer how it works.

Is it a direct stimulative

effect, or supportive? Those

are the things we have to find out.”

The answers, when they come, will

not only be satisfying to scientists, but also to poultry pro-

ducers, consumers, hens and animal rights advocates.

Research has shown that treating poultry with shiitake mushrooms can strengthen the animals’ immunity to disease, encourage the growth of beneficial microbes in the intestines and reduce the proliferation of common poultry pathogens, such as salmonella.

22Re: in motion www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html

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North Carolina vegetable growers

could extend the growing season by two

months or more by using high tunnel

greenhouses, and economists, natural-

resources scientists and students from the

Agricultural Research Program are showing

them how.

“By extending the season at least one

month in the spring and one month in the

fall, they can expect to see higher profits

because they can get higher yields and

higher prices by selling during the off-sea-

son,” said Dr. Osei Yeboah, who is leading

a project to help limited-resource farmers

gradually transition into organic growing.

For growers, high tunnels are one means

of getting higher profits for such things as

vine-ripened tomatoes, which can fetch

higher prices than commercial tomatoes,

Yeboah says. Not only do these simple,

low-cost structures increase yield, but they

enable farmers to develop good relation-

ships with their clients by guaranteeing a

consistent supply.

High tunnel greenhouses are

unheated, plastic-covered hoop structures

designed for growing vegetable crops in the

ground instead of in containers. The fram-

ing is usually bent galvanized pipe covered

with clear polyethylene. Victor Ofori-Boadu,

an economist collaborating with Yeboah,

estimates that the cost of materials and

labor for a 20-by-50-foot high tunnel is

about $6,000, and could break even in

about a year and a half. After that, a farmer

could net $7,400 per year, for one crop of

tomatoes, and more if the farmer plants

lettuces and greens in the cooler months.

High tunnel greenhouses are nothing

new. Traditionally in North Carolina, they

have been used for growing tobacco seed-

lings. But tobacco is now in decline as the

state’s leading cash crop, and small farmers

are finding new uses for both their crop

land and their equipment, including high

tunnels. Farmers in other states have used

high tunnels for years for growing vegeta-

bles, and now North Carolina farmers are

seeing the advantages of the structure.

Charles Lucas of the Emory commu-

nity in Montgomery County is sold on the

idea of high tunnels. He has two of the

High tunnels, high profits

Dr. Godfrey Gayle, right, directs senior biological engineering student Maurice Washington in the construction of a high tunnel greenhouse at the Montgomery County, N.C. farm of Charles Lucas. The project, led by Dr. Osei Yeboah, has merged research with outreach and student service.

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24

hoop structures — each 20-by-50

feet — which were designed and

constructed with the aid of A&T

students. Now Lucas is giving back

to A&T by allowing researchers

access to conduct experiments.

“We still don’t understand

what goes on in this microclimate,

in terms of relative humidity,

insects, disease. This is just a pilot

project, but hopefully we will get

to the point where we can exam-

ine some of these issues,” said Dr.

Godfrey Gayle, a biological engineer

who is collaborating on the project.

Gayle and other researchers

will be comparing the performance

of two drip-irrigation systems.

They will also be comparing IPM

— Integrated Pest Management

— with chemical-based approaches

to pest management.

They will also plant two

tomato varieties, Celebrity and

BM44, a hybrid. Lucas will join

three other farmers in Yeboah’s

project who will be working toward

organic certification this year. Lucas,

who is a retired trucker and disabled

Vietnam War veteran, said he is

motivated by a desire to give back to

his community.

“I like doing things with my

hands, and I like to see things grow,

and with the help of A&T, we’re

going to be good stewards,” he said.

Charles Lucas, left, listens to Dr. Godfrey Gayle discuss construction of high tunnels on Lucas’s farm. Now Lucas is giving back to A&T by allowing researchers access to his farm to conduct experiments.

Dr. Godfrey GayleDr. Osei Yeboah Victor Ofori-Boadu

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Organic markets Consumer demand for organic food continues

to increase, which is good news for North Carolina

farmers hoping to one day use the “USDA Organic”

label on their products. National surveys conducted

by the Hartman Group and Food

Marketing Institute during the early

2000s found that two-thirds of shop-

pers surveyed bought organically grown

foods, and experts believe even more

consumers are now including organic

products in their shopping carts. In

2007, North Carolina had 7,700 acres

of organic cropland or pasture, and

had sales of organic crops, livestock

and poultry valued at $7.3 million.

Economists with the Agricultural

Research Program are working on several fronts to

support this growing industry. In addition to aiding

small farmers to transition into organic growing, they

are also embarking on a market analysis of organic

produce in North Carolina to help farms and busi-

nesses make informed decisions about how to enter

the retail market for organically produced products.

Using scanner data from grocery stores com-

bined with the Census of Agriculture, they plan

to track consumption trends, the supply chain for

organic produce and the economic impact of

the organic produce industry in North

Carolina. Finally, they intend to con-

duct a production analysis of some

of the leading organic produce

in the state to provide a picture

of the costs and benefits for a

producer contemplating organic

production, as well as show how

many new jobs organic agriculture is

creating.

The advantage of going organic to

growers is a premium price for their product, which

reflects the additional labor involved in farming with-

out chemical inputs.

“Organic is a value-added process,” says Dr.

Kenrett Jefferson-Moore, who is leading the study,

“A Market Analysis of Organic Produce in North

Carolina.” She said organic growers are also taking

advantage of another value-added characteristic:

local. That’s because many consumers like the idea of

their money benefitting the local economy instead of

agribusinesses in other states or countries.

She hopes the study will answer several ques-

tions, including how the prices for organic food

increase among the middlemen after it

leaves the farm gate.

“We want to examine the eco-

nomic impact on producers, processors

and distributors, so when we compare

a conventional pear at 50 cents to an

organic pear at 80 cents, how were

those additional 30 cents distributed

among the parties involved?” Jefferson-

Moore said.

Jefferson-Moore speculates

that the study will show that small-

and medium-scale producers will have to produce

larger volumes than they do at present if they hope

to compete in the retail market. As it stands, many

small organic producers sell directly to customers at

roadside stands, on their farms or at farmers markets.

However, other farmers prefer to direct their labor

to production instead of sales and need to know how

to get involved in contract growing for the wholesale

and retail markets. Those producers are the ones the

study will address.

The study is well-timed, coinciding with

increasing emphasis on organic pro-

duction from the U.S. Department

of Agriculture. Assisting organic

growers was one of the priorities

in the 2008 Farm Bill, and in

May, USDA announced a new

$50 million Organic Initiative to

assist producers. One of the most

visible symbols of this new empha-

sis is the USDA announcement that

it would transform its six-acre lawn at the

Agriculture Department on the Washington Mall

into a “People’s Garden,” a portion of which will be

organic. There is also a new organic vegetable garden

at the White House. The study is also in keeping

with the School of Agriculture and Environmental

Science’s strategic plan, which includes the goal to

“Ensure the Viability of Small-Scale Agriculture”

by exploring value-added products and identifying

market outlets.

Re:inform

ation

jyke

nre

t@n

cat.

edu

Study examines retail market for organic food.

Dr. Kenrett Jefferson-Moore

Active Projects

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design

Production and Characterization of Low-Cost Biodegradable Polylactic Acid Using Cheese Wheyinvestigators: shahbazi, a.; lou, j.; ibrahim, s.a.studying and optimizing the fermentation of cheese whey to produce lactic acid for use in biodegradable plastics, and benchmark the most efficient membrane separation and ion-exchange process.contact: dr. abolghasem shahbazi, 336-334-7787, ash@ncat.edu

Nutrient Management with Sustainable Practices and Phytonutrient Assessment in Specialty Cropsinvestigator: reddy, m.r. studying the mineral nutrition and crop husbandry of asian vegetables under soil and climatic con-ditions in north carolina, and determining the phytonutrient composition of these vegetables.contact: dr. m.r. reddy, 336-334-7779, muchha@ncat.edu

Breeding, Screening and Selection of Improved Shiitake Mushroom Strains for Indoor Cultivationinvestigator: isikhuemhen, o.s. selecting the three best performing strains for commercial indoor cultivation, and developing molecular markers for use in strain identification and license applications.contact: dr. omon s. isikhuemhen, 336-334-7259, omon@ncat.edu

Soil Management Practices for Small-Scale Vegetable Producers for the Improvement of Soil Quality and Crop Productivityinvestigators: raczkowski, c.w.; reddy, g.b.; baldwin, k.r. determining soil restoration systems of combined best management practices (bmPs) that improve soil function and quality for vegetable production.contact: dr. charles w. raczkowski, 336-334-7779, raczkowc@ncat.edu

Development of an Integrated Constructed Wetland System to Treat Swine Wastewaterinvestigator: reddy, g.b.removing solids, nitrogen, pathogens and phos-phorous, and lessening biochemical oxygen demands and chemical oxygen demands, from swine wastewater through different techniques, recovering nitrogen and phosphorus for use as fertilizer, and using solids to produce supplemental electricity to power swine houses.contact: dr. g.b. reddy, 336-334-7779, reddyg@ncat.edu

Improving the Greenhouse Production Performance of Clerodendrum Thomsoniae Balifinvestigator: reddy, m.r. conducting greenhouse experiments with the overall goal of increasing the commercialization of Clerodendrum thomsoniae (tropical bleeding-heart) through improved production performance. contact: dr. m.r. reddy, 336-334-7711, muchha@ncat.edu

Biological Conversion of Crop Residues to Fuels and Chemicalsinvestigators: shahbazi, a.; li, y.; ibrahim, s.a.; shirley, v.to develop technologies to convert crop residues, cattails and cheese whey into hydrogen, ethanol and succinic acid, and to evaluate the economic and environmental impact of biofuels and chemicals. contact: dr. abolghasem shahbazi, 336-334-7787, ash@ncat.edu

Harnessing Cover Crops to Meet Nutrient Needs in Organic Cropping Systemsinvestigator: baldwin, k.management strategies to integrate cover crops into current cropping situations to improve nutrient and organic matter for the benefit of crops and soil.contact: dr. keith baldwin. 336-334-7957, kbaldwin@ncat.edu

Hydrothermal Treatment and Biological Conversion of Biomass for Biofuels Productioninvestigators: shahbazi, a.; Xiu, s.; wang, l.; shirley, v.; ibrahim, j. demonstrating the feasibility of hydrothermal processing of duckweed and algae in bio-oil pro-duction, and evaluating the economic and environ-mental impact of bio-oils and chemical production from animal wastes and aquatic plants. contact: dr. abolghasem shahbazi, 336-334-7787, ash@ncat.edu

Micropropagation Protocol Development to Enhance Production of Economically Important Plant Speciesinvestigator: yang, g.developing micropropagation protocols for economically important plant species such as alexandrian laurel, galax and pearlbush. contact: dr. guochen yang, 336-334-7779, yangg@ncat.edu

Swine Wastewater Treatment Via Sturvite Formation, Solids Separation and Wetland Treatmentinvestigators: hunt, P.g.; ro, k.s.; reddy, g.b.; szogi, a.a.

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g.n

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Agricultural Research Program at

n.c. A&t state university Active Projects

27

Active Projectstreating swine wastewater to derive energy products in a treatment wetting/mechanical treatment system.contact: dr. g.b. reddy, 336-334-7779, reddyg@ncat.edu

Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Factors Influencing Food Preparations, Selection and Eating Practices of African-American Parents and Their Childreninvestigators: mcmillan, v.j.; lynch, P.identifying the food preferences, food selections, and eating practices of african american parents and their pre-school-aged children, and determin-ing the factors that influence food preferences, selections and eating habits.contact: dr. valerie j. mcmillan, 336-256-2190, vmcmilla@ncat.edu

Biocontrol and Hurdle Technology to Enhance Microbial Safety of Fresh Produceinvestigators: goktepe, i.; sulakvelidze, a.; yeboah, o. testing the effectiveness of pathogen-specific bacteriophages as biocontrol agents to disinfect fresh produce.contact: dr. ipek goktepe, 336-334-7963, igoktepe@ncat.edu

Fruits and Vegetables in Obesity Reduction via Interactive Teaching and Experiments (FAVORITE)investigators: ahmedna, m.; jianmei, y.; mcmillan, v.j.; gruber, k.; lynch, P. developing experiential learning activities, educa-tional modules or courses that promote the con-sumption of fruits and vegetables through explora-tion of individual, peer and family dynamics.contact: dr. mohamed ahmedna, 336-334-7963, ahmedna@ncat.edu

Screening of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria for Over Production of Alpha-Galactosidase and Beta-Galactosidaseinvestigators: ibrahim, s.a.; song, d. developing a new technology for production of alpha-galactosidases/beta-galactosidase. contact: dr. salam ibrahim, 336-334-7328, ibrah001@ncat.edu

Refining and Testing a Leadership Practices Inventory for Use with Community Groupsinvestigators: walker, j.t.; gray, b.working toward a revised leadership Practices inventory (lPi) and testing its structural integrity, reliability and validity, and to develop support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports. contact: dr. jane t. walker, 336-334-7785, walkerj@ncat.edu

Bioactivity and Safety of Value-Added Functional Food Ingredients from Select N.C. Cropsinvestigators: ahmedna, m.; jianmei, y.; hanner, t. isolating, identifying, characterizing and conduct-ing in-vitro and in-vivo evaluations of bioactive compounds from peanut skins, sweet potato peels/flesh and wine grapes skins/seeds. developing value-added products incorporating bioactive com-pounds from select extracts and evaluation of their consumer acceptability, and exploring industry partnerships for commercial utilization of proto-typed products incorporating bioactive extracts. contact: dr. mohamed ahmedna, 336-334-7963, ahmedna@ncat.edu

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Cytotoxic Activity of Bioactive Pokeweed and Rosehip Plant Extractsinvestigators: goktepe, i.; hanner, t.; ibrahim, j.m. isolating and characterizing the most active fractions from pokeweed and rose hip that show strong antiproliferative and apoptosis activity against breast, colon and cervical cancer cells, and conducting in-vivo animal bioassays.contact: dr. ipek goktepe, 336-334-7963, igoktepe@ncat.edu

An Integrated System for Addressing Obesity and Weight Management of African American College Studentsinvestigators: ahmedna, m.; swearingin, b.; wilson, s.; gruber, k.; sherman, t.generating obesity related lifestyle characteristics of african american college students. the data generated will be used as a baseline for a larger weight management intervention involving an inte-grated food system-based approach to addressing obesity among african american young adults.contact: dr. mohamed ahmedna, 336-334-7963, ahmedna@ncat.edu

Assessing Lending Patterns in Rural North Carolina: Prevalence of Subprime Lendinginvestigator: giddings, v.l. conducting comparative analyses of home lending patterns to determine differences among borrower characteristics, loan type and housing type between home lending activity to applicants from urban and rural areas of north carolina.contact: dr. valerie l. giddings, 336-334-7850, vlgiddin@ncat.edu

Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education

Exploring the Food Environment and Economic Influences on Dietary and Weight Outcomes in North Carolinainvestigators: adu-nyako, k.; lynch, P.; eley, m. assessing price and cost disparities in the food environment by examining food store prices in different geographical neighborhoods; and

Re:

identifing food environmental influences on food access, consumption and weight outcomes.contact: dr. kofi adu-nyako, 336-334-7426, adunyako@ncat.edu

Managing and Marketing Environmental Plants for Improved Production, Profitability and Efficiencyinvestigator: ejimakor, g.c. developing enterprise budgets for selected flori-cultural and environmental horticultural crops in north carolina. using enterprise budgets, the rate of return for the selected crops will be estimated.contact: dr. godfrey c. ejimakor, 336-334-7943, ejimakor@ncat.edu Investigating Collaboration Among CBOs (Community Based Organizations) Addressing Poverty in the Black Belt Regioninvestigator: thomas, t.describing characteristics and partnerships of com-munity based organizations (cbos) in the black belt region that are addressing persistent poverty, and defining a protocol for establishing and sustain-ing an 1890/cbo collaborative partnership. contact: dr. terrence thomas, 336-334-7059, twthomas@ncat.edu

The 1890 Land Grant System: Addressing Universal Issues through Science and Engagementinvestigator: thompson, a. a conference to provide a forum for interactions and subsequent partnership commitments in the 1890 land grant system in four areas of national priority: obesity and wellness; youth development; renewable energy and biobased projects; and food safety.contact: dr. alton thompson, 336-334-7979, altont@ncat.edu

Factors Influencing Successful Small-Farm Operation in North Carolinainvestigators: yeboah, a.k.; mcdowell, d. identifying factors that influence successful small-farm operations in north carolina. contact: dr. anthony k. yeboah, 336-334-7943, yeboaha@ncat.edu

Economic Assessment of Changes in Trade Arrangements, Bioterrorism Threats and Renewable Fuels Requirements on the U.S. Grain and Oilseed Sectorinvestigator: yeboah, o. applying general equilibrium to analyze livestock markets in the u.s. due to nafta and cafta, and modeling the effect on the economy that could follow in the wake of a bioterrorism attack on the cattle/beef industry.contact: dr. osei-agyeman yeboah, 336-334-7056, oyeboah@ncat.edu

Rural Entrepreneurship Development in Southeastern North Carolinainvestigator: jefferson-moore, k.y.assisting rural entrepreneurs in business plan devel-opment and/or marketing plan implementation and management; and developing a comprehensive web page with micro-entrepreneurial resources for new and existing business implementation. contact: dr. kenrett y. jefferson-moore, 336-334-7694, jykenret@ncat.edu

A Market Analysis of Organic Produce in North Carolinainvestigators: jefferson-moore, k.y.; robbins, r.d. Providing an organic produce industry overview for north carolina; including supply chains’ eco-nomic impact, as well as a production analyses of the leading organic produce produced in north carolina.contact: dr. kenrett y. jefferson-moore, 336-334-7694, kyjeffer@ncat.edu

Understanding Underlying Factors that Determine Health Status in the Black Beltinvestigators: gray, b.; thomas, t.; thompson, a. improving the understanding of underlying factors that determine low health by generating a deposi-tory of science-based knowledge. contact: dr. benjamin e. gray, 336-334-7072, grayb@ncat.edu

Department of Animal Sciences

Forwarding Reliable Information on Emerging and Novel Diseases — FRIENDinvestigators: noble, r.; eley, m.; hanner, t.; jones, d.; cowen, P.educating and training minority farmers in emerging zoonotic diseases, and establishing a system of com-munications in the event of an outbreak.contact: dr. ralph noble, 336-334-7547, rcnoble@ncat.edu

Impact of Indoor and Pasture-based Management Programs on Respiratory Function of Swineinvestigators: waterman, j.; oh, s.h.determining if swine unit dust causes oxidant stress in airway epithelial cells isolated from pigs reared indoors and outdoors.contact: dr. jonora waterman, 336-334-7615, jdwaterman@ncat.edu

Immune Response and Associated Health Related Parameters of Poultry Fed Mushroom Extractsinvestigators: minor, r.; willis, w.determining what effect various combinations of mushroom supplements have on poultry immune organs, and innate immune and humoral responses.contact: dr. radiah minor, 336-334-7709, rcminor@ncat.edu.

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Active Projects

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Pathogenic Escherichia Coli of Porcine Origininvestigator: allen, j.w. studying the mechanisms of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli bacterium in order to assist with the development of effective preventive and inter-vention methods against outbreaks of scours in neonatal swine.contact: dr. john w. allen, 336-334-7615, allenj@ncat.edu

Strategies for Improving Intestinal Integrity to Enhance Food Safety and Health in Poultryinvestigator: willis, w.l.studying the effects of mushroom and pokeweed extracts with alfalfa meal and sanitation practices, on the gastro-intestinal health of broiler chickens. contact: dr. willie willis, 336-334-7786, willisw@ncat.edu

Selection Experiments for Outdoor Swine Productioninvestigators: oh, s.h.; noble, r.; worku, m.; see, m.t.; barrios, t. selection experiments aimed at developing a genet-ic line suitable for outdoor pork production using hoop barns supplemented with pasture.contact: dr. sang hyon oh, 336-334-7672, soh@ncat.edu

Genomic Diversity and the Immune Response in Ruminantsinvestigator: worku, m.studying the genetics of inflammation caused by mastitis in cattle and parasites in goats, with the goal of developing control strategies and alternative therapeutics. contact: dr. mulumebet worku, 336-334-7615, worku@ncat.edu

Genetic and Functional Genomic Approaches to Improving Production and Quality of Porkinvestigators: worku, m.; oh, s.h. studying to understand the dynamic genetic mech-anisms that influence production efficiency and quality of pork, and to discover the genetic mecha-nisms controlling animal health in pork production. contact: dr. mulumebet worku, 336-334-7615, worku@ncat.edu

Determining the Educational Needs of Non-professional Horse Owners in North Carolinainvestigator: noble, r.c. a study to determine the status of non-professional and minority horse owners in north carolina, to assess the need for educational programs and workshops, and to determine the standards for implementing a statewide educational program for non-professional and minority horse owners. contact: dr. ralph noble, 336-334-7786, rcnoble@ncat.edu

Re:

Re:information ahmedna@ncat.edu

the new center of excellence for Post-harvest technologies at the north carolina Research campus is now

open and has hired its first lead scientist, Dr. leonard Williams, who is focusing his research program on food

safety. the center has several studies under way, including one to develop nutritional education for young

children, a second study on a packaging technology to extend shelf-life and improve safety of leafy greens,

and a third that hopes to find ways to mitigate strawberry mold. (See page 3.)

A magazine of the Agricultural Research Program in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Re:information ahmedna@ncat.edu

Nut-Free Zone: Elijah Carter, left, and Whitney Johnson are among the 1 percent of the nation’s children that

experts say have peanut allergies. The two eat their lunch every day at the peanut-free table in the cafeteria of

Peeler Open School for the Performing Arts in Greensboro, N.C. Researchers in the Agricultural Research Program

at N.C. A&T have discovered a post-harvest process to inactivate peanut allergens, which could make scenes

such as this a rarity. Clinical trials of the patent-protected process are being planned, in hopes of attracting

food industries to make hypoallergenic — or even non-allergenic —

peanut products available to consumers in the near future.

Re:

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