News Stories - Page 289

In recent years, local food advocates have viewed food hubs — groups of farmers who pool their produce to fill large orders from institutions or larger retailers — as the bridge between local produce from small farms and the mainstream food markets. However, the idea is still new, and many farmers are unsure how to get a new hub started or make a currently working food hub last.

The changing climate is affecting trends in weather across the nation. As temperatures in the Southeast rise, farmers will have to adjust to longer growing seasons, more diseases and pests and to an increase in extreme weather conditions, says a University of Georgia expert.

The Strong African-American Families project, launched in South Georgia in 2008 by the University of Georgia’s Center for Family Research and UGA Extension, has strengthened families and helped promote positive health outcomes, according to CFR Director Gene Brody.

An abundance of rainfall hurt last year’s watermelon crop in Georgia. This year, late cold snaps stunted the growth of early-planted melons and may cause prices to plummet, say University of Georgia Extension experts.

Researchers in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are teaming up with IBM to work with farmers in Georgia’s Lower Flint River Basin to enhance water efficiency by up to 20 percent.

Walid Alali, a scientist with the University of Georgia Griffin Campus, has received the University of Georgia Creative Research Medal — an award presented to faculty who have conducted outstanding research within the past five years on a single topic.

Georgians who didn’t get a chance to visit the Flavor of Georgia food product contest 2014 this March have another chance to sample some of the best new food products in Georgia.

Adding nitrogen to fertilize their crop is a substantial expense corn farmers have to consider when calculating their bottom line. A University of Georgia scientist hopes to help lower that cost by planting clover and corn together.

For decades, University of Georgia scientists have conducted state-of-the-art turfgrass research. Today’s researchers still work in the same labs where modern turfgrass science started in the 1950s. Those legacy labs and greenhouses will soon get much-needed renovations. Georgia’s FY015 budget includes $11.5 million for the improvement of the University of Georgia’s turfgrass teaching, research and Extension facilities across the state.