News Stories - Page 29

At 8 years old, Danielle Essandoh unearthed a fascination with agriculture and never looked back. Her grandfather, a peanut farmer, welcomed her help around the family farm, and Essandoh embraced farm life with enthusiasm. Today, as a doctoral student in the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics at the University of Georgia, Essandoh remains driven by her desire to help people sustain themselves.

Mel Garber remembers the phone call clearly. “How do we turn off the fireplace again?” His wife, Barbara Bankston, was on the other end of the line. She’d turned that fireplace on and off a thousand times. It’s a gas fireplace, so all you have to do is turn the knob, Mel told her. Maybe it was a one-time slip of the mind, he thought. They were getting older.

“I had no idea that any of this was out there.” This is the refrain that Bodie Pennisi and Kris Braman hear over and over when students at the University of Georgia enroll in the online course they developed to enlighten students to the wide world of biodiversity, pollinators and their role in protecting both. Co-taught by Pennisi, a professor in the Department of Horticulture, and Braman, head of the Department of Entomology, the official title of the course is “Discover the Wonderful World of Plants and Pollinators and Your Place in It.”

Members of the Southern Region Program Leadership Network, Association of Extension Administrators and the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors, including those from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, convened in Orlando, Florida, for the annual conference. This year, Laura Perry Johnson received the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors’ Award for Excellence in Leadership, a career-long service award for those who lead Extension programs across the Southeast.

In the fall of 2022, Annette Kleiser was looking for a new professional home. Her company, Dalan Animal Health, was developing the world’s first honeybee vaccine and needed a top research university that offered excellent veterinary and agriculture schools, honey bee research and an established animal health ecosystem. The University of Georgia was just what the doctor ordered.

State governments are asking people to be on the lookout for an invasive insect pest called spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). University of Georgia experts say vigilant prevention strategies, early detection and timely interventions can help keep them from spreading into Georgia and elsewhere. While they do not bite or sting humans or animals, spotted lanternflies feed on host plants including grape vines, hardwoods, and ornamental and fruiting trees.

In the 1944 Athens High School yearbook, the quote beside senior Abit Massey’s name reads, “He who is persistent in his work, success will crown.” Now, nearly 80 years later, Massey is still going strong, still adhering to that simple credo, having assembled an even longer and more impressive list of accomplishments, experiences, colleagues, protégés and friends along the way.

When the two-time reigning national champion Georgia Bulldogs step between the hedges at Sanford Stadium this fall, Dooley Field needs to look the part. More importantly, though, it needs to help safeguard the health of athletes who compete on it. Gerald Henry plays a big role in the latter.

From the time that our ancestors began cultivating food in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, agriculture has been a life-sustaining practice that has enabled early civilizations to evolve into modern societies. Today, the science behind agriculture and the decisions farmers and leaders make in production and policy affects every aspect of our lives.