Friday Notes is designed to enhance communication among various agricultural sectors, educators, students, and the public who are interested in a variety of plant, animal, food, and environmental issues. Friday Notes advocates the pursuit of credible, unbiased, science-based information. Material contained in linked articles is from the original authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of CAST.
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It has been a productive year for CAST publications, so we will feature half of them this week,
with the other half listed in next week's newsletter.
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Guest Blog--The Carbon Impact of Food Waste:
The Problem With What We’re NOT Eating
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This blog was written by Dr. Frank Mitloehner, UC-Davis and 2019 BCCA recipient. According to the FAO, one-third of “food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year.” The loss and waste result in a squandering of important and limited resources and contribute to 8 percent of greenhouse gases emitted, more than all U.S. animal agriculture and nearly as much as the total emissions from U.S. agriculture. Read the blog here.
Check out the CAST Issue Paper on Food Loss and Waste, a paper in the series on The Need for Agricultural Innovation to Sustainably Feed the World by 2050.
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Animal Agriculture and Environmental News
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This video looks at Kansas State University technology using artificial intelligence to build a database of facial recognition technology for the cattle industry.
As these Ohio State University and Texas A&M experts point out, total beef production is almost the same amount as last year at this time.
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Food Science and Safety News
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Ugly Produce To Cut Waste: The world’s largest yogurt maker hopes to appeal to waste-conscious consumers by using “misfit produce” for certain items—for example, “ugly” lemons will be in the first snack.
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Plant Agriculture and Environmental News
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Soil Diving: Cornell scientists are developing worm-like, soil-swimming robots to sense and record soil properties, the soil microbiome, and how roots grow.
Publication about Water Quality: This CAST Issue Paper gives an overview of the processes, conservation practices, and programs that influence the impact of agriculture on surface and groundwater quality.
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DNA Fight against Cattle Thieves: Officials in Argentina hope to use DNA testing to curb cattle theft—a problem with rustlers either taking the livestock to resell or butchering them on the spot for meat.
Potato Chips, Beer, and Fertilizer: A large British crisp (potato chip) manufacturer plans to cut CO2 emissions by using peelings mixed with CO2 from beer fermentation to make fertilizer.
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A company in China is raising more hogs on a single site than any other producer in the world—a risky investment with deadly African swine fever still lingering.
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Big Wave Beauty (video): California surfers were stunned by huge waves and beautiful weather conditions at Mavericks Beach south of San Francisco.
Don't Rain on Their Parade: The Tournament of Roses parade has been cancelled, but organizers will produce a New Year’s Day celebration broadcast, and Cal Poly students will be featured in one segment, with a focus on their award-winning float from last year’s event.
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Photo Credits
P. 1 Samuelson collage from farmprogress.com and koala pic from guardian.com. Animal Sec. cow pic from scmp.com. Food Sec. drone pic from porkbusiness.com. Plant Sec. diagram from gmoanswers.com. Inter. Sec. pig farm pic from news.abs.com and yahoo.com. Gen. Sec. dinosaur graphic from nationalgeographic.com. Unless otherwise noted, photos courtesy of the USDA Agricultural Research Service or CAST.
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Societies, Companies, and Nonprofit Organizations Serving on the CAST Board of Representatives
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* Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
* American Association of Avian Pathologists
* American Association of Bovine Practitioners
* American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, & Resources-Agricultural Management
* American Dairy Science Association
* American Farm Bureau Federation
* American Meat Science Association
* American Meteorological Society, Committee on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
* American Seed Trade Association
* American Society for Nutrition Nutritional Sciences Council
* American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
* American Society of Agronomy
* American Society of Animal Science
* American Society of Plant Biologists
* American Veterinary Medical Association
* Aquatic Plant Management Society
* BASF Corporation
* Cal Poly State University
* Corteva Agriscience
* CropLife America
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* Crop Science Society of America
* Entomological Society of America
* Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy
* Bayer
* National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a Contractor to the Beef Checkoff
* National Corn Growers Association/Iowa Corn Promotion Board
* National Milk Producers Federation
* National Pork Board
* North Carolina Biotechnology Center
* North Central Weed Science Society
* Northeastern Weed Science Society
* Poultry Science Association
* Rural Sociological Society
* Society for In Vitro Biology
* Soil Science Society of America
* Syngenta Crop Protection
* The Fertilizer Institute
* Tuskegee University
* United Soybean Board
* University of Nevada-Reno
* U.S. Poultry and Egg Association
* Weed Science Society of America
* Western Society of Weed Science
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CAST, through its network of experts, assembles, interprets, and communicates credible, balanced, science-based information to policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.
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Members of CAST's Education Program
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* Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
* Cornell University
* Iowa State University
* Kansas State University
* Mississippi State University
* North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
* North Carolina State University
* Penn State University
* Texas A&M University College of Ag & Life Sciences
* The Ohio State University
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* Tuskegee University
* University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
* University of California-Davis
* University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
* University of Kentucky
* University of Missouri-Columbia
* University of Nebraska Agricultural Research Division
* University of Nevada-Reno College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources
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Dan Gogerty (Communications and Friday Notes Editor)
Dylana Luett (Communications and Social Media Specialist)
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
4420 West Lincoln Way
Ames, Iowa 50014-3447
Phone: 515-292-2125
** With assistance from Megan Wickham (Scientific Editor) and Colleen Hamilton (Membership Specialist)
CAST provides Friday Notes as a benefit to its members. Please do not forward, edit, copy, or distribute the Notes in any form to nonmembers without the express permission of the CAST Executive Vice President Kent Schescke ([email protected]). Instead, please encourage your colleagues to join CAST and thereby become eligible for all membership benefits. Contact Colleen Hamilton at 515-292-2125 or [email protected], or CLICK HERE for CAST membership information.
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Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
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