Stories From Sep 2015
Wayne County Farmworkers Appreciation Festival brings community together
Participants had opportunities to be given health and dental screenings, as well as to visit information booths to learn about the community services available to them.
Modeling tool IDs genes that control plants’ stress response
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from North Carolina State University and University of California, Davis has developed a modeling algorithm that is able to identify plant genes associated with specific biological functions. The modeling tool will help plant biologists target individual genes that control how plants respond to environmental stressors.
NC State gets grant to study African crop disease
NC State University has received a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study cassava mosaic disease, which limits production of a key African food crop. Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin, a CALS professor of plant and microbial biology, will lead the five-year, $5 million project.
Update on the national debt
The major focus in the economy in recent years has been on growth -- particularly on creating jobs and reducing unemployment. But what's happened to the national debt? Is it still an issue? And where is it headed? NC State University economist Mike Walden answers.
You Decide: Is Another Recession Around the Corner?
The economy has been improving for the last six years, but that doesn’t mean it will continue to do so. Mike Walden analyzes the factors and events that can lead to recession – and whether any are currently in play.
Celebrate NC Ag Day
What better way to celebrate North Carolina agriculture than with a plate of barbecue, a scoop of NC State’s famous Howling Cow ice cream and a stroll through exhibits and activities that showcase North Carolina’s nearly $80 billion agriculture and agribusiness industry?
The buying of Belk
The longtime family-owned department store Belk has been sold to a New York investment firm. This ends the 125-year family operation of a retail giant that originated in North Carolina. NC State University economist Mike Walden comments on reasons for the sale.
Business and Busy-ness
Andy VonCanon and Brittany Whitmire call their family farm near Brevard “Busy Bee” – and what a fitting name it is. The two keep bees and raise cattle, turkeys and forage crops, all the while holding busy off-farm careers in agriculture. He’s a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumnus who teaches high school agriculture, and she’s the new dairy economist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service at NC State.
Horton endowment created to fund biochemistry scholarships
The H. Robert and Roberta A. Horton Biochemistry Scholarship Endowment was created in an agreement between the Hortons and the N.C. Agricultural Foundation Inc., in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
WNR Professors honored
Seven CALS faculty members joined the ranks of colleagues who have earned the named professorship, established 65 years ago by William Neal Reynolds, the longtime president and board chair of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.