In This Issue
- From CFANS Dean Allen Levine
- Jay Bell named Distinguished Professor
- New grant aims to reduce poverty and hunger
- A new "Speaking of Science" interview
- Stay up-to-date on CFANS in the news
- Help honor outstanding individuals
- Classes Without Quizzes registration open
- Petersen Symposium addresses dairy crossbreeding
- At the Bell: Project Art for Nature
- Meat Lab re-opens for sales
- Events
From Allen Levine: Where we are, where we're going
 Our first “State of the College” address is coming up on March 28. At that meeting with faculty and staff, which will be from 3 to 4 p.m. in room
105 of the Cargill Building, I’ll be discussing the information and plans in our new college compact.
Here are some facts about our college to whet your appetite.
Did you know that the University of Minnesota ranks No. 1 nationally in agricultural publications and third in number of citations on a per-faculty basis? Worldwide, our university ranks No. 14 among publications in agricultural sciences and No. 16 in plant and animal sciences.
CFANS' academic profile also demonstrates that we are strong and productive. During the past five years, we increased enrollment, degrees, and grant/contract awards, even during a period when faculty and staff numbers were declining.
Undergraduate enrollment has grown during the past four years by 6.2 percent and CFANS graduates express the highest satisfaction among the colleges on the Twin Cities campuses. We also have dramatically increased our scholarship funding through the Presidential Scholarships.
So where do we go from here? Based on our academic strengths, we will focus our efforts in three priority areas. They are:
- Food and health
- Bioeconomy (bioresources and bioenergy
- Environment (global climate and environmental change)
Over the next two years, CFANS will dedicate $300,000 each year to fund three competitive grants to be awarded to teams of scholars in each of the three priority areas.
Also, two University-wide initiatives will provide competitive grants in Healthy Foods,Healthy Lives and in Biofuels. Those initiatives will provide great opportunities internally to establish collaborative efforts in key areas of interest to the food, agricultural and natural resource community.
All of these efforts – in research, teaching and outreach – contribute toward our mission of solution-driven science. We trust that this work will lead to a better life for Minnesotans and beyond.
During the next several months CFANS will engage in rigorous discussions about strategies to attain excellence in teaching, discovery, and outreach related to our land grant mission. We will review the key recommendations from the Academic/College Design Task Force and the 20 working groups, and from them create strategies that will carry us into the future. Our goal will be to encourage the freedom of thought that leads to distinction of ideas.
I am a lucky guy—we have a great group of faculty, students and staff that are clearly committed to making CFANS the best place for discovery, research and public engagement. I look forward to seeing you on my daily walks around campus and in a variety of other venues.
-- Al
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Jay Bell named Distinguished Professor
 Jay Bell, a professor in the Department of Soil, Water and Climate, is one of of twelve recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award, the University of Minnesota’s most prestigious award for excellence in teaching. He is among seven faculty members who will receive the Morse-Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Award for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. They will be honored at the Distinguished Teaching Awards Ceremony from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, April 23 at the McNamara Alumni Center.
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New grant aims to reduce poverty and hunger
 Professor Phil Pardey of the Department of Applied Economics is co-principal investigator on a recently announced three-year, $3.7 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Pardey and his colleagues at the International Food Policy Research Institute will help the Foundation choose how to invest strategically in agricultural development.
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A new "Speaking of Science" interview
 The latest installment of "Speaking of Science" is now online. This series of interviews between CFANS dean Allen Levine and key faculty and staff is intended to showcase the variety and depth of the research and outreach work happening throughout the college. A new interview will be posted bi-weekly on the CFANS website. The latest interviewee is Jim Anderson, a professor in the Department of Soil, Water and Climate and co-director of the Water Resources Center.
Read the Q and A with Jim Anderson
Listen to raw MP3 audio of the interview:
Part 1
Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
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Stay updated on CFANS in the news
A new listserve allows alumni and friends of the college to receive a weekly e-mail listing articles in the local and national media that mentioned CFANS faculty. To sign up, visit http://www.cfans.umn.edu/cfansinthenews
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Help honor outstanding individuals
The CFANS Alumni Society invites you to nominate outstanding individuals for recognition in the following areas:
* Distinguished Alumni * Alumni Service
* Student Leadership
* Distinguished Faculty
* Outstanding Friend
The criteria and award form to nominate candidates is available on the Alumni Society's website at www.cfans.umn.edu/alumnisocietyawards Nominations are due April 4.
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Classes Without Quizzes registration open
 Registration is ongoing for this year’s “Classes Without Quizzes” sessions, which include topics ranging from biofuels to nutrition – for both humans and pets – to growing grapes in Minnesota. And in addition, the keynote speech, “"Climate Change in Minnesota: Implications for a Citizen's Agenda," will be delivered by Department of Soil, Water and Climate professor Mark Seeley and WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby. Classes Without Quizzes will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 14 on campus.
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Petersen Symposium addresses dairy crossbreeding
This year's W. E. Petersen Symposium will address the science and impact of crossbreeding dairy cattle, with perspectives from internationally renowned
researchers as well as dairy producers from
Minnesota and California. The biennial symposium is sponsored by the Department of Animal Science. The symposium will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, April 2, in the Continuing Education & Conference Center on the St. Paul campus. The public is welcome to attend, prior registration is not required, and the event is free.
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At the Bell: Project Art
Seventeen artists from Minnesota and Wisconsin take inspiration from the region’s increasingly splintered wild places in “Project Art for Nature: Presence, Essence, Absence,” which opened February 10 at the Bell Museum of Natural History. Through a wide variety of media, Project Art for Nature artists explore changes in the natural environment -- including habitat degradation and restoration -- caused by weather, climate and human activity. Working in teams of two and three, the artists focused on locations ranging from Wisconsin’s Kinnickinnic River and Crex Meadows Wildlife Area to the Mississippi River Gorge in Minneapolis and Mankato’s Kasota Prairie.
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Meat Lab is open again
The Animal Science Meat Lab is open for business again with a complete supply of beef and pork for sale. The Meat Lab is located on the lower level of the Andrew Boss Laboratory of Meat Science, Room 26, and is open from 2 to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays
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Events
Here are a few of the upcoming events of interest to the College of
Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences community. Visit www.cfans.umn.edu to
see more events.
"New Products, New Opportunities"
Thursday, March 22, 1 to 5 p.m.
McNamara Alumni Center
The Food Industry Center's annual spring conference features experts from the Department of Applied Economics and the Carlson School of Management. Topics include the supply chain for meats; branding of new food products; and how advertising affects the obesity challenge.
Support the U Day at the Capitol
Wednesday, March 28, noon
Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul
University supporters including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and volunteers from across the state are expected to attend. Noon rally in the rotunda; 12:45 p.m. lunch in the Great Hall; 1 p.m. optional meetings with legislators. Sign up at http://www.supporttheU.umn.edu.
The Home Grown Economy: Foods from Local Farms as an Economic Development Tool
Monday, April 2 (rescheduled from February 26)
University of Minnesota-Morris campus
Collin Peterson, chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, is hosting this conference in his home district as a way of exploring how local foods can be an economic development engine for rural communities. The conference's co-sponsors include the West Central Research and Outreach Center, the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
Cafe Scientifique: Bedbugs Bite Back
Tuesday, April 10, 6 p.m.
Loring Pasta Bar, Dinkytown
Due in part to worldwide travel and the elimination of long-acting pesticides like DDT, bedbug infestations are on the rise. Stephen Kells, professor in the Department of Entomology, discusses bedbug biology, the social history of bedbug infestations, and how to avoid, detect, and get rid of bedbugs.
What's for Dinner? The Ethics and Aesthetics of Eating
Thursday, April 19
University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen
Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma," will present the keynote address, followed by a panel discussion including Allen Levine, CFANS dean, as well as regional experts, growers and distributors. The event is presented by the arboretum’s Public Policy Program and sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Program on Agriculture, Food and Environmental Ethics and the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. For more information and to register, call the Arboretum’s Education Office at 952-443-1422 or go to http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/education/adult/publicpolicy.htm
Minnesota State FFA Convention
Sunday-Tuesday, April 22-24
St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota
More than 3,000 high school students will attend the 78th annual Minnesota State FFA Convention. “Dare, Dream, Discover: Living in 3D” is the theme of this year’s conference.
Minnesota Sustainable Tourism Conference
Wednesday-Thursday, April 25-26
University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen
A conference aimed at tourism practitioners, community decision makers and elected officials in Minnesota as well as students and others interested in sustainable tourism. Hosted by the Minnesota Tourism Center and co-sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships.
CFANS Commencement ceremonies
Sunday, May 6
Northrop Auditorium
More than 250 students are expected to participate in the first CFANS commencement.
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