In This Issue
- From CFANS Dean Allen Levine: The many faces of ag
- "Speaking of Science" with Rex Bernardo
- New grant awards boost biofuels research
- Finish your holiday shopping with CFANS
- Emergency texting service now available
- Support the Bell Museum at the Legislature
- Events
From Dean Allen Levine: The many faces of ag 
Ask almost anyone what comes to mind when they hear the word “farming” and you’ll get very different answers.
Agriculture is a huge and complex industry that includes everything from small family farms to large corporate endeavors. Some farmers manage large fields dedicated to corn and soybeans, while others tend small plots of land growing fruits and vegetables. Food animals are raised in a variety of environments, from large facilities to grass pastures. Some farmers apply conventional methodologies, while others use only organic methods of planting and harvesting. This complexity has added to recent debates in Congress over the 2007 Farm Bill, especially when you factor differences in how geographic regions of the country practice agriculture.
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But farmers also have many things in common. Agriculture is all about growing and harvesting plants and animals to provide shelter, drugs and energy for the whole world. United States agriculture has become more centralized over the last century, yet some estimates say that more than a third of the world’s workforce is still employed in some form of agriculture. Agriculture is an important piece of our economic and social structures.
And it’s important to remember that the dangers faced by agriculture – pests, pathogens and climate, just to name a few – don’t discriminate between a big or small farm, or between an organic or conventional crop.
For CFANS, the study of all types of agriculture is crucial. As part of our land-grant mission, we are here to inquire and discover, figure out ways to help protect against common threats to all farming systems, and share that information with our state’s citizens. We do this work for agriculture as well as for the environment and for food and health issues.
Much of the recent discussion around the farm bill tended to focus on the big vs. small component of agriculture and controversy over who should get priority when subsidies are awarded. That’s unfortunate; the bill also includes significant money for the kinds of agricultural research we do here at CFANS. The beneficiaries of that research will be our constituents: agriculture in all of its many faces.
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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 showcases the research and outreach work happening throughout the college. The latest interviewee is Rex Bernardo , a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics.
Read the Q and A with Rex Bernardo
Listen to raw MP3 audio of the interview:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
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New grant awards boost biofuels research
Five renewable energy projects -- three of them from CFANS -- led by University of Minnesota researchers have been selected to receive more than $4.5 million from the Xcel Energy Renewable Development Fund. The CFANS projects involve research on providing electricity to ethanol plants; on providing accurate guidelines for biomass harvesting; and developing an efficient system for delivering biomass. The grants to CFANS-led projects total about $2.7 million.
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Finish your holiday shopping with CFANS
Still shopping for gifts and holiday treats and trimming? CFANS departments and clubs may be able to help. The Dairy Store has special holiday-flavored ice creams and boxes of cheese; the Meat Lab has gift packs for a variety of price ranges; memberships at the Bell Museum and Minnesota Landscape Arboretum are on sale and make great gifts. The Student Chapter of the Society of American Forestry is selling 2008 Weatherguide calendars as a fundraiser for their group. The calendars are loaded with meterological information and cost $15.95 ea. Contact Cassie Kurtz for details. For decorating help, the Forestry Club's annual Christmas tree sale -- which includes wreaths and honey for sale -- is open through Dec. 24. The sale lot is on the north side of Larpenteur Avenue, just west of Cleveland Avenue, and is open from noon to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.
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Emergency texting service now available
 TXT-U, the University of Minnesota's new emergency-messaging service, is up and running. Students, faculty, and staff can stay informed about critical campus safety information by registering to receive TXT-U messages. Only University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff can register for TXT-U, but users can add multiple mobile-phone numbers so parents and others can be alerted too. The system will be used only infrequently and specifically for real emergency situations.
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Support the Bell Museum at the Legislature
The Bell Museum’s new building project is included in the University of Minnesota’s 2008 bonding request to the Minnesota legislature.
If you'd like to support the bond request, please take a moment to sign up to join the University’s Legislative Network, a resource that lets your voice be heard. You can easily join the network by going to the museum’s homepage at www.bellmuseum.org. As a member of the network, you’ll receive weekly updates on our progress, information on how and when to contact your legislators, invitations to town hall meetings in your area and tips on how to share your own Bell Museum experiences and stories with legislators. This is a critically important time for the Bell Museum and we need your help. Your voice will make a difference.
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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.
FRET sensors as tools to visualize metabolite flux and to identify regulatory networks
Monday, December 17, 2 p.m.
Room 105, Cargill Building, St. Paul campus
The Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute will sponsor a Leading Edge Technologies seminar featuring Wolf Frommer, Associate Professor of the Carnegie Institute’s Department of Plant Biology at Stanford University. He will dicuss the FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) technology for in vivo metabolite imaging at cellular and subcellular levels.
Animal Science research day
Tuesday, December 18, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Haecker Hall, St. Paul campus
Research projects from throughout the department will be on display all day; poster authors will be available to answer questions from 10:30 to 11 a.m. and from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m. Sponsors from Ralco Nutrition, the Minnesota Pork Board and the Minnesota Pork Producers Association will make presentations from 11 a.m. to noon.
Cafe Scientifique: Greening Cities
Tuesday, December 18, 7 p.m.
Bryant-Lake Bowl, Uptown Minneapolis
City parks characteristically define urban nature—an oasis of the natural world in a man-made environment. But urbanites are craving new ways to experience nature and are interested in exploring emerging trends in green infrastructure and park design to redefine urban nature. Join Laura Musacchio, Associate Professor in the University of Minnesota’s landscape architecture, conservation biology and water resource science programs for a discussion about the redefinition of urban nature. Cost is $5. Cafe Scientifique, sponsored by the Bell Museum, is a forum for science and culture in a casual setting.
University of Minnesota Green Expo reception
Wednesday, January 9, 5:30 p.m.
Minneapolis Convention Center
University alumni and friends are invited to a reception at the Minnesota Green Expo. The reception will be held in the U of M exhibit area on the Mezzanine Level of the Minneapolis Convention Center. This year's reception will honor recently retired faculty member Donald White, who was a faculty member from 1961 until June of this year. The reception will include hors d' oeuvres, a cash bar and U of M door prizes. RSVPs are preferred, but not required.
Cafe Scientifique
Is Minnesota at a Climate Crossroads?
Tuesday, January 15, 7 p.m.
Bryant-Lake Bowl, Uptown
Over the past ten years, winters in Minnesota have been unusually mild. Many climate models predict that this trend will continue—a local example of the dramatic rise in world temperatures known as global warming. What will warmer winters and earlier spring thaws mean Minnesota’s natural landscape? Join the Bell Museum for a discussion about how these changes could affect our state’s ecology, culture and economy. Cost is $5. Cafe Scientifique, sponsored by the Bell Museum, is a forum for science and culture in a casual setting.
Minne-college in Florida
Saturday, January 26, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Naples Hilton Hotel, Naples, Fla.
The University of Minnesota Alumni Association brings some of the U of M's best professors to Southwest Florida for an afternoon learning experience featuring a variety of topics plus a reception with University president Bob Bruninks.
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Laura Kalambokidis, an associate professor in the 
Mark Seeley, a professor in the 
John Lamb, a professor in the