Re: search Magazine - North Carolina A&T State University
Re: search Magazine - North Carolina A&T State University
Re: search Magazine - North Carolina A&T State University
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VOL. 8, 2011<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
A MAGAZINE OF THE<br />
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH PROGRAM<br />
AT NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL<br />
AND TECHNICAL STATE UNIVERSITY<br />
PERSONAL NUTRITION:<br />
FOOD SCIENCE’S<br />
NEW FRONTIER<br />
INSIDE<br />
> Could hog waste be <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>’s black gold?<br />
> Mushroom growers explore the great indoors.<br />
> Undergraduates solve issues in ag.
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> A&T <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program in the School of<br />
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences<br />
Dr. Harold L. Martin Sr., Chancellor<br />
Dr. William Randle, Dean, School of<br />
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences<br />
Dr. Shirley Hymon-Parker, Associate Dean, <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong><br />
Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, Associate Dean, Administrator,<br />
The Cooperative Extension Program<br />
Tommy Ellis, Associate Dean, Administration<br />
Dr. Donald McDowell, Associate Dean,<br />
Academic Programs<br />
Produced by the Agricultural<br />
Communications and Technology Unit:<br />
Director: Robin Adams<br />
Writer: Laurie Gengenbach<br />
Contributing Writer: Cathy Gant Hill<br />
Editors: Alton Franklin, Cathy Gant Hill,<br />
Laurie Gengenbach<br />
Photographer: James Parker<br />
Contributing Photographer: Stephen Charles<br />
Graphic Designer: Donna Wojek-Gibbs<br />
Video Producer: Ron Fisher<br />
Send change of address and correspondence to:<br />
Laurie Gengenbach<br />
Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program<br />
C. H. Moore Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Station<br />
Greensboro, NC 27411<br />
On the cover: From left, Drs. Shengmin Sang,<br />
Guibing Chen, Mohamed Ahmedna and Leonard<br />
Williams, lead scientists at N.C. A&T’s Center for<br />
Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies at the<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Campus.<br />
8,000 copies of this public document were<br />
printed on recycled paper at a cost of $11,212.00<br />
or $1.40 per copy.<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> A&T <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong> is a<br />
land-grant, doctoral re<strong>search</strong> university and<br />
AA/EEO employer.<br />
Distributed in furtherance of the acts of Congress<br />
of May 8 and June 30, 1914. Employment and<br />
program opportunities are open to all people<br />
regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age<br />
or disability. <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> A&T <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong>,<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong>, U.S. Department of<br />
Agriculture and local governments cooperating.<br />
The projects described in this document are sup-<br />
ported in whole or in part by the USDA National<br />
Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Its con-<br />
tents are solely the responsibility of the authors,<br />
and do not necessarily represent the official views<br />
of NIFA.<br />
Copyright © 2011 School of Agriculture and<br />
Environmental Sciences, <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> A&T <strong>State</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong>. <strong>Re</strong>:<strong>search</strong> may not be reproduced unless<br />
prior permission is granted and credit is given.<br />
<<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
18 Health Science’s Frontier:<br />
A media outlet interviews<br />
Dr. Jianmei Yu about progress<br />
toward creating peanuts safe<br />
for allergy sufferers.<br />
For an online edition of <strong>Re</strong>:<strong>search</strong>, visit<br />
www.ag.ncat.edu/re<strong>search</strong>/re_<strong>search</strong>_magazine.html<br />
For video interviews with re<strong>search</strong>ers providing additional<br />
information, visit www.ag.ncat.edu/re<strong>search</strong>/interviews/index.html<br />
Vision<br />
The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences shall be a premier<br />
<<br />
18 Health Science’s<br />
Frontier: Peppers<br />
await testing in<br />
the Food Safety Lab.<br />
learner-centered community that develops and preserves intellectual<br />
capital in the food, agricultural, family and environmental sciences through<br />
interdisciplinary learning, discovery and engagement.<br />
The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences provides<br />
opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to achieve<br />
Mission<br />
excellence in the food, agricultural, family and environmental sciences<br />
through exemplary and integrative instruction, and through scholarly,<br />
creative and effective re<strong>search</strong> and Extension programs.
12 Undergraduate<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Scholar:<br />
Kaya Feaster<br />
investigates<br />
essential oils<br />
that may fight<br />
foodborne<br />
pathogens.<br />
A magazine of the Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences<br />
at <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> Agricultural and Technical <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
4 RESEARCH IS MAKING MUSHROOM PRODUCTION A YEAR-ROUND OPPORTUNITY<br />
Growing in the great indoors<br />
8 RESEARCHERS SMELL OPPORTUNITY IN HOG WASTE<br />
From waste stream to revenue stream<br />
12 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARS PROGRAM<br />
Young scientists address issues in economics, health, soils, animal feed<br />
18 HEALTH SCIENCE’S NEW FRONTIER<br />
A look at food safety, functional foods, inactivating allergens, food fiber, designer biochar<br />
34 BUILDING CAPACITY<br />
USDA funded projects in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences<br />
8>
<strong>Re</strong>:information sjhymonp@ncat.edu<br />
2<br />
Administrator’s Desk<br />
From economy to ecosystem, the land-grant mission connects the dots<br />
A strong economy is often<br />
described as one that “makes,<br />
creates and innovates.” To<br />
this I would add, it is also one<br />
that educates. As a land-grant<br />
university, we cannot be “makers.”<br />
That’s the province of private<br />
industry. But we can improve<br />
on what we do best: innovate<br />
and educate.<br />
That’s why I am especially<br />
pleased to bring you this special,<br />
Dr. Shirley expanded issue of <strong>Re</strong>:<strong>search</strong>, in<br />
Hymon-Parker which we highlight two of our<br />
forward-looking contributions to a<br />
stronger economy and ecosystem: the Center<br />
for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies<br />
at the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Campus,<br />
and our Undergraduate <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Scholars<br />
Program. Undergraduates selected for<br />
this program are not only gaining a better<br />
understanding of science, but they are<br />
The good news is that our land-grant<br />
universities are developing answers in the<br />
forms of sustainable biofuels and bio-based<br />
products for the emerging green economy.<br />
also developing a desire to pursue careers<br />
as scientists. It’s this new talent that our<br />
knowledge-based economy will rely on in<br />
the future.<br />
Talent is part of our present as well.<br />
For instance, our new Center for Excellence<br />
in Post-Harvest Technologies is already<br />
beginning to make its mark in the food<br />
re<strong>search</strong> arena. In the following pages, you<br />
will read how scientists there are developing<br />
biotech solutions to foodborne illness, food<br />
allergens, diabetes, cancer and other issues.<br />
The Center’s overarching goal is the same<br />
as that of the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong><br />
Campus: to commercialize these and future<br />
discoveries in order to spur economic growth,<br />
protect the environment, and improve health<br />
and well-being for individuals.<br />
We meet these goals best when engaged<br />
in collaborative partnerships with private<br />
industry. For instance, our ag and tech<br />
re<strong>search</strong>ers are now working with such<br />
companies as Pre-Gel America, Dyadic, and<br />
Mycorrhiza Biotech LLC to develop better<br />
consumer products and industrial processes.<br />
The problems that confront us today are<br />
staggering in their complexity. They include<br />
an obesity epidemic that now afflicts children<br />
as well as adults and global climate change<br />
that is likely to disrupt food and agricultural<br />
systems in the coming years. Meanwhile,<br />
fossil fuel supplies are dwindling at the same<br />
time the world’s population grows rapidly. By<br />
2050, this larger and increasingly prosperous<br />
population will require substantially more<br />
food and energy than the world can supply at<br />
present rates of output, and will add further<br />
strain to the natural resources that<br />
sustain life on our planet.<br />
The good news is that<br />
our land-grant universities are<br />
developing answers in the forms<br />
of sustainable biofuels and biobased<br />
products for the emerging<br />
green economy. Many of the<br />
answers that will fuel our future will come<br />
from agricultural and life-sciences re<strong>search</strong><br />
that takes place here at N.C. A&T and at<br />
institutions like ours.<br />
The Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program at<br />
A&T is proud to be part of the land-grant and<br />
USDA system that is dedicated to solving<br />
these issues. We look forward to doing our<br />
part to make sure the new century is at least<br />
as productive as the last. With the public’s<br />
continued support for science, we are<br />
confident it will be.
ANIMAL SCIENCES PROFESSOR<br />
NAMED A&T SENIOR RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR<br />
Dr. Mulumebet “Millie” Worku’s re<strong>search</strong> program is<br />
focused on exploring the molecular and genetic basis for<br />
natural resistance or immunity to mammalian diseases<br />
— especially mastitis — with the goal of improving the<br />
diagnosis, treatment and selection of animals.<br />
It was her work in this area that garnered the<br />
professor of animal sciences the <strong>University</strong>’s Senior<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>er of the Year Award for 2010-11, which recognizes<br />
her outstanding contributions to the science of immune-<br />
system genomics and to A&T’s re<strong>search</strong> program.<br />
Worku reports that some of her most rewarding<br />
discoveries to date include the discovery of the “wingless<br />
gene” in goats and pigs, which is the same gene that was<br />
first discovered in fruit flies, and is important to growth<br />
and development. She has also contributed re<strong>search</strong><br />
toward developing breeding goats for the production of<br />
prosaposin-rich milk. Prosaposin is a protein that could<br />
be helpful in managing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and<br />
other neurodegenerative diseases.<br />
“It is highly rewarding to be able to share in the<br />
excitement of discovery and learning with my students,<br />
colleagues and collaborators to impact food security and<br />
safety using the fruits of genomics progress,” Worku said.<br />
To colleagues who have observed her dedication and<br />
commitment to both teaching and genomics re<strong>search</strong><br />
since her arrival at N.C. A&T in 1999, the award came as<br />
no surprise. Her awards nominations from students and<br />
colleagues from the <strong>University</strong> and from across the state<br />
cite her “knowledge, enthusiasm, vision and energy,”<br />
and particularly her ability to inspire students to pursue<br />
careers in the sciences — qualities that also garnered<br />
Worku the SAES Teacher-of-the-Year Award in 2007.<br />
Dr. Mulumebet “Millie”<br />
Worku’s genomics re<strong>search</strong><br />
focuses on immunity<br />
in cows and other<br />
ruminant animals.<br />
“I believe that the experience and knowledge that<br />
I gained in her lab and under her mentorship have been<br />
extremely helpful in obtaining a challenging career in<br />
industry,” wrote Antrison Morris, a graduate of A&T’s<br />
master’s program in animal sciences, and now associate<br />
scientist at Xenobiotic Laboratories in Plainsboro, N.J.<br />
During her tenure, Worku has led or collaborated<br />
on 29 re<strong>search</strong> projects worth $7.5 million, and<br />
she continues to lead or collaborate on three or<br />
more re<strong>search</strong> projects each year. Over the years,<br />
her grantsmanship has enabled the Department of<br />
Animal Sciences to acquire genomics-related tools and<br />
instruments that are now providing students with<br />
biotechnology skills in a new genomics course that<br />
she developed. These acquisitions include quantitative<br />
polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and microarrays<br />
instruments, and a bioinformatics learning lab.<br />
Worku previously served as a re<strong>search</strong>er with<br />
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and<br />
Drug Administration. She was an International Atomic<br />
Energy Agency re<strong>search</strong> fellow at the <strong>University</strong> of<br />
Glasgow in Scotland.<br />
Her recent publications include articles in the Journal<br />
of Dairy Science and the American Journal of Animal and<br />
Veterinary Sciences, which report on gene expression in<br />
bovine blood neutrophils, and an evaluation of plant<br />
extracts for use in treating meat goats.<br />
Worku holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree, both in<br />
animal sciences, from the <strong>University</strong> of Maryland, and<br />
a bachelor’s from the <strong>University</strong> of Alemaya in Ethiopia,<br />
also in animal sciences.<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
3
<strong>Re</strong>: information omon@ncat.edu<br />
4<br />
Mycologist Dr. Omoanghe Isikhuemhen is turning his focus to high-yield<br />
indoor production for <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>’s exotic mushroom industry.
RESEARCH IS<br />
MAKING MUSHROOM<br />
PRODUCTION A<br />
YEAR-ROUND<br />
OPPORTUNITY<br />
SAES MYCOLOGIST IS LEADING THE WAY TO THE<br />
GREAT INDOORS<br />
IT’S NEARLY A DECADE SINCE DR.<br />
OMOANGHE ISIKHUEMHEN BEGAN<br />
SHIITAKE STUDIES AT A&T. Much of his<br />
re<strong>search</strong> during the past 10 years has focused on outdoor<br />
production, a process in which hardwood logs are inoculated<br />
with spawn, sealed with wax, periodically soaked in water and<br />
left in shade to fruit. Their harvest accounts for the bulk of the<br />
state’s shiitake crop. Although successful with farmers, outdoor<br />
cultivation of shiitake – like production of other crops – is a<br />
seasonal endeavor dependent on temperature and shade.<br />
But it doesn’t have to be.<br />
As evidenced by Isikhuemhen’s latest series of<br />
re<strong>search</strong> forays, indoor fruiting houses are the new<br />
frontier for mushroom production, and just as in<br />
the early days of outdoor log inoculation, farmers are<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
21 5
6<br />
NORTH CAROLINA’S DIVERSE CLIMATE AND REGION<br />
beginning to embrace the new possibilities.<br />
“We are exploring indoor shiitake production<br />
because it is the only way to guarantee yearround<br />
production of shiitake,” says Isikhuemhen,<br />
a re<strong>search</strong>er and associate professor in<br />
A&T’s Department of Natural <strong>Re</strong>sources and<br />
Environmental Design.<br />
The re<strong>search</strong> into indoor production<br />
means that growers can control such factors as<br />
temperature, light, humidity and air exchange;<br />
and thereby extend the mushroom growing<br />
season. Traditionally, indoor shiitake facilities<br />
don’t produce at the same robust level as outdoor<br />
cultivation. Mushrooms grown indoors often have<br />
milder flavors, and can also be smaller, softer and<br />
lighter colored than their outdoor counterparts.<br />
Consequently, Isikhuemhen is working<br />
to genetically stimulate indoor mushrooms to be<br />
more akin to outdoor mushrooms in taste, size<br />
and color. What that stimulation generally amounts<br />
“YES, THE TASTE OF<br />
THE OUTDOOR FRUIT<br />
IS RELATED TO ITS<br />
ENVIRONMENT, BUT<br />
WITH THE PROPER<br />
TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN<br />
BRING THOSE QUALITIES<br />
TOGETHER FOR INDOOR<br />
PRODUCTION.”<br />
— ISIKHUEMHEN<br />
to is a kind of shiitake mating game. Among<br />
the scores and scores of shiitake strains<br />
in Isikhuemhen’s laboratories are 25 select<br />
varieties that were tested to assess their<br />
adaptability to growing indoors. The process<br />
included using spores that were ejected from<br />
the gills – the thin, papery structures that hang<br />
vertically under the cap – of those 25 shiitake<br />
isolates destined to be crossed with one another.<br />
Some of the crossing was done from like strains<br />
and some from different strains.<br />
Isikhuemhen and his assistant, Dr. Felicia<br />
Anike, then created a matrix to track the various<br />
pairings and outcomes, ultimately choosing<br />
isolates that adapted best to such standards as<br />
temperature and light. From the resulting pairings<br />
of the original isolates, three top performers<br />
emerged. Their spores yielded spawn that was<br />
shared with three select mushroom growers in the<br />
western and southern parts of the state to test in<br />
their own indoor environments.<br />
FUNGI FRUITING FANS OUT<br />
Steve Rice, one of the three farmers included<br />
in the re<strong>search</strong> project, has been cultivating<br />
mushrooms for 20 years, and recently built an<br />
indoor fruiting facility at his Madison County<br />
farm. He grew indoor shiitake, with favorable<br />
results, from spawn-infused substrate that<br />
comes in sawdust blocks that were provided by<br />
Isikhuemhen. A primary goal of Isikhuemhen’s<br />
re<strong>search</strong> is to produce strains that can be used<br />
cost-effectively year-round, so that growers aren’t<br />
overwhelmed by heating or cooling costs.<br />
Rice’s fruiting house is made of two metal<br />
shipping containers that are buried under 2 feet of<br />
earth. The fruiting house abuts a small greenhouse<br />
used for staging, washing and packaging. In<br />
summer, the temperature in the houses stays in<br />
an ideal range of 65 - 80 degrees, and in winter<br />
the houses are warmed to that same range with<br />
passive solar heat generated by the greenhouse<br />
and a stone storage heat source.<br />
Rice is known informally around the region<br />
as “the mushroom man,” and more formally as<br />
president of the 80-member <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong><br />
Mushroom Growers Association that Isikhuemhen<br />
and A&T helped establish. What began as a<br />
hobby with mushrooms has evolved into more<br />
of an agricultural career – and certainly more<br />
farm income – for Rice since he started working<br />
with Isikhuemhen and the mushroom re<strong>search</strong><br />
program at A&T.<br />
“There has been a total upgrade of my<br />
knowledge and of the quality of the mushrooms<br />
that I grow,” Rice says.<br />
Indoor production also offers a reduction in<br />
labor demands to farmers. Whereas with outdoor<br />
production scores of logs have to be bored with a
MAKE IT ONE OF THE MOST IDEAL PLACES IN THE COUNTRY<br />
TO PRODUCE MUSHROOMS – PARTICULARLY SHIITAKE<br />
drill, inoculated with spawn, sealed, regularly<br />
soaked and restacked; indoor production isn’t quite<br />
as demanding. With the latter method, fruiting<br />
blocks of sawdust are soaked once for about six<br />
hours, and the blocks begin to fruit in three-to-four<br />
days and no more than 10 to 12 days. After the first<br />
fruiting, growers can repeat the six-hour soakings to<br />
force second and even third fruitings.<br />
Inoculated logs have longer incubation periods<br />
and generally require more watering (Isikhuemhen<br />
recommends every week or so) to lower the logs’<br />
internal temperature. All that maintenance has<br />
traditionally paid off, though, in the form of taste.<br />
The outdoor-produced shiitake is infused with<br />
elements of its natural surroundings, resulting in an<br />
earthier flavor. Isikhuemhen, though, is undeterred.<br />
His re<strong>search</strong> on indoor shiitake production is<br />
also examining ways to enhance the flavor of fruit<br />
produced in a more controlled environment.<br />
“Yes, the taste of the outdoor fruit is related<br />
to its environment, but with the proper technology<br />
you can bring those qualities together for indoor<br />
production,” Isikhuemhen says. “You can use the<br />
[sawdust] block situation to mimic the logs.”<br />
The results of Rice’s indoor experience have<br />
been positive, but Isikhuemhen isn’t yet ready<br />
to release details of the findings from him and<br />
the other growers. Building better shiitake, so to<br />
speak, will require fruiting bodies hardy enough<br />
to withstand the most minimal heating in winter<br />
and least cooling in summer, to achieve a product<br />
that is both high-quality and affordable. That basic<br />
premise was begun back at the A&T laboratories<br />
where Isikhuemhen and Anike chose donor spores<br />
– to create a superior strain – based on how well<br />
they survived specific temperatures. The next goal<br />
is to ensure that indoor shiitake can compete with<br />
the flavor of their wilder, outdoor counterparts.<br />
Some results of some of the tested isolates,<br />
such as the ones from Rice’s farm, are already back<br />
and others are still in production.<br />
“We know what strains are doing well, but<br />
we expect more to come out of our screening, so<br />
that we have large numbers to give to farmers,”<br />
Isikhuemhen says. “Although we are doing indoor<br />
re<strong>search</strong>, we still have to make sure we give the<br />
farmers the optimal, most cost-effective strains to<br />
work with.”<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
BUCKS HAVEN’T STOPPED HERE<br />
For Isikhuemhen and the mycology program<br />
at A&T, the goal is to generate and develop the<br />
scientific support that helps farmers become more<br />
successful. Rice is poised to continue reaping<br />
that A&T re<strong>search</strong>. His production has averaged<br />
about 400-700 pounds of mushrooms a year, from<br />
mushrooms grown outside on hardwood logs. With<br />
his indoor operation, though, Rice expects to at least<br />
quadruple that output. He anticipates increasing his<br />
outdoor production to 50-60 pounds per week, and<br />
combined with his indoor operation, he expects to<br />
produce as much as 100-200 pounds a week. His<br />
corresponding mushroom income would grow from<br />
about $6,000 annually to a conservative projection of<br />
$12,000 a year, Rice says.<br />
Rice’s projections are right in line with<br />
estimates from A&T agribusiness experts, who<br />
project an average of about $5,000 a year for<br />
outdoor producers, but as much as $15,000<br />
annually for those with indoor as well as outdoor<br />
facilities. Overall, the 400 or so mushroom growers<br />
in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> account for about $1.2 million a<br />
year in total industry gross sales, according to Dr.<br />
Osei Yeboah, interim director of the L.C. Cooper Jr.<br />
International Trade Center at A&T. Those estimates<br />
and projections are intentionally conservative,<br />
Yeboah says, and are based on the lower production<br />
levels in the state’s eastern region.<br />
Whereas Yeboah exercises a more restrained<br />
eye toward financial possibilities, Isikhuemhen has<br />
an enthusiasm shaped by previous re<strong>search</strong> and<br />
faithful farmers. Testimonials like Rice’s validate the<br />
success and the ongoing work of A&T’s mushroom<br />
biology and biotechnology laboratories, work that<br />
Isikhuemhen sees as integral to the success of<br />
the steadily evolving shiitake industry in the state.<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>’s diverse climate and regions make<br />
it one of the most ideal places in the country to<br />
produce mushrooms – particularly shiitake, which<br />
is the second most commonly grown mushroom in<br />
the United <strong>State</strong>s.<br />
“When <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> mushrooms come out,<br />
people should know, ‘Oh, this is <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong><br />
mushroom,’ ” Isikhuemhen says. “The business<br />
of shiitake production in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> is going<br />
to be fully re<strong>search</strong>ed so that it is not targeting<br />
production quantity, but quality.”<br />
7
<strong>Re</strong>:information ash@ncat.edu<br />
8<br />
Dr. Shuanging Xiu (right) a<br />
re<strong>search</strong>er in A&T’s Agricultural<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program, holds a flask of<br />
bio-oil derived from hog manure,<br />
and Dr. Ellie Fini, a re<strong>search</strong>er<br />
in A&T’s Department of Civil<br />
Engineering, holds a sample<br />
of bioasphalt derived from the<br />
same source. The re<strong>search</strong>ers say<br />
both products have potential to<br />
transform swine manure from<br />
waste stream to revenue stream<br />
for the benefit of <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>’s<br />
environment and hog industry.
RESEARCHERS SMELL OPPORTUNITY<br />
IN HOG WASTE<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
The goal of <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>’s Strategic Plan for<br />
Biofuels Leadership is that 10 percent of liquid<br />
fuels sold in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> will come from<br />
biofuels locally grown and produced by 2017.<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>ers in the Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program<br />
at A&T are working to make that happen.<br />
IN NORTH CAROLINA, hog waste has<br />
come to be synonymous with headache.<br />
Whether it’s a question of how to store<br />
it, how to dispose of it, or how to prevent<br />
it from stinking up the neighborhood,<br />
answers haven’t come easy.<br />
But where farmers, environmentalists,<br />
and homeowners see costly<br />
problems, re<strong>search</strong>ers at <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong><br />
A&T see economic opportunity, thanks<br />
to emerging biomass industries in <strong>North</strong><br />
<strong>Carolina</strong> and worldwide.<br />
Using thermochemical conversion, a<br />
technology that applies heat and pressure<br />
to wet biomass, Drs. Abolghasem<br />
Shahbazi and Shuanging Xiu have been<br />
transforming hog waste into bio-oil, a<br />
product that could be valuable in its own<br />
right as boiler fuel, or refined further into<br />
transportation fuels, or – as another A&T<br />
re<strong>search</strong>er has discovered – converted to<br />
road asphalts.<br />
“Bio-oil from animal waste has<br />
potential because bio-oil can be upgraded<br />
to ethanol or even better fuels or other<br />
products,” Shahbazi says.<br />
Doing so is technically possible<br />
because crude bio-oil from hog waste is<br />
similar to crude oil pumped from ancient<br />
fossil beds beneath the earth’s surface,<br />
Xiu explains.<br />
“The process we use mimics the<br />
geological processes that created fossil<br />
fuels,” she says.<br />
9
10<br />
FINI, XIU AND SHAHBAZI AREN’T THE ONLY ONES EXCITED ABOUT<br />
THE PROSPECTS. FOUR NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION<br />
GRANTS HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO A&T TO PURSUE WASTE TECHNOLOGY<br />
FURTHER. TWO INDUSTRY PARTNERS ARE COLLABORATING, AND THE<br />
UNIVERSITY’S OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY<br />
TRANSFER IS ALSO INTERESTED IN THE COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL.<br />
“Mimics” might be something of an understatement.<br />
The petroleum deposits that fuel our cars today were<br />
created from millions of tons of rock, pressing down<br />
on millions of tons of carbon-rich algae deposits over<br />
millions of years. Xiu simulates this process in a small<br />
room adjacent to A&T’s swine facility housing a labscale<br />
Parr bioreactor. She places about a cup-and-a-half<br />
– 750 mls. to be exact – of raw hog waste into a metal<br />
container the size of a coffee can, flips a switch and lets<br />
it cook. Two hours later, she retrieves a 5-ounce sample<br />
of crude bio-oil. Not much, to be sure, but enough to run<br />
experiments, and enough to characterize the product.<br />
The odor of hog waste has been replaced by an acrid,<br />
smoky smell.<br />
The small scale of that lab simulation helps illustrate<br />
why the challenge in biofuels nowadays is more a matter<br />
of economics than of technology. It’s one thing to prove<br />
the concept in a laboratory – quite another to bring<br />
the logistics, cost of transportation and consistency of<br />
feedstock supply up to commercial scale. Biorefineries<br />
are very expensive to build, and one of the standards for<br />
a viable plant is 1,000 hours of continuous production<br />
of marketable fuels and co-products. Biorefineries also<br />
must be within 100 miles of their feedstock supply to<br />
be economically viable, and so far, few if any pilot plants<br />
have managed to meet all these conditions. Shahbazi<br />
sees one possibility vis-à-vis hog waste is to replace hog<br />
lagoons and spray fields at the farm level with small<br />
thermochemical processing units capable of converting<br />
up to 1,000 gallons of hog waste at a time into crude<br />
bio-oil. This product could then be transported to larger,<br />
centrally located biorefineries for further processing into<br />
transportation fuels and co-products.<br />
“All biomass-to-biofuels technologies are facing the<br />
same problems. So in addition to improving efficiency,<br />
our studies are seeking to produce more marketable coproducts<br />
to make the economics work,” Shahbazi says.<br />
IMPROVING EFFICIENCY<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>ers have been using heat and pressure<br />
to convert biomass into biofuels for decades, but few<br />
outside of A&T have studied its application to swine<br />
waste, with the notable exception of the <strong>University</strong> of<br />
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has made great<br />
strides in the technology in recent years.<br />
One of the chief advantages to thermochemical<br />
conversion is that the raw material does not have to<br />
undergo expensive drying in advance. Nevertheless, the<br />
process as it stands now still uses too much energy to<br />
make it economically feasible on a large scale, so Xiu is<br />
hoping to improve processes further for greater efficiency<br />
and to produce more marketable products.<br />
Here and now is a good time to be doing so, she<br />
says, given that <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> is second only to Iowa<br />
in hog production, with approximately 15 million tons of<br />
waste a year generated from 9.5 million pigs. Preventing<br />
hog waste from fouling ground and surface water<br />
continues to bedevil the industry. In order to make this<br />
manure into an economical feedstock for biorefining,<br />
however, the efficiency of converting it into bio-oil has to<br />
be improved. Xiu has achieved some success in this area<br />
by adding crude glycerin, which more than doubled the<br />
yield of bio-oil from hog waste alone. That was exciting,<br />
she says, because crude glycerin is a troublesome<br />
byproduct of the biodiesel industry, which has more of<br />
the stuff than it knows what to do with, and refining it<br />
into a marketable glycerin is very expensive.<br />
Xiu estimates that <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> could potentially<br />
produce 67.7 billion gallons of crude bio-oil per year,<br />
which is equivalent in volume to about 37 percent of<br />
U.S. crude oil imports. However, the heating value of the<br />
hog waste crude is lower than petroleum crude, so it is<br />
difficult at this stage to make an exact volume-to-volume<br />
comparison, she says.
CO-PRODUCTS FROM BIO-OIL<br />
Even more profitable potential locked away in<br />
hog waste came to light after Xiu and Shahbazi gave<br />
some samples to Dr. Ellie Fini in A&T’s Department of<br />
Civil Engineering.<br />
An expert on sustainable, alternative asphalts, Fini<br />
had approached Shahbazi soon after arriving at A&T in<br />
2008 from the <strong>University</strong> of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,<br />
where she had been re<strong>search</strong>ing sustainable adhesives.<br />
While there, Fini became acquainted with other re<strong>search</strong><br />
examining the potential of<br />
soybean meal and swine<br />
waste. She was interested in<br />
pursuing that line of re<strong>search</strong><br />
at A&T, and asked Shahbazi<br />
to connect her with a source<br />
of soybean meal.<br />
Shahbazi was surprised.<br />
Even if the technology could<br />
be developed, it might be hard<br />
to make the economics work,<br />
he told her.<br />
Shahbazi<br />
“I wouldn’t use soybean<br />
meal,” he said. “You need to find cheaper stuff.”<br />
He suggested trying the viscous residue left over<br />
from his ongoing hog-waste-to-fuel conversion re<strong>search</strong>.<br />
Fini agreed, and three years later, she has published<br />
significant data which indicates that this sticky, tarry<br />
byproduct – a substance that few re<strong>search</strong>ers had ever<br />
given much thought to – might well be more valuable<br />
than the biofuel itself.<br />
The result of her work is an effective bioasphalt,<br />
which has potential to replace or modify petroleum-based<br />
asphalt binders used in roads, or it could also be used in<br />
roofing shingles, carpeting and construction adhesives.<br />
Among the list of attributes Fini reports is that the<br />
manure-derived asphalt can withstand significantly lower<br />
temperatures with less cracking, that it’s easier to work<br />
with in lower temperatures and that it might be far less<br />
costly to produce than petroleum-based asphalt binders<br />
(at an estimated 54 cents a gallon, instead of $2). On<br />
top of that, the product also sequesters carbon, which<br />
is increasingly important in light of global warming and<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
climate change, and also in light of increasing emphasis<br />
on sustainability in government transportation agencies<br />
and industries. And, as if these attributes weren’t<br />
compelling enough to merit further re<strong>search</strong>, Fini also<br />
discovered that the byproduct of bioasphalt production<br />
contains simply a watery mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus<br />
and potassium that could be marketed as a spray<br />
fertilizer. Developing a bioasphalt along with biofuel and<br />
fertilizer makes the whole process economically viable,<br />
according to Fini.<br />
She, Xiu and Shahbazi aren’t the only ones<br />
excited about the prospects. Four National Science<br />
Foundation grants have been awarded to A&T to pursue<br />
the technology further. Two industry partners are<br />
collaborating, and the <strong>University</strong>’s Office of Technology<br />
Transfer is also interested in the commercial potential.<br />
“We have 4 million miles of highways in the<br />
country, and the maintenance costs are extremely<br />
expensive. Extending pavement service life by reducing<br />
the pavement cracking would be significant,” Fini said.<br />
“We have been looking for a sustainable replacement for<br />
petroleum-based asphalts for a long time.”<br />
Fini points out that the bioasphalt also has a<br />
potential role in transforming recycled roofing shingles<br />
and reclaimed asphalt pavements into new paving<br />
mixtures, which could be attractive to state departments<br />
of transportation that are using reclaimed paving.<br />
But perhaps the best opportunity lies in the<br />
potential to transform hog waste into a profitable revenue<br />
source while making highways safer and cheaper to<br />
maintain. If the re<strong>search</strong> pans out as hoped, a day<br />
might come when hog producers see their costly public<br />
relations and environmental headache become instead a<br />
hot commodity, as eagerly traded on Wall Street as pork<br />
bellies or heating oil.<br />
SHAHBAZI SUGGESTED<br />
TRYING THE RESIDUE LEFT OVER FROM<br />
HIS ONGOING HOG-WASTE-<br />
TO-FUEL CONVERSION<br />
RESEARCH. FINI AGREED, AND THREE<br />
YEARS LATER, SHE HAS PUBLISHED<br />
SIGNIFICANT DATA WHICH INDICATES THIS STICKY,<br />
TARRY BYPRODUCT MIGHT WELL BE<br />
MORE VALUABLE THAN THE BIOFUEL ITSELF.<br />
11
video www.ag.ncat.edu/re<strong>search</strong>/interviews/index.html<br />
<strong>Re</strong>: information jykenret@ncat.edu<br />
12<br />
Economics opportunity<br />
ALTHOUGH she’s barely out of her teens,<br />
Jazmine Bowser already has a pretty good idea of<br />
the kind of life she wants to make for herself. She<br />
sees herself working in a corporate environment,<br />
maybe as a financial advisor, maybe as a lawyer.<br />
She’d like to be well-off. She “definitely” has to<br />
live in a fast-paced city, she says with conviction.<br />
And that’s why she majored in agricultural<br />
economics at N.C. Agricultural and Technical<br />
<strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong>.<br />
“I wouldn’t know what to do with animals or<br />
crops,” Bowser says.<br />
Still, she has to constantly explain to<br />
family and friends who are thrown by the word<br />
“agricultural” that no, she does not intend to “go<br />
into farming,” as they assume must be the case.<br />
So she finds herself patiently explaining for<br />
the umpteenth time that agricultural economics<br />
is not a career path leading to bookkeeping<br />
UNDERGRADUATE<br />
RESEARCH SCHOLARS<br />
PROGRAM<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> scholar develops career focus while examining the economics of organic produce grown in NC.<br />
for a family farm. It is instead the application<br />
of statistics and mathematical models to the<br />
incredibly varied and valuable products of<br />
agriculture, whether they be fibers for clothing,<br />
materials for housing, ethanol for transportation,<br />
biomass for chemicals, commodities for export<br />
– or food for feeding hundreds of millions of<br />
Americans three times a day.<br />
“Everything comes from agriculture,”<br />
she says.<br />
Analyzing trends and making informed<br />
predictions are what appeal to her about<br />
economics, Bowser adds. The results can help<br />
businesses large and small make better decisions,<br />
and help inform government policy. But because<br />
the ag econ classroom examines real agribusiness<br />
commodities in the here and now, she has a<br />
better grasp of how economic models work in the<br />
real world.
All these lessons have come into stronger focus<br />
now that Bowser is studying the wholesale organic<br />
vegetable market in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>, as a participant in<br />
the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’<br />
new Undergraduate <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Scholars Program. Her<br />
original re<strong>search</strong> hypothesis has changed because<br />
of what she found out after analyzing agricultural<br />
databases and statistics.<br />
What she discovered, with the help of her faculty<br />
mentor Dr. Kenrette Jefferson-Moore, is that there is<br />
not yet an adequate variety of organic commodities<br />
sold in large enough numbers in the state for tracking<br />
trends or making any meaningful conclusions about<br />
production. That finding is already leading to new<br />
questions, and possibly a new direction for her<br />
re<strong>search</strong> project.<br />
“I’d like to know why sales are so low in <strong>North</strong><br />
<strong>Carolina</strong>; if it’s true that organic is a movement or a<br />
rising trend,” Bowser says. “What are the numbers in<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
Jefferson-Moore<br />
Jazmine Bowser, an<br />
agricultural economics major,<br />
examines an organically<br />
grown apple at a Greensboro<br />
grocery store during her<br />
re<strong>search</strong> project on the<br />
economics of organic produce<br />
grown in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>.<br />
other states? How do they compare?”<br />
Such is the dynamic nature of economics<br />
re<strong>search</strong>. Hypotheses and questions have to change<br />
in response to real-life evidence, not follow a preconceived<br />
idea or plan, she explains. But it’s OK that<br />
her project is changing, Bowser says, because, at the<br />
time she spoke for this article, she had more than a<br />
year ahead of her to refine the project. Spring 2012<br />
will see her making presentations at professional<br />
conferences, and finally, as she prepares to graduate,<br />
submitting an article to an academic journal in hopes<br />
of publication.<br />
The program is “a lot of hard work,” but worth it<br />
in the long run, she says.<br />
“When I get ready to apply to graduate school, I’ll<br />
already have a leg up because I’ll be more prepared,”<br />
she says. “You have to do re<strong>search</strong> in graduate school.<br />
I always think of the long-term benefits of taking<br />
advantage of the opportunities I’m given now.”<br />
13
14<br />
<strong>Re</strong>: information igoktepe@ncat.edu<br />
<strong>Re</strong>: information awoldegh@ncat.edu<br />
Essential re<strong>search</strong><br />
DON’T tell Kaya Feaster that<br />
academia has no relevance to the<br />
real world. Since experiencing a<br />
painful inflammatory ailment, her<br />
participation in the Undergraduate<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Scholars Program<br />
suddenly became very personal.<br />
“I realized medications had<br />
their limitations. I said, ‘There<br />
has to be a better way.’” That<br />
<strong>search</strong> for a better way led her<br />
to read everything she could<br />
about alternative treatments for<br />
inflammation, which, in turn, led<br />
her to take an interest in Dr. Ipek<br />
Goktepe’s re<strong>search</strong> on essential<br />
plant oils. As it happened, Goktepe<br />
was one of several faculty mentors<br />
in the School of Agriculture<br />
Exploring animal feed<br />
Enzymes coupled with high-fiber feed could improve animal health.<br />
ADRIENNE Goode, an animal sciences major and undergraduate<br />
re<strong>search</strong> scholar in A&T’s Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program, carefully<br />
measures a powdery brown substance into a vial, places it in a caddy with<br />
similar vials, and lowers the assembly into a mechanical feed digester.<br />
These are enzymes mixed with an experimental hog feed,<br />
she explains. And the reason she is studying them is that her<br />
faculty mentor, Dr. Abraham Woldeghebriel, earlier that year had<br />
discovered some interesting things about the experimental highfiber<br />
feed: Namely, that it promoted faster growth and more robust<br />
health than commercial hog rations. There was also evidence that<br />
it might have reduced the incidence of scouring (diarrhea) in pigs,<br />
which is a costly problem for the hog industry. But that raised the<br />
question of how to make the fiber more digestible. Enzymes could<br />
be the answer, she says.<br />
“We use this instrument to mimic what happens in the<br />
animal’s digestive tract,” Goode explains. “It’s one of the scientific<br />
techniques I’m learning here.”<br />
Information gleaned from the laboratory process can provide<br />
leads that will enable further studies on real animals, she says. After<br />
collecting data from the mechanical digester, Goode will next feed<br />
hogs at the <strong>University</strong> Farm and collect data there. Her re<strong>search</strong><br />
UNDERGRADUATE<br />
RESEARCH SCHOLARS<br />
PROGRAM<br />
Undergrad experiments with essential oils that may combat salmonella and other foodborne pathogens.<br />
and Environmental Sciences who had an opening in her lab for an<br />
undergraduate re<strong>search</strong> scholar.<br />
“Now I see how re<strong>search</strong> relates to my life,” Feaster said. “This is<br />
different experience from a lab in chemistry. Now I get to explore deeper.<br />
Here, you get to understand the whole procedure, why you’re doing this,<br />
and you get to see the results. You’re here all day.”<br />
Among the skills she’s learned are how to sterilize equipment in an<br />
autoclave, lab protocol and safety, and how to conduct a literature <strong>search</strong>,<br />
“because you need to know what other people have already done,” she<br />
explained. She’s also learned much about the care and feeding of bacteria.<br />
“You want to keep it growing, or you’ll have to order more and start<br />
over,” Feaster says. “It can really set you back.”<br />
One day during spring semester found her testing two plant oils for<br />
their action against E.coli, listeria and salmonella. It’s an experiment that<br />
will play a part in Goktepe’s re<strong>search</strong> project aimed at producing a wash<br />
for consumers and food handlers to use on fresh fruits and vegetables.<br />
The hope is that the produce wash will not only kill pathogenic microbes,<br />
but also promote better health. Such a product would represent an<br />
improvement over present washes that rely on chlorine to kill bacteria,<br />
observations will include growth rate<br />
comparisons, scouring incidence and<br />
the number of pathogenic organisms<br />
in the digestive tracts of animals<br />
fed the experimental feed and those<br />
fed conventional feed. Then, along<br />
with the other re<strong>search</strong> scholars, she<br />
will present her observations at a<br />
professional conference. Maybe one<br />
day, the findings could result<br />
in better feed and healthier animals<br />
for the benefit of the hog industry.<br />
After all, the feeds commonly used<br />
today were once the products of<br />
re<strong>search</strong> at a land-grant university<br />
or U.S. Department of Agriculture<br />
(USDA) laboratory.<br />
AIDING INDUSTRY<br />
Goode and Woldeghebriel<br />
are experimenting with enzymes
ut can leave toxic traces behind.<br />
Even more exciting to Goktepe and<br />
Feaster is a forthcoming exploration to<br />
determine if these same essential oils<br />
could be effective in combatting cancer.<br />
Goktepe has done preliminary studies<br />
that show the oils are effective against<br />
colon and breast cancer in test tubes,<br />
and she has received funding to pursue<br />
the work further. In her second year<br />
as a re<strong>search</strong> scholar, Feaster will run<br />
experiments with cancer cell lines. By<br />
her final semester, she will be prepared to<br />
publish and report her findings.<br />
“Undergraduate re<strong>search</strong> scholars<br />
are extremely valuable to the work we do<br />
here,” Goktepe said.<br />
provided by Dyadic International, an<br />
industrial enzymes manufacturer that<br />
maintains a re<strong>search</strong> and development<br />
lab in Greensboro. The enzymes are used<br />
to soften natural fiber fabrics, but after a<br />
company representative gave a presentation<br />
at A&T, Woldeghebriel got the idea to try<br />
it on his experimental, high-fiber feed, to<br />
see if it renders it more digestible. If so,<br />
it could open a new market for Dyadic,<br />
while also benefiting the pork industry with<br />
an improved, digestible, high-fiber feed,<br />
he says. That’s how re<strong>search</strong> progresses,<br />
with one idea building on another,<br />
Woldeghebriel adds.<br />
“I thought, well, if it works on cotton<br />
fibers, it might work on food fibers too,”<br />
he says.<br />
The impetus for his and Goode’s<br />
re<strong>search</strong> comes from the growing interest<br />
continued next page<br />
video www.ag.ncat.edu/re<strong>search</strong>/interviews/index.html<br />
Kaya Feaster, a food sciences major, measures a sample<br />
of essential oil for her food safety re<strong>search</strong> project.<br />
Animal sciences major Adrienne Goode prepares<br />
samples for a feed digester.<br />
Woldeghebriel<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
Goktepe<br />
15
16<br />
Exploring animal feed, cont.<br />
in antibiotic-free feed alternatives. For at least the<br />
past 40 years, animals raised in close confinement<br />
have been routinely fed small levels of antibiotics to<br />
keep disease down, and to promote rapid growth and<br />
efficient feed conversion. But public concerns about<br />
antibiotic-resistant pathogens are gradually putting<br />
a halt to the practice, and the livestock industry is<br />
looking to re<strong>search</strong>ers for alternatives that will keep<br />
feed prices low and production high. The addition<br />
of friendly bacteria known as probiotics has emerged<br />
as one of the most promising alternatives. High-fiber<br />
feed helps these bacteria flourish, which is where<br />
Woldeghebriel and Goode’s study comes in, and where<br />
enzymes also enter the picture. They could make the<br />
fiber more readily available during digestion.<br />
Dyadic currently manufactures enzymes for paper<br />
and textile industries, but is interested in the animal<br />
feed market as well, said Wes Lowry, applications lab<br />
manager for the company’s Greensboro office.<br />
“This is a nice little study,” he said. “We’re kind of<br />
new in the animal feed market, so the kind of work you<br />
(A&T) do there is really good for us.”<br />
RESEARCH JOURNEY<br />
Goode’s work, in many ways, illustrates the landgrant<br />
university mission to conduct re<strong>search</strong> for the benefit<br />
of agribusiness, which is a crucial sector of the U.S.<br />
economy. Without an affordable, safe and reliable food<br />
system, not much else can happen in a society. In fact,<br />
the enormous productivity of the world’s agriculture,<br />
and the abundance of affordable food that we take for<br />
granted today are largely owing to the re<strong>search</strong> that took<br />
place in the USDA-supported land-grant universities and<br />
agricultural re<strong>search</strong> stations over the past 150 years.<br />
But for Goode, the undergraduate re<strong>search</strong> journey<br />
today is as much about discovering her own abilities as it<br />
is about finding answers in animal sciences. She said the<br />
Undergraduate <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Scholars Program has provided<br />
a route toward realizing her long-term career goal of becoming<br />
a veterinarian. She’s glad she applied, and would<br />
recommend it to other students.<br />
“It’s exciting because it has helped me discover talents<br />
I didn’t know I had,” she says. Thanks to the new<br />
confidence she learned in the laboratory, she says her<br />
lifelong dream now appears within reach. By the end of<br />
her final semester, she had been accepted to Tuskegee<br />
<strong>University</strong>’s veterinary science program.<br />
“This has made me want to give 100 percent,”<br />
Goode says. “It makes me say, ‘Let me hurry up and<br />
finish school.’ I can’t wait.”<br />
UNDERGRADUATE<br />
RESEARCH SCHOLARS<br />
PROGRAM<br />
A dirty job<br />
Undergraduate re<strong>search</strong>er explores issues<br />
in soil science.<br />
IT’S 8 o’clock sharp on a cold Monday morning in<br />
January, and Jason Shelton is already in the lab and hard<br />
at work. He carefully lines up rows of numbered and<br />
labeled bottles – 57 in all – each one containing about<br />
a half teaspoon of soil, and awaiting an infusion of acid<br />
that will remove the carbohydrates so he can measure<br />
and study them further.<br />
Carbohydrates, he explains, are an important<br />
factor in gauging soil quality, because they serve as<br />
food for microorganisms. Those microorganisms then<br />
secrete sticky substances that stabilize soil, increase<br />
water retention and prevent erosion. In short, the more<br />
carbohydrates, the better the soil, says Shelton.<br />
“The soil in these bottles is about as low in quality<br />
as you can find anywhere,” Shelton says. “We wanted soil<br />
like this, so that we could see what happens when you<br />
improve it with organic matter from cover crops.”<br />
But there’s another purpose behind today’s<br />
experiment, he goes on to explain. It will provide data<br />
that will help answer whether or not a new field test kit<br />
is appropriate for measuring soil carbon. The Natural<br />
<strong>Re</strong>sources Conservation Service has asked soil scientists<br />
across the country to test it in their regions, and he is<br />
one of many re<strong>search</strong>ers now doing so.<br />
As one of the first Undergraduate <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong><br />
Scholars in the School of Agriculture and Environmental<br />
Sciences, Shelton will spend the better part of his final<br />
senior semester working on this independent re<strong>search</strong><br />
project. After collecting data, he’ll write up his findings<br />
and present them at a professional conference.<br />
“When he is finished, he will know more about<br />
this topic than me, or anyone,” says Dr. Charles<br />
Raczkowski, Shelton’s faculty mentor in the Department<br />
of Natural <strong>Re</strong>sources and Environmental Design. “He’ll<br />
be teaching me.”<br />
Raczkowski explains that the reason the quality of<br />
the soil in Shelton’s experiment is so low is that it has<br />
been growing annual crops of corn and soybeans, and<br />
subjected to intensive tillage with the plow and disc, at<br />
least twice a year for 30 years or more. In other words,<br />
it is all too typical of conventional, non-sustainable<br />
agriculture as it has been practiced in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong><br />
and around the world for hundreds of years. Soil from
fields subjected to such treatment is highly erodible,<br />
which is why soil re<strong>search</strong>ers everywhere are now hard<br />
at work experimenting with sustainable practices, such<br />
as no-till and cover crops. The field test kit Shelton is<br />
working on is just one piece of the puzzle.<br />
“This way, growers would know right away what they<br />
need to do to improve the soil,” Shelton says.<br />
And with time running out for many of the world’s<br />
soils, timely information is everything.<br />
Soil may seem to be as common as dirt, but in<br />
reality, it’s far more precious than gold. In fact, few<br />
would argue that this humble substance is the basis for<br />
all wealth on earth. And despite superficial appearances,<br />
soil is not as plentiful as it seems. Like fresh water and<br />
clean air, the soil we rely on for all our food is a finite,<br />
nonrenewable resource, and there’s not just more where<br />
that came from, unless you leave the ground fallow and<br />
wait around several thousand years – which is not an<br />
option in a world where population is expected to grow<br />
by 30 percent in the next 40 years, to 9.1 billion.<br />
Ten thousand years of human civilization’s plowing,<br />
overgrazing, clearcutting and other unsustainable<br />
practices have caused much of the world’s topsoil to<br />
wash away into oceans. In <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>, many areas<br />
in the mountains and Piedmont have seen significant<br />
erosion and in some places soil is only a foot deep. It’s<br />
only in recent decades that agriculturalists everywhere<br />
Jason Shelton, a soil science major,<br />
extracts a soil sample from a<br />
conventionally tilled field.<br />
Raczkowski<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
have begun to turn toward sustainable practices, such as<br />
no-till, cover crops and agroforestry, to increase organic<br />
matter. Such practices can slow the rates of erosion by<br />
building soil quality while rapidly improving crop yields at<br />
the same time. Soil scientists such as Shelton are now at<br />
the forefront of showing the world how best management<br />
practices such as these can benefit the planet as well as<br />
the people who inhabit it.<br />
For now, this young scientist is mostly concerned<br />
with finishing up his senior year and then going on for his<br />
master’s. Soil science is a great career because it offers<br />
the best of both worlds; it allows you to work outside, but<br />
also exercises your intellect, he says.<br />
His work as a re<strong>search</strong> scholar is a far different<br />
experience from lab courses in the standard curriculum,<br />
he continues. In labs, the task is already defined, the<br />
results are known and students simply repeat work<br />
that has been done before. <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> scholarship, on<br />
the other hand, is original exploration directed toward<br />
answering a real-world problem with new information<br />
and data. Advanced laboratory procedures, calculations,<br />
spreadsheets and the use of professional analytical<br />
instrumentation are all part of the picture.<br />
Challenging? Definitely. Worth it? Absolutely.<br />
“This has been an extremely valuable experience,”<br />
Shelton says.<br />
video www.ag.ncat.edu/re<strong>search</strong>/interviews/index.html<br />
<strong>Re</strong>: information raczkowc@ncat.edu<br />
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<strong>Re</strong>: information ahmedna@ncat.edu<br />
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HEALTH<br />
SCIENCE’S<br />
FRONTIER
Clockwise from top left: Green<br />
onions await testing in the Food<br />
Safety and Microbiology Lab; Dr.<br />
Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for<br />
functional foods, eyes a pile of<br />
raw ginger roots which contain<br />
cancer-fighting compounds;<br />
and Dr. Guibing Chen examines<br />
a sample of treated wheat<br />
bran fiber in the CEPHT food<br />
engineering lab.<br />
N<br />
N.C. A&T SCIENTISTS AT THE CENTER FOR<br />
utritional science is<br />
EXCELLENCE IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES<br />
entering a new era, and<br />
(CEPHT) AT THE NORTH CAROLINA RESEARCH<br />
the Center for Excellence<br />
CAMPUS ARE ENGAGED IN CUTTING-EDGE<br />
in Post-Harvest Technologies, which<br />
PROJECTS IN THEIR QUEST TO HARNESS THE began full operations in 2010, is at<br />
POWER IN FOOD FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH.<br />
the leading edge. Here, scientists<br />
are developing hypoallergenic foods,<br />
advanced packaging technologies,<br />
better approaches to food safety, and new natural products to prevent cancer, manage<br />
diabetes and curb obesity. It’s all thanks to the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Campus,<br />
where scientific expertise, sophisticated instruments, and a purposeful focus on<br />
commercializing technology converge to improve health, well-being and economic growth<br />
for the benefit of all. The Campus is a public-private partnership developed by David<br />
H. Murdock, owner of Dole Foods. Murdock’s vision, which he announced in 2007, is<br />
to create a world-class re<strong>search</strong> hub where collaborative science will lead the charge for<br />
great discoveries in nutrition, health and biotechnology.<br />
OF MICE AND MILK<br />
The history of nutritional science is fairly short but, with the aid of chemistry, has<br />
made significant advances. Back in the early 1900s, health re<strong>search</strong>ers generally believed<br />
that life processes required only four macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, fats and<br />
salts. Not coincidentally, deficiency diseases such as rickets, beriberi, pellagra and scurvy<br />
– diseases that are virtually unheard of in today’s vitamin-fortified world – were far more<br />
common. Bodies were smaller and life spans were shorter too. The first confirmation<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
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that there might be more to food<br />
than these four macronutrients<br />
occurred when chemists figured out<br />
a way to isolate them from milk.<br />
Nutritional scientists then were able<br />
to conduct dietary experiments on<br />
rodents. They observed that those<br />
that were fed diets composed solely<br />
of macronutrients died without fail.<br />
Clearly, they reasoned, there must<br />
be something else inside food that<br />
keeps animals alive. Along came other<br />
scientists reporting from Southeast<br />
Asia that people and animals there<br />
who consumed brown rice were less<br />
susceptible to beriberi, compared to<br />
those who ate only polished white<br />
rice. But it wasn’t until chemists<br />
isolated that vital compound in brown<br />
rice hulls that came to be known as<br />
“thiamine,” that the word “vitamin”<br />
was coined. The connection between<br />
diet and disease suddenly became<br />
clearer. Further re<strong>search</strong> found 13<br />
additional chemical compounds in<br />
foods that are essential for life processes. This is how things stood in<br />
nutrition for many years.<br />
Fast forward about 100 years. Now, thanks to sophisticated<br />
chromatography and magnetic imaging instruments such as nuclear<br />
magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which seem to become more<br />
powerful every year, science is able to dig deeper into the extraordinary<br />
complexity of food, revealing a new frontier in nutritional sciences.<br />
Scientists are now discovering that beyond vitamins lie phytochemicals,<br />
polysaccharides, flavonoids and thousands of other distinct compounds<br />
that have yet to be re<strong>search</strong>ed. Evidence is accumulating in medical and<br />
nutritional journals that many of these compounds have extraordinary<br />
disease prevention and even curative effects. Combine these findings<br />
with the emerging sciences of metabolomics, genomics and proteomics<br />
– all of which are subjects of re<strong>search</strong> at the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong><br />
Campus – and the Holy Grail of health science, the personalized<br />
medical and nutritional profile, is coming within reach. As these<br />
sciences advance so does the promise of longevity, optimal health, and<br />
peak physical and cognitive performance. <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>ers at the Campus<br />
predict that at the current pace of re<strong>search</strong>, personalized medicine<br />
and nutrition could start appearing on the scene in 10 years and be<br />
commonplace in 20.<br />
COLLABORATION IS KEY<br />
The full impact of CEPHT will be realized as projects with<br />
the other seven university partners at the Campus develop in years<br />
to come, says Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, CEPHT director and lead<br />
scientist for product development and consumer re<strong>search</strong>. For<br />
instance, plant breeding for health benefits is taking place at N.C.<br />
<strong>State</strong>’s labs, and studies on gene-nutrient interactions in those of<br />
UNC Chapel Hill’s. Meanwhile, UNC Charlotte is specializing in<br />
bioinformatics and N.C. Central in biomedical modeling. Sports<br />
nutrition is the province of Appalachian <strong>State</strong>, and bioactive<br />
compounds belong to UNC Greensboro, while Duke is delving into<br />
translational medicine.<br />
Food industries and agencies – including Dole Foods,<br />
Monsanto, General Mills and USDA – also have a high-visibility<br />
presence at the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Campus. Five buildings<br />
with 800,000 square feet house all these partners, as well as Rowan-<br />
Cabarrus Community College’s Biotechnology Training Center. Later<br />
this year, a building housing Cabarrus Health Alliance will open, and<br />
work will soon begin on a health care clinic. The pace of development<br />
has been “blazing fast,” says Clyde Higgs, vice-president of business<br />
development for the Campus, and the land-grant universities are<br />
integral to its success.<br />
“If you think about health re<strong>search</strong> as a continuum from farm to<br />
fork, obviously the land grant institutions of A&T and N.C. <strong>State</strong> play<br />
a big part, whether it’s Dr. [Mary Ann] Lila at N.C. <strong>State</strong> from a plants<br />
for human health perspective, or Dr. [Leonard] Williams at A&T, from a<br />
post-harvest perspective,” says Higgs.
CEPHT IN SERVICE<br />
As a key partner in this advanced<br />
R&D facility, <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> A&T’s<br />
Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest<br />
Technologies plays a pivotal role.<br />
Services for agribusiness combine<br />
with basic and applied re<strong>search</strong>. As<br />
scientists in other university labs<br />
develop new plant breeds, therapies<br />
or products for robust health,<br />
scientists with the CEPHT will be<br />
connecting with industry partners to<br />
develop technologies that will ensure<br />
these new plant-based products are<br />
stable, storable, standardized and<br />
safe. <strong>Re</strong>sources for industry include<br />
expertise and technology for all phases<br />
of product development, including<br />
analyzing, engineering and stabilizing<br />
foods and food components,<br />
developing packaging and processing<br />
technologies, food safety and<br />
consumer testing.<br />
“Our ultimate goal is new<br />
agricultural products and functional<br />
foods, grown and processed in <strong>North</strong><br />
<strong>Carolina</strong> for healthier individuals and<br />
a thriving economy,” says Ahmedna.<br />
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS AT THE CENTER FOR<br />
EXCELLENCE IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES<br />
* Post-Harvest Processing of Peanut and Wheat Products to<br />
<strong>Re</strong>duce Inherent Allergens, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna,<br />
USDA Agriculture and Food <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Initiative, $500,000<br />
* Program in Food and Bioprocess Technologies for Training<br />
of Future Minority Faculty, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, USDA<br />
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, $150,000<br />
* Food and Agricultural Byproduct-based Biochars for<br />
Enhanced Soil Fertility, Water Quality and Long-term<br />
Carbon Sequestration, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, USDA<br />
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, $300,000<br />
* Ginger Extract: Bioavailability Study and Lung Cancer<br />
Preventive Effect, Dr. Shengmin Sang, National Institutes<br />
of Health, $361,000<br />
* Dietary Flavonoids as <strong>Re</strong>active Carbonyl Scavengers to Prevent the Formation of<br />
Advanced Glycation End Products, Dr. Shengmin Sang, USDA Agriculture and Food<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Initiative, $143,000<br />
* Pterostilbene Aspirinate as a Novel Chemopreventive Agent for Colon Cancer,<br />
Dr. Shengmin Sang, <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> Biotechnology Center, $75,000<br />
* Building Capacity to Control Viral Foodborne Disease: A Translational,<br />
Multidisciplinary Approach, Dr. Leonard Williams, USDA National Institute of Food<br />
and Agriculture, $500,000<br />
* Nutritional Analysis of Dried Blend Products, Dr. Leonard Williams, PreGel<br />
AMERICA Inc., $16,000<br />
THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE<br />
IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES<br />
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<strong>Re</strong>: information llw@ncat.edu<br />
22<br />
ADVANCING<br />
FOOD SAFETY<br />
As scientists in CEPHT’s Food Safety and<br />
Microbiology Lab track, trace and prevent<br />
foodborne illness, they are beginning to<br />
influence trends in food safety.<br />
It’s a typical day in the Food Safety and<br />
Microbiology Lab at CEPHT. Bags<br />
of bright green cilantro swimming in<br />
nutrient broth are lined up on a counter next<br />
to stacks of petri dishes. In a refrigerator<br />
down the hall, boxes of spinach, alfalfa<br />
sprouts and green onions are waiting to take<br />
their turn on the lab bench.<br />
Lab technicians work quickly and<br />
quietly, extracting liquid samples and<br />
streaking the drops onto growth media in<br />
each dish. The dishes are stacked, loaded<br />
into an incubator, and fingers are mentally<br />
crossed. In the back of everyone’s mind is<br />
the hope that nothing will grow.<br />
Unfortunately, those hopes are<br />
occasionally dashed. Since the lab started<br />
operations in spring 2010, it has tested<br />
approximately 3,000 samples from produce<br />
grown north and south of the U.S. border<br />
with Mexico, and about 1 to 3 percent of<br />
those samples have come up positive for<br />
foodborne pathogens. That percentage is a<br />
little higher than the national average of .9<br />
percent per year.<br />
The extraction-incubator activity is<br />
“surveillance source tracking,” one of the<br />
many key strengths of the lab, explains Dr.<br />
Leonard Williams, lead scientist for food<br />
safety and microbiology at the CEPHT. Like<br />
forensic detectives, he and his technicians<br />
use the same molecular tools and techniques<br />
as those used in certified public health labs<br />
to find bad guys with names like “E. coli,”<br />
“salmonella,” “listeria” and “staphylococcus.”<br />
They hope their efforts will prevent a<br />
foodborne outbreak before it begins. If the<br />
samples test positive, the next step is to<br />
contact the distribution center where the<br />
food came from and inform the managers.<br />
And, because it is in everyone’s best interest<br />
to stop foodborne illness in its tracks, the<br />
common practice is for industry management<br />
to alert groceries, destroy the product, and<br />
make sure the farm where the sample came<br />
from is following what the industry refers<br />
to as GAP – Good Agricultural Practices.<br />
Next, the CEPHT lab conducts rapid<br />
DNA fingerprinting to enable tracking, in<br />
case the microbe’s fingerprint shows up<br />
again someplace else, or is implicated in a<br />
foodborne outbreak. Knowing the origin of a<br />
pathogen is the way to stop foodborne illness<br />
from spreading.<br />
Williams points to a petri dish where<br />
fuzzy gray spots are growing.<br />
“Here we have salmonella, from cilantro<br />
from a farm in Mexico,” he says.<br />
He points to a second dish. This one<br />
holds E. coli 0157:H7 from ready-to-eat<br />
spinach grown on a farm in California.<br />
A third harbors listeria, also from spinach<br />
from the same farm in California.<br />
Williams stresses that a healthy dose of<br />
caution – but not alarm – is in order here.<br />
Such results are rare, he says. Furthermore,<br />
it is impossible to eradicate all bacteria from<br />
foods that come out of soil. In addition, he<br />
emphasizes that conditions in transport,<br />
retail and home are not as conducive to<br />
making bacteria thrive and multiply as in<br />
a sophisticated laboratory such as this.<br />
“If there is just one bacterium in a<br />
sample, we’ll find it,” he says. “One organism<br />
is not going to be pathogenic to most people.”<br />
Nevertheless, these petri dishes,
although not reflections of real-world<br />
conditions, still hold an important<br />
message for consumers and industry:<br />
Consumers need to take food safety in the<br />
home more seriously nowadays, especially<br />
in homes with small children, the elderly<br />
or those whose immune systems are<br />
compromised. Industry, meanwhile,<br />
needs to remain vigilant, in light of an<br />
increasingly industrialized and centralized<br />
food system in which food from many<br />
sources gets mixed and mingled.<br />
Williams feels confident the nation’s<br />
food protection system is working, but he<br />
maintains that until deaths and illness from<br />
food poisoning fall to zero, there is always<br />
room for improvement and new strategies.<br />
“Bottom line, the message we want<br />
to drive home to consumers is they should<br />
wash their produce when they get it home,<br />
before they put it away,” he says. “What<br />
we’re recommending is, wash it in a capful<br />
of chlorine bleach in a sink full of water. It’s<br />
In both photos, food safety<br />
re<strong>search</strong>er Dr. Leonard Williams<br />
examines Petri dishes containing<br />
salmonella, listeria, E. coli and<br />
other foodborne pathogens.<br />
easy and everybody has bleach. Fill the sink up with water, gently agitate<br />
for a minute. Rinse the bleach water off, dry it and then put it away.”<br />
In addition to destroying pathogens, the practice will also<br />
destroy spoilage bacteria, and your produce will keep longer, he adds.<br />
Williams, along with other food safety experts, agrees that chlorine<br />
isn’t a perfect solution, but until better ones are developed – hopefully<br />
in his lab – it is the most cost-effective and convenient, especially for<br />
home use. He also advocates the same advice health care professionals<br />
give to sick and immune-compromised individuals: They should cook<br />
or at least steam blanch their food, especially fresh produce.<br />
“The food industry is very appreciative of what we do here,”<br />
Williams says.<br />
BASIC RESEARCH IN FOOD SAFETY<br />
Surveillance and source tracking for industry are just two of<br />
the many capabilities in the Food Safety and Microbiology Lab.<br />
Other services for industry include shelf-life stability and quality<br />
control, microbial risk assessment, analysis of GAP for farms, and<br />
finding new ways to process fresh produce to inactivate pathogens.<br />
All of these functions address practical and immediate concerns and<br />
needs of industry and consumers.<br />
In addition to educating, advocating and re<strong>search</strong>ing practical<br />
solutions – such as a project now under way to develop plant-based<br />
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IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES<br />
FOOD SAFETY AND MICROBIOLOGY LAB<br />
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24<br />
A stack of Petri dishes (above)<br />
ready for loading into an<br />
incubator. In the photo to the<br />
right, Shurrita Davis eyes a<br />
bacteria-laden sample.<br />
antimicrobial hand sanitizers – the lab is also intent on advancing basic<br />
re<strong>search</strong>. For instance, CEPHT’s capabilities and expertise in cell culturing<br />
using human and animal cell lines is expected to add new discoveries about<br />
how pathogens interact with hosts, as well as the complex mechanisms of<br />
pathogen metabolism and mutation.<br />
These are important areas for basic re<strong>search</strong>, because one unfortunate<br />
downside to developing antimicrobials is that bacteria and viruses have a<br />
remarkable ability to quickly adapt to whatever controls humankind throws at<br />
them, and there is little reason to believe that natural, plant-based antimicrobials<br />
will be any different, Williams says.<br />
“I’m not always the most popular guy in the room for pointing that out,”<br />
he chuckles.<br />
And so, as more functional foods emerge from other re<strong>search</strong> labs at<br />
CEPHT and the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Campus as a whole, Williams<br />
and his technicians will be examining how these new products might affect<br />
immunity to disease, or how they might prompt mutations in pathogens. The<br />
lab is also one of the few certified Biosafety Level 3 labs in the Southeast,<br />
which will enable it to conduct re<strong>search</strong> on biohazards and potential bioterrorism<br />
threats.<br />
In addition to basic and applied re<strong>search</strong>, Williams helps chart a<br />
course for new food safety practices and policies through his membership<br />
in the Fruits and Vegetables Task Force of the International Association of<br />
Food Protection, and the Produce Task Force of the N.C. Department of<br />
Agriculture and Consumer Services.<br />
ON THE CASE AGAINST NOROVIRUS<br />
CEPHT is already gaining a reputation in the safety arena. Because of<br />
its advanced capabilities in microbiology and its connections with industry,<br />
Williams’ food safety lab was recently named a partner, along with 10 other<br />
land-grant and medical universities and government partners, in a $25 million<br />
grant to investigate solutions to norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness<br />
in the United <strong>State</strong>s. The project is led by N.C. <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong> and receives<br />
funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food<br />
and Agriculture (NIFA).
Norovirus is rarely serious enough<br />
to cause fatalities, and most people shake<br />
off the upset stomach and diarrhea in a<br />
day or two. Nevertheless, the virus merits<br />
attention because it is highly contagious,<br />
very difficult to eradicate, and spreads<br />
quickly through hospitals and other<br />
public settings such as nursing homes,<br />
hospitals and cruise ships. Diligent hand<br />
washing is currently the best-known<br />
control strategy. The new collaborative<br />
re<strong>search</strong> team is hoping to add more<br />
powerful controls and surveillance<br />
technologies to the anti-norovirus arsenal.<br />
The CEPHT’s role in the project will be<br />
to develop plant-based antimicrobial food<br />
sprays, and to conduct tests in real-world<br />
industry settings of new procedures<br />
or products that emerge during the fiveyear<br />
project.<br />
INDUSTRIALIZATION OF FOOD<br />
It’s a new era in food safety, as an<br />
increasingly globalized and industrialized<br />
food system spawns the potential for<br />
more outbreaks of foodborne diseases<br />
over wider regions. But the good news is<br />
that although the number of outbreaks is<br />
increasing, the number of people actually<br />
falling sick appears to be decreasing;<br />
that is perhaps due to increasingly<br />
sophisticated surveillance and tracking.<br />
The Centers for Disease Control and<br />
Prevention reported in 2010 that each<br />
year, approximately 48 million people<br />
(one in six Americans) gets sick, 128,000<br />
are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from<br />
foodborne pathogens. That’s bad enough,<br />
to be sure – but far better than in 1999,<br />
when the same agency estimated the<br />
annual rates at approximately 76 million<br />
illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and<br />
5,000 deaths.<br />
Nevertheless, mostly because of<br />
improved surveillance such as the type<br />
performed each day at CEPHT, each<br />
year seems to bring higher numbers<br />
It’s a new era in<br />
food safety, as<br />
an increasingly<br />
globalized and<br />
industrialized food<br />
system spawns<br />
the potential for<br />
more outbreaks of<br />
foodborne diseases<br />
over wider regions.<br />
of recalls than the year before, spurring regulators and health<br />
agencies to stress vigilance at all levels – from farm, to distribution<br />
centers, to grocery stores, to the kitchen sink at home. Some of the<br />
improvements in surveillance include rapid DNA fingerprinting,<br />
improved food labeling with bar coding, and the CDC’s national<br />
database of pathogen DNA fingerprints known as PulseNet. Thanks<br />
to this system, outbreaks can be identified in a matter of days or<br />
even hours. Because of the national database, if the same DNA<br />
fingerprint shows up in different patients, it’s clear evidence that<br />
food from the same farm or food handler is the culprit, even if those<br />
patients are several states apart. Williams is working toward a day<br />
when CEPHT’s food safety lab will be government certified and part<br />
of the PulseNet system.<br />
CEPHT has the expertise, equipment and capability to<br />
do so, he says, but would first need to establish a long track<br />
record of reproducible, consistent results with thousands of samples<br />
over several years. For now, the lab is hoping to make its mark<br />
in new product development and studies on cutting-edge trends<br />
such as one that recently appeared in the scientific journal Food<br />
Protection Trends.<br />
That study, “Epidemiological Approaches to Food Safety,”<br />
concludes that Staphylococcus aureus appears to be the fourth<br />
leading cause of bacterial foodborne disease outbreaks. That’s new<br />
evidence in an increasing body of literature that suggests that staph<br />
might need to be more closely monitored in food than it ever has<br />
been in the past. And the study also offers new evidence that staph<br />
needs to be added to the nation’s food safety monitoring system<br />
“We’re hoping that public health agencies will increase<br />
surveillance on staphylococcus. It’s important they understand it’s a<br />
very common foodborne pathogen,” Williams says, adding, “We try<br />
to stay ahead of the trends, and even influence the trends.”<br />
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FOOD SAFETY AND MICROBIOLOGY LAB<br />
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<strong>Re</strong>: information ahmedna@ncat.edu<br />
26<br />
SAFER PEANUTS<br />
CLOSER AT HAND<br />
Hypoallergenic peanuts could be making a debut in a few years’ time<br />
thanks to USDA funding to conduct clinical trials, consumer testing and<br />
expand the project to include wheat allergens.<br />
Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna,<br />
a food chemist and lead<br />
scientist for product<br />
development and consumer<br />
re<strong>search</strong> at CEPHT, has been<br />
re<strong>search</strong>ing peanuts at N.C. A&T<br />
for several years, and has reported<br />
on several potential products that<br />
could be developed from them,<br />
including an infant formula, lowfat<br />
meat substitutes and powerful<br />
antioxidants from red peanut skins.<br />
His innovative post-harvest<br />
technology on reduced-allergen<br />
peanuts, however, has been the most<br />
promising. It generated interest<br />
in industry, media and allergy<br />
sufferers worldwide when A&T first<br />
announced it in 2007.<br />
Now, a $500,000 grant to the<br />
Center for Excellence in Post-<br />
Harvest Technologies (CEPHT)<br />
from the USDA is propelling the<br />
re<strong>search</strong> closer to commercialization<br />
by funding clinical trials, consumer<br />
testing, and an expansion of the<br />
project into preliminary re<strong>search</strong> into<br />
wheat allergens known as “gliadins.”<br />
“We are extremely pleased<br />
that we will be able to move this<br />
promising re<strong>search</strong> into clinical<br />
testing to confirm safety prior<br />
to commercialization of treated<br />
peanuts for the benefit of the many<br />
children and families who every<br />
day must deal with the stressful<br />
condition of peanut allergies,”<br />
Ahmedna says.<br />
Dr. Jianmei Yu prepares an ELISA assay to test peanut extracts for the presence of allergens.<br />
Ahmedna was originally attracted to peanut re<strong>search</strong> because of his<br />
expertise in value-added product development for crops important to <strong>North</strong><br />
<strong>Carolina</strong>. In addition to peanut products, he has also reported on processes<br />
for developing antioxidants from sweet potato skins, and activated carbon<br />
from pecan shells. “An important part of our mission here at the Center for<br />
Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies is to produce innovation that will<br />
drive economic development,” he said.<br />
LAB TESTS SHOW EFFECTIVENESS<br />
Ahmedna and Dr. Jianmei Yu, a re<strong>search</strong>er in A&T’s Food Sciences<br />
Program, reported on the process in the August 2011 issue of the journal<br />
Food Chemistry.<br />
The process involves treating blanched, whole roasted peanut kernels<br />
with two food-grade enzymes for 1 to 3 hours. <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>ers ground up the<br />
treated peanuts and produced crude extracts from the flour, which they
then exposed to antibodies sensitive to the two major allergens<br />
in peanuts, Ara h 1 and Ara h 2. The laboratory tests, known as<br />
ELISA assays, indicated a reduction of the two allergens to nondetectable<br />
levels. Because the two allergens they tested for are<br />
implicated in most peanut allergies, they served as indicators of<br />
the treatment’s effectiveness.<br />
“While these are good indicators of effectiveness, it does not<br />
automatically mean you will get the same efficacy in humans that you<br />
see in the lab. It’s important to confirm those effects in clinical tests,”<br />
Ahmedna says.<br />
Thanks to USDA funding, that next logical step can be<br />
undertaken, in addition to the almost equally important step of<br />
determining consumer acceptability of the treated product.<br />
CLINICAL TRIALS<br />
If you had to choose just one food to keep you alive on a desert<br />
island, you would be hard pressed to find anything better than<br />
peanuts. Packed with proteins, healthful fats, carbohydrates, vitamins<br />
and minerals, they are almost a nutritionally complete food. But in<br />
one of nature’s cruel twists, this almost perfect food is also lifethreatening<br />
to growing numbers of children in industrialized nations.<br />
The reasons are still not clearly understood, although evidence is<br />
emerging that roasting increases the allergenicity.<br />
“Food allergies and peanut allergies in particular have<br />
increased remarkably in the past decade,” says Dr. David Peden of the<br />
<strong>University</strong> of <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who<br />
is leading the team conducting the clinical trials.<br />
Allergies occur when the immune system mistakes certain proteins<br />
in foods as foes instead of friends, thus activating histamine release in the<br />
bloodstream and kicking the inflammatory response into overdrive. The<br />
result can be itching and rashes in mild allergic responses, or, in severe<br />
cases, difficulty breathing and anaphylactic shock requiring emergency<br />
medical care. Of all food allergies, Peden says, a peanut allergy is<br />
especially troublesome because, while children often outgrow allergies<br />
to other foods, in most cases they retain their sensitivity to peanuts<br />
throughout life, particularly if they were exposed early in life.<br />
Before testing the peanut extracts on humans, he and his<br />
team will conduct histamine release tests using blood samples from<br />
peanut-allergic individuals. Only samples of peanut extracts that show<br />
complete inactivation of allergens in these tests will then be used in<br />
skin-prick tests on volunteers.<br />
“It’s a pretty safe test and biologically valid, but not as dangerous as<br />
ingesting,” Peden said.<br />
Avoiding peanuts is very difficult because they are so nutritious,<br />
delicious and versatile that whole kernels and their derivatives, such as<br />
peanut flour and oil, are favored ingredients in many processed foods.<br />
About 75 percent of all exposures to peanuts by allergy sufferers occur<br />
by accident.<br />
“Our hope is that this will help food industry and individuals by<br />
reducing the risk of accidental exposure,” says Yu.<br />
Ahmedna<br />
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT<br />
If people do show sensitivity to<br />
the product, Ahmedna said, the project<br />
will still forge on, because there is<br />
plenty of room to modify the process to<br />
reduce allergens even more. If results<br />
from the clinical trials are favorable,<br />
re<strong>search</strong>ers will proceed to consumer<br />
testing at A&T’s state-of-the-art sensory<br />
testing lab at its Greensboro campus.<br />
Several food industries indicated<br />
strong interest in licensing the patentpending<br />
process when A&T announced<br />
the preliminary findings in 2007, but<br />
are waiting to see results from clinical<br />
trials first, says Wayne Szafranski,<br />
A&T’s assistant vice chancellor for<br />
outreach and economic development.<br />
He adds that the project has the<br />
potential to add considerable value to<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>’s $74 billion agriculture<br />
industry. The Tarheel state is the<br />
nation’s fifth largest peanut producer<br />
with 86,000 acres planted in 2010, and<br />
peanut farmers returned $58 million to<br />
the state in 2010.<br />
Szafranski and Ahmedna anticipate<br />
that the move to commercialization<br />
could happen relatively quickly<br />
if the clinical hurdle is surmounted,<br />
because the process itself is affordable<br />
and could easily be incorporated into<br />
existing food processing lines.<br />
If all goes as hoped, the process<br />
is expected to be a boon to food<br />
industries, which must take pains to<br />
track and label for peanuts. For them,<br />
as well as allergy sufferers worldwide,<br />
relief could be in sight in the future.<br />
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28<br />
Biochar from<br />
cotton gin residue<br />
F<br />
ew people outside of agricultural and environmental communities<br />
have heard much about the fine-grained charcoal known as<br />
“biochar” – a substance similar to the activated carbon found in any<br />
kitchen countertop water filter.<br />
But despite its relative obscurity to the general public, this humble<br />
material – old as fire itself – is making waves in agricultural re<strong>search</strong> worldwide.<br />
Scientists around the globe are<br />
beginning to report on the potential in<br />
biochar to address some of the world’s<br />
most urgent problems, from world<br />
hunger to water pollution, and even<br />
global warming and climate change.<br />
Biochar, or “agrichar” as it is<br />
known when used in agriculture<br />
as a soil amendment, is a finegrained,<br />
highly porous charcoal that<br />
is produced through a simple and<br />
well-established technology known as<br />
pyrolysis. In this process, carbon-rich<br />
plant materials are cooked at high<br />
temperatures in oxygen-free chambers<br />
– a procedure similar in principle<br />
to the traditional practice of making<br />
charcoal in smoldering earth-covered<br />
wood piles or pits. In pyrolysis, however,<br />
the temperature and atmosphere<br />
are controlled, which means biochar<br />
can be produced from any soft or hard<br />
carbon-based material, from chunks<br />
of wood to piles of grass. It yields bits<br />
of pure, stable carbon in volumes<br />
BIOCHAR<br />
BY DESIGN<br />
CEPHT scientists<br />
bring expertise in<br />
value-added product<br />
development to the<br />
study of biochar.<br />
from 20 to 70 percent of the original<br />
mass. Another advantage of biochar<br />
production is that volatile gases from<br />
the cooking process can be used as<br />
a carbon-neutral source of heat that<br />
can either be cycled back to fuel the<br />
process or used for other operations.<br />
The process also can be modified<br />
by introducing steam or gases to the<br />
cooking chamber, thereby producing<br />
so-called “designer” carbon that has<br />
different physical and chemical properties<br />
for specific purposes, from activated<br />
carbon water or air filters used<br />
in industry and consumer products,<br />
to various soil amendments. There<br />
is much room for re<strong>search</strong> to come<br />
up with new processes for specific<br />
applications, which is where CEPHT<br />
enters the picture.<br />
DESIGNER BIOCHARS<br />
Supported by a grant from<br />
USDA, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna,<br />
CEPHT director and lead scientist for<br />
consumer re<strong>search</strong> and product development,<br />
will bring his experience<br />
in value-added re<strong>search</strong> and pyrolysis<br />
technology to developing designer<br />
biochars for agricultural uses. In<br />
the past, Ahmedna has re<strong>search</strong>ed<br />
ways to make activated carbon from<br />
sugarcane bagasse, pecan shells,<br />
and rice straw and hulls for various<br />
uses – from whitening of raw sugar to<br />
removal of harmful chemicals from<br />
drinking water. Now he will be exploring<br />
ways to make biochar from similar<br />
materials for soil quality.<br />
“We want to study what are the<br />
best conditions to produce a carbon<br />
that is most useful in addressing specific<br />
chemical and functional needs in<br />
soil,” Ahmedna said.<br />
Some areas of exploration<br />
include developing biochars that<br />
can adjust soil pH, enhance water<br />
retention capacity, and improve<br />
soil stability. The latter is especially<br />
important in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> and<br />
the Southeast, where soils are highly<br />
erodible. Ahmedna and his team will<br />
be collaborating with re<strong>search</strong>ers<br />
at the USDA Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong><br />
Service’s Coastal Plains Soil, Water,<br />
and Plant <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Center in South<br />
<strong>Carolina</strong>, experimenting with hard<br />
and soft feedstocks such as pecan<br />
shells, peanut shells and switchgrass.<br />
The latter, while not a byproduct per<br />
se, is appropriate for biochar re<strong>search</strong><br />
because it can be produced in high<br />
volume on marginal lands unsuitable<br />
for other uses.<br />
Biochar serves as an ideal<br />
subject for value-added product development,<br />
Ahmedna says, because<br />
it can be made from agricultural and<br />
food processing waste or byproducts,<br />
and thus could transform what is<br />
now a costly disposal problem for<br />
industry into a valuable commodity.<br />
The work is but one example of the<br />
increasingly holistic and interdisciplinary<br />
emphasis occurring in today’s<br />
agricultural sciences. This systems<br />
approach is producing synergies by
discovering, through agricultural and<br />
life-sciences re<strong>search</strong>, how all parts<br />
of the natural world connect to the<br />
whole ecosystem. The result is new<br />
sustainable industries with potential<br />
to expand the economy and improve<br />
well-being for people and planet.<br />
“This nonfood product development<br />
option complements other uses<br />
of food and agricultural byproducts<br />
in foods and feeds, and adopts the<br />
total system approach for sustainable<br />
agriculture,” Ahmedna says.<br />
BIOCHAR IN HISTORY<br />
The idea of using charcoal<br />
as a soil amendment attracted the<br />
attention of the world’s scientific<br />
community about 10 years ago, when<br />
soil scientists began writing about the<br />
ancient and remarkably productive<br />
manmade soil in the Amazon known<br />
as terra preta, or dark earth. Although<br />
many mysteries still surround exactly<br />
how ancient civilizations created<br />
terra preta, what is known is that<br />
charcoal was one of its most important<br />
ingredients.<br />
Today, 500 years after those civilizations<br />
vanished, the carbon in terra<br />
preta remains stable and intact, and<br />
the soils remain some of the world’s<br />
most productive, lending support to<br />
the belief that biochar for agriculture<br />
could prove useful in sequestering<br />
atmospheric carbon, while also<br />
improving agricultural productivity.<br />
Interest in biochar has since been accelerating.<br />
Governments are funding<br />
re<strong>search</strong>; journal articles and even<br />
textbooks are written on the subject,<br />
and international biochar conferences<br />
are held to share findings. Both<br />
New Zealand and the United Kingdom<br />
have re<strong>search</strong> centers dedicated<br />
solely to biochar re<strong>search</strong>.<br />
CLIMATE CONNECTION<br />
In order to understand how<br />
biochar could theoretically mitigate<br />
global warming and climate change,<br />
we have to recall the basic principles<br />
of nature’s carbon cycle from our school years. As we learned then, all<br />
plants take in atmospheric carbon as they grow and respire, and then<br />
return that carbon to the atmosphere after they die and decay or are<br />
burned. Now, due to increasing use of fossil fuels, plant carbon that<br />
was sequestered for millions of years underground is being released at a<br />
higher rate than present-day plant life on earth can absorb. The result is<br />
an excess of atmospheric carbon, a greenhouse gas that traps the sun’s<br />
heat, causing global warming and a resulting shift in ocean temperatures<br />
and currents that are contributing to climate change.<br />
Now that the tipping point that scientists warned the world<br />
about for the past 30 years has been reached, the impact is becoming<br />
more evident every year. Deadly weather extremes are worsening.<br />
The world is experiencing increased heat and more droughts in the<br />
growing seasons, and more severe cold in winters. Evidence points<br />
to widespread droughts, famines, diseases, water shortages and crop<br />
failures that show signs of accelerating over the next 100 years, unless<br />
humankind discovers the will or the way to slow or reverse the trend.<br />
Because pyrolysis locks plant carbon in a very stable form, biochar<br />
production is one of the few known technologies that is carbon negative,<br />
which, by itself, makes it worth heightened attention. Add to<br />
that characteristic the potential to expand the global economy, and it’s<br />
easy to see why scientists and governments worldwide are increasingly<br />
interested in re<strong>search</strong>ing it. If produced on a massive enough scale<br />
worldwide, biochar could, in theory, serve as an economically productive<br />
carbon sink.<br />
Because of their expertise in agricultural systems, USDA and the<br />
nation’s land grant universities are better suited than any other public<br />
or private re<strong>search</strong> entity anywhere to address global climate change<br />
and other monumental challenges facing the 21st century. Meanwhile,<br />
funding agencies and the private sector are directing more and<br />
more resources toward the green industries of the future that will<br />
provide answers.<br />
KNOWLEDGE GAPS<br />
It has long been known that carbon can improve soil quality, and<br />
growers are constantly seeking new and better ways to get more of it<br />
into their soils, from composting, to cover crops, and now, through<br />
incorporating biochar in fields. In preliminary studies from around the<br />
world, scientists are beginning to report that biochar can significantly,<br />
even dramatically, improve crop yields. Still, many questions remain.<br />
Despite promising new data and observations about terra preta,<br />
the science of biochar is still new, and little is known about exactly<br />
how the substance would function in different soils and climates<br />
over the short- and long-term. Will the productivity be as dramatic in<br />
soils that are chemically and biologically different from those in the<br />
Amazon? Will the microbial activity be different? Could carbon from<br />
biochar-treated soils cumulatively release into the atmosphere years<br />
down the road, inflicting on the world a rapid surge of greenhouse<br />
gases? Questions such as these underscore the need for re<strong>search</strong>,<br />
Ahmedna says.<br />
“This is a really new area for agricultural science and something<br />
we don’t have all the answers for yet.”<br />
THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE<br />
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<strong>Re</strong>: information gchen@ncat.edu<br />
30<br />
Most consumers<br />
nowadays know that<br />
dietary fiber is good<br />
for them, and food<br />
industries are doing their best to<br />
put more of the stuff in everything<br />
from snack crackers to breakfast<br />
cereals. But getting people past the<br />
unpleasant gritty texture continues<br />
to be a marketing and consumeracceptance<br />
hurdle.<br />
The goal of getting the right<br />
amounts of fiber – amounts that<br />
deliver health benefits that at the<br />
same time aren’t detectable to<br />
the palate – in breads, breakfast<br />
cereals and other baked goods has<br />
stumped the food industry for years,<br />
and prompted food engineers to<br />
experiment with a dizzying array of<br />
modification technologies. They’ve<br />
treated food fibers with acids and<br />
alkalis. They’ve exposed them to<br />
enzymes or sodium hydroxide.<br />
They’ve heated them up, then<br />
crammed them through extruders or<br />
crushed them with ultrafine grinders,<br />
all with varying degrees of success.<br />
Dr. Guibing Chen, lead<br />
scientist of the Food Engineering,<br />
Processing and Packaging Lab<br />
at the Center for Excellence in<br />
Post-Harvest Technologies, thinks<br />
a better answer for the future could<br />
lie in some of the new tools that are<br />
now being used in nanotechnology.<br />
The technique he is experimenting<br />
with, known as microfluidization,<br />
forces streams of particles in a liquid<br />
suspension at jet propulsion speeds<br />
through a tube about 100 microns<br />
in diameter – about the diameter<br />
of a human hair. When it emerges,<br />
the material experiences a sudden<br />
pressure drop and produces minute<br />
particles that, while quite a bit bigger<br />
than nanoparticles, are tiny enough<br />
to be undetectable in foods.<br />
“This is a very new technology<br />
for food, and one that we think will<br />
deliver more fiber-enriched products<br />
to consumers,” Chen says.<br />
Fiber deserves this much<br />
attention because the welldocumented<br />
health benefits include<br />
reducing cholesterol and lowering<br />
the risks of diabetes and coronary<br />
heart disease. In fact, the American<br />
Heart Association recommends<br />
adults eat 25 grams of fiber per day.<br />
Unfortunately, most people choose<br />
foods based on taste and texture,<br />
and for 100 years or more, food<br />
processors have been responding<br />
to consumer preferences for<br />
MICRO-TECHNOLOGIES<br />
Engineering lab improves food quality<br />
with microfluidization.<br />
smoother textured white rice and<br />
white bread, thereby removing all<br />
or most of the outer bran layers<br />
of grains. Many of the B vitamins<br />
and minerals are contained in this<br />
outer layer. Considering that a cup<br />
of brown rice contains just 3.5<br />
grams of fiber, it’s easy to see why<br />
most Americans get only about<br />
half the recommended amount<br />
in a typical day. Food industries<br />
strive to add more, but for most<br />
people, high fiber products are<br />
just too unpleasant, no matter how<br />
much food processors endeavor to<br />
compensate with flavorings, sugar<br />
or salt.<br />
“The reason is that raw fiber<br />
is poorly compatible with food<br />
matrices,” Chen says. For example,<br />
he explains, bran fibers break apart<br />
the stretchy gluten proteins that<br />
make bread rise, thus rendering<br />
whole wheat bread denser than<br />
white bread. Microfluidization<br />
alters the chemical and physical<br />
properties of fibers, minimizing their<br />
negative effects and, Chen believes,<br />
providing a bonus in the form of<br />
better health benefits.<br />
Some preliminary studies in his<br />
lab showed that treated wheat bran<br />
had more than three times the total<br />
antioxidant activity of untreated<br />
bran. Chen thinks that ratio is due<br />
to the increased accessibility of the<br />
antioxidant compounds that are<br />
originally bound tightly to the bran<br />
fiber matrix. Now he’s hoping to test<br />
the effects in animal models and<br />
develop high-fiber food products<br />
by working with food chemists and<br />
product development re<strong>search</strong>ers at<br />
the Center.
FOR MAXIMUM<br />
HEALTH<br />
COMMERCIAL HURDLES<br />
Palatable fiber is just one of the capabilities of CEPHT’s Food<br />
Engineering, Processing and Packaging Lab. Its focus is on using modern<br />
tools of food engineering to make good on the Center’s overarching mission<br />
of making healthier food products commercially viable. And so, while<br />
scientists in the Functional Food Lab are finding new ways of purifying<br />
the health-promoting phytochemicals in plants or new plant-based antimicrobial<br />
food sanitizers, or developing hypoallergenic peanuts, they are<br />
creating new challenges in food engineering – namely, how to stabilize<br />
these new products so they will withstand the rigors of processing,<br />
transport and storage.<br />
That is where Chen’s food engineering lab enters the picture and where<br />
yet another micro-technology is coming into play. Chen is now experimenting<br />
with a technology known as microencapsulation, to find out if the technology<br />
can stabilize the fragile compounds that are under development in Dr.<br />
Guibing Sang’s Functional Foods Lab and in Dr. Leonard Williams’ Food<br />
Safety and Microbiology Lab. Microcapsules are edible sugar containers, a<br />
fraction of the width of a human hair, that are undetectable in food. They<br />
encase and stabilize any liquid active ingredient that would otherwise degrade<br />
very quickly. They can also be engineered for slow or timed release, which is<br />
Dr. Guibing Chen,<br />
lead scientist for food<br />
engineering, selects a<br />
chemical used in his<br />
wheat bran re<strong>search</strong>.<br />
expected to be especially helpful in<br />
the Food Safety and Microbiology<br />
Lab’s work on plant-based<br />
antimicrobial food sprays.<br />
Chen’s food engineering lab<br />
also has capabilities to develop<br />
other advanced packaging<br />
technologies for industry, including<br />
modified atmosphere packaging.<br />
The lab also conducts mathematical<br />
modeling and food analysis for<br />
industries, as well as re<strong>search</strong><br />
and development in the areas of<br />
retort sterilization of canned foods,<br />
ultrasound processing, freeze<br />
drying, extrusion and many other<br />
processing technologies.<br />
As the Center continues to<br />
make new discoveries, collaboration<br />
and industry partnerships will be<br />
critical to delivering on the mission<br />
of solving human health problems<br />
for the benefit of consumers,<br />
agribusiness and the economy, say<br />
Chen and the other lead scientists<br />
at the Center.<br />
“Our role as food engineers<br />
is not only basic re<strong>search</strong>,” Chen<br />
says. “We do more applied<br />
re<strong>search</strong> with the purpose of<br />
commercializing products for the<br />
benefit of human health.”<br />
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31
<strong>Re</strong>: information ssang@ncat.edu FUNCTIONAL<br />
32<br />
FOODS<br />
FOR DISEASE PREVENTION<br />
Natural plant compounds<br />
show promise in managing and<br />
preventing disease.<br />
They say the best cure is prevention. If re<strong>search</strong> at the Center<br />
for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies (CEPHT) pans<br />
out, and if industry takes an interest in developing new<br />
products from its discoveries, compounds isolated from ginger, wheat<br />
bran, tea, and other common foods could one day prevent disease<br />
with minimal or no side effects.<br />
Dr. Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for functional foods at<br />
CEPHT, is particularly optimistic about the potential of ginger,<br />
wheat bran and soy to counter two of society’s worst health scourges:<br />
cancer and diabetes.<br />
GINGER AND CANCER<br />
A pungent, underground rhizome that is used either fresh or dried<br />
as a spice, ginger is usually associated with Asian cuisine or baked<br />
goods, and ginger ale has long been recognized as an effective home<br />
remedy for nausea. Now, studies worldwide are beginning to show<br />
it also strongly inhibits many cancers, including some of the worst:<br />
ovarian, pancreatic and, as Sang has discovered, lung cancer cells.<br />
While findings in laboratories are already offering compelling<br />
evidence that suggests people could benefit by making ginger a<br />
regular part of their diets, the real power of the spice will come from<br />
isolating the compounds that confer the most health benefits and<br />
using them in functional foods, supplements, or as base chemicals<br />
in pharmaceuticals. That’s where post-harvest technology and Sang’s<br />
Functional Foods Lab enter the picture.<br />
Prior to Sang’s work, re<strong>search</strong>ers have been mainly interested in<br />
the gingerol compounds in the spice for their strong anti-inflammatory<br />
and immune stimulating properties. But Sang has moved well beyond<br />
gingerols, turning his focus on a less prevalent, but potentially more<br />
active compound in ginger known as shogaol, a compound formed<br />
when the spice is heated or dried. Little had been known about it<br />
because purifying large enough quantities for further study had always<br />
been a challenge. In 2009, Sang developed a method to do so. Now,<br />
having surmounted that challenge, he is making discoveries that could<br />
bring even more attention to ginger.<br />
“Very few people have looked at shogaols,” he said.<br />
<strong>Re</strong>cently, with re<strong>search</strong> made possible with National Institutes<br />
of Health funding, Sang discovered that shogaols kill lung cancer<br />
cells in-vitro (in test tubes). Encouraged<br />
by those findings, he is now developing a<br />
process to synthesize it so he can make<br />
it in larger quantities for further tests in<br />
CEPHT’s tissue culture lab, and then in<br />
animal models.<br />
Sang has also discovered a novel<br />
compound in wheat bran that inhibits<br />
colon cancer. That’s further evidence<br />
of an emerging theory that it is the<br />
phytochemicals in fiber, instead or in<br />
addition to the physical properties of<br />
fiber, that confer the anti-cancer effects.<br />
His discovery was made possible by<br />
powerful nuclear magnetic resonance<br />
(NMR) spectroscopy at the David<br />
Murdock <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Institute in the<br />
Campus’s core lab – not to mention<br />
Sang’s own ability to decipher the 50-plus<br />
pages of data that the instrument yielded.<br />
“It’s hard work, but for me, it’s fun<br />
to figure out these chemical structures,”<br />
he says.<br />
Sang’s activity on this front<br />
illustrates the extraordinary and rare<br />
combination of synergies available at<br />
the Center. He and other scientists at<br />
CEPHT not only have strong chemistry<br />
backgrounds, but also strong biological,<br />
engineering and even business expertise.<br />
This combination of talents, together<br />
with ready access to every advanced<br />
tool available to food science, will<br />
make it possible for them to make<br />
rapid progress in taking re<strong>search</strong> from<br />
start to finish. CEPHT’s capabilities<br />
include isolating, characterizing and<br />
purifying active compounds from raw<br />
foods, confirming health and safety<br />
effects using animal models, developing<br />
packaging and processing technologies,<br />
conducting consumer testing, and<br />
working with industry to commercialize<br />
innovations so consumers can reap the<br />
benefits. Depending on the product,<br />
clinical trials and Food and Drug<br />
Administration approvals could come<br />
into the picture. Partnerships available<br />
at the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Campus<br />
provide additional synergies that enable<br />
expansion beyond CEPHT expertise.
“The Campus integrates basic<br />
and applied re<strong>search</strong> and product<br />
development dedicated to the nexus of<br />
agricultural products and human health,<br />
bringing public and private institutions<br />
under the same roof. You don’t see that<br />
often in science,” says Dr. Mohamed<br />
Ahmedna, director of CEPHT and lead<br />
scientist for product development and<br />
consumer testing.<br />
TACKLING DIABETES<br />
Chefs call a certain process that takes<br />
place in cooking the “Maillard <strong>Re</strong>action.”<br />
We have it to thank for the golden crust<br />
on fresh-baked bread, and the delectable<br />
brown glaze that forms on the outside of<br />
meat as it grills. Chemically speaking,<br />
it’s what happens when sugar and amino<br />
acid proteins in foods combine under<br />
the intense heat of cooking. Much of the<br />
pleasure we all derive from eating just<br />
wouldn’t be the same without it.<br />
But alas, as with so many savory<br />
enjoyments in life, there’s a downside.<br />
Chemical products of the reaction are not<br />
healthful, and something very similar to<br />
this reaction in the kitchen also occurs in<br />
the human body. This is especially so in<br />
people with high blood sugar and diabetes.<br />
The reaction of sugar with proteins in blood<br />
creates so-called “advanced glycation end<br />
products” or AGEs, which are the real<br />
culprits in diabetes. It is these chemical<br />
end products that are responsible for the<br />
retinopathy, kidney failures and circulatory<br />
system problems that make diabetes such a<br />
devastating condition.<br />
Sang has isolated, characterized and<br />
purified flavonoid compounds in soy, tea,<br />
apples and onions that can trap these<br />
harmful end products in the bloodstream.<br />
It doesn’t mean a cure, but it could present<br />
an opportunity for managing diabetes,<br />
Sang says. Encouraged by test tube results,<br />
his next plan is to move the re<strong>search</strong> into<br />
animal testing.<br />
“Our strategy is to prevent the<br />
formation of these compounds and<br />
therefore delay or prevent diabetic<br />
complications,” he says.<br />
Dr. Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for functional foods, holds a flask of ginger extract.<br />
The compound above is one of 14 chemicals that Dr. Sang purified from wheat bran,<br />
and found to inhibit colon cancer cells in lab tests.<br />
THE FUTURE OF PERSONALIZED NUTRITION<br />
The combination of biological and chemical expertise at CEPHT is<br />
one reason Sang’s ultimate goal – the personalized nutrition profile – is no<br />
pipe dream. Until recently, the best tools science had for understanding the<br />
connection between diet and disease were epidemiological studies. Such<br />
studies are notoriously inaccurate because they involve interviews with<br />
many thousands of people over many years about what they eat, how much<br />
and how often. Accuracy depends on how well people recall, how truthful<br />
they are, and how good they are at estimating portion size. Those results<br />
are then correlated with incidence of disease across the same population.<br />
Such studies have always been acknowledged as imperfect tools, but the<br />
best available. Until now. Advances in science now make it possible to test<br />
body fluids to determine metabolic activity. This yields more solid, scientific<br />
evidence of what was eaten and when. As that information accumulates and<br />
is sorted with databases containing genetic information, the potential for<br />
individualized nutrition will be possible.<br />
“A doctor or nutritionist would be able to tell you what to eat, and<br />
what to avoid in order to prevent disease based on your genetic profile,”<br />
Sang says.<br />
Medical scientists elsewhere at the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong> <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong><br />
Campus are combining genomics, proteomics and metabolomics in hopes<br />
of developing personalized medical treatments. Scientists at CEPHT and<br />
the Campus say at current rates of progress, personalized nutrition and<br />
medicine might debut in 10 years.<br />
Meanwhile, Sang keeps his focus on the present; his hopes on<br />
the future.<br />
“Our mission,” Sang says, “is the mission of the campus: to develop<br />
functional food for disease prevention and personalized nutrition.”<br />
THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE<br />
IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES<br />
FUNCTIONAL FOODS LAB<br />
17 33
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uilding Capacity<br />
<strong>Re</strong>: information sjhymonp@ncat.edu<br />
THANKS TO $4 MILLION IN FUNDING FROM THE USDA<br />
CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS PROGRAM, re<strong>search</strong>ers,<br />
Extension and teaching professionals in the School of Agriculture<br />
and Environmental Sciences at A&T have been building<br />
infrastructure to meet some of the most pressing social and<br />
economic challenges facing <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>. Seventeen projects funded under<br />
this competitive national program are now active in the SAES. The following is a<br />
summary of updates on these projects, which are contributing to A&T’s mission as<br />
a land-grant university to deliver quality education, outreach and re<strong>search</strong> for the<br />
benefit of consumers, agribusiness and communities.<br />
INTERDISCIPLINARY PH.D. PROGRAM IN FOOD AND<br />
BIOPROCESS TECHNOLOGIES FOR TRAINING OF FUTURE<br />
MINORITY FACULTY<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna<br />
This project will lay the groundwork for establishing a new<br />
Ph.D. program in food and bioprocess engineering. Objectives<br />
include writing a proposed curriculum, securing approval for<br />
the program, enrolling and mentoring new Ph.D. students<br />
and strengthening infrastructure for long-term sustainability.<br />
The project has the potential to increase the numbers of<br />
minority Ph.D. scientists who enter the food sciences field.<br />
BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY FOR<br />
TEACHING AND RECRUITING AGRICULTURE MAJORS<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Manuel <strong>Re</strong>yes<br />
The project was inspired by the growing demand<br />
for professionals in “green” industries. Funds are<br />
being used to develop a curriculum and materials to<br />
educate 12 undergraduate biological engineering<br />
students in sustainable planning and landscaping<br />
methods, and to establish a learning laboratory<br />
at Sockwell Hall to serve as a site for workshops<br />
on sustainable landscape design. A landscape<br />
design that serves as a laboratory has<br />
been developed around the building and is<br />
undergoing continual upgrading. Students are<br />
learning re<strong>search</strong> methods to measure how the<br />
new approach increases biodiversity, water and<br />
soil quality, and saves money.<br />
N.C. A&T re<strong>search</strong> on goat parasites is aiding the fastest growing<br />
livestock industry in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>.
ENHANCING COMMUNICATION, DESIGN AND CRITICAL<br />
THINKING SKILLS OF STUDENTS THROUGH PROBLEM<br />
SOLVING AND GIS APPLICATION IN NATURAL RESOURCES<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Godfrey Gayle<br />
In appreciation of the critical role water will play in<br />
achieving global food security and ending hunger, this<br />
project focuses on teaching undergraduate biological<br />
engineering students modern computer modeling tools<br />
that are used in hydrology and soil and water conservation.<br />
New computers and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)<br />
software are being purchased, and students are starting to<br />
learn the technology by applying it in real-life scenarios.<br />
DEVELOPING A GLOBAL CAMPUS FOR THE SCHOOL<br />
OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Anthony Yeboah<br />
A study-abroad program and online undergraduate<br />
agribusiness degree program are being established under<br />
this project, with the overarching goal of better preparing<br />
students to understand global agricultural economics.<br />
PREPARING UNDERGRADUATE AND SET (SCIENCE,<br />
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY) 4-H STUDENTS FOR THE<br />
GLOBAL WORKPLACE THROUGH ENHANCED TECHNOLOGY<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jane Walker<br />
Three laboratories in the Department of Family and<br />
Consumer Sciences are getting upgrades to better meet<br />
the educational needs of professionals and industries<br />
that employ them. In addition to renovations, the food<br />
and nutritional sciences, apparel design and textiles and<br />
computer-aided design (CAD) laboratories will be updated<br />
with new equipment and software. Faculty are being<br />
trained in the new software. In addition, a 4-H science,<br />
engineering and technology summer outreach program<br />
will be developed.<br />
DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE PASTURE-BASED LIVESTOCK<br />
EXTENSION EDUCATION TOOLS FOR INTEGRATED USE<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Niki Whitley<br />
In an effort to meet demand for healthier, grass-fed<br />
livestock and improve opportunities for small farmers in<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>, this project will fund three demonstration<br />
sites and educational tools and materials to train<br />
producers, Extension agents, veterinarians and others<br />
interested in sustainable production of goats and sheep.<br />
FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL BYPRODUCT-BASED<br />
BIOCHARS FOR ENHANCED SOIL FERTILITY AND<br />
LONG-TERM CARBON SEQUESTRATION<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna<br />
This re<strong>search</strong> project will add value to food and agricultural<br />
byproducts by transforming them into “designer”<br />
biochars that will improve agricultural productivity while<br />
sequestering carbon. Biochars are carbon-rich products<br />
produced by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen.<br />
They have emerged as one of the few materials in the<br />
world that can potentially slow global warming and<br />
climate change by serving as long-term carbon sinks.<br />
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED FOOD PROTECTION AND<br />
DEFENSE EDUCATION AND EXTENSION PROGRAM FOR<br />
STUDENTS AND PROFESSIONALS IN 1890 UNIVERSITIES<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Salam Ibrahim<br />
Food safety and protection are the ultimate goals of this<br />
food safety project, which will create a new five-course<br />
curriculum in food protection and defensive measures at<br />
A&T that emphasizes protecting food from bioterrorism.<br />
The project leaders will then develop a working model for<br />
teaching food protection and defense at the other 1890<br />
land-grant institutions.<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
Tao Wang, a post-doctoral re<strong>search</strong> associate at the Center<br />
for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, performs a lab<br />
procedure to measure the antioxidant activity of wheat<br />
bran that has undergone microfluidization, a process that<br />
can increase antioxidant activity by up to three times<br />
while rendering the fiber more palatable.<br />
35
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uilding Capacity<br />
A REACTIVE DISTILLATION PROCESS FOR UPGRADING<br />
BIO-OIL TO TRANSPORTATION FUELS AND BIOPLASTICS<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lijun Wang<br />
Led by N.C. A&T, re<strong>search</strong> teams at Stony Brook<br />
<strong>University</strong> and the <strong>University</strong> of Nebraska-Lincoln<br />
are investigating a novel reactive distillation process<br />
for upgrading crude bio-oils produced from animal<br />
wastes, municipal solid wastes and agricultural<br />
residues into transportation fuels and biodegradable<br />
plastics. Two graduate students and one undergraduate<br />
student are gaining hands-on education in bioprocess<br />
engineering re<strong>search</strong>. The A&T team has developed<br />
a thermochemical process to convert swine manure<br />
and agricultural residues into bio-oils. The team has<br />
also designed a reactive distillation unit that is under<br />
construction at the A&T <strong>University</strong> Farm. The unit<br />
will be used to further re<strong>search</strong> into how to refine<br />
the crude bio-oils into transportation fuels and<br />
biodegradable plastics. Sustainable, renewable bio-<br />
energy and sustainable rural economies are being<br />
addressed in this project. After developing the process,<br />
it will be analyzed for its economic viability at different<br />
scales. In the process, it is educating students in bio-<br />
energy production.<br />
AN INTEGRATED PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION<br />
OF ETHANOL AND BIO-BASED PRODUCTS<br />
FROM LIGNOCELLULOSIC BIOMASS<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lijun Wang<br />
N.C. A&T is leading re<strong>search</strong> teams from Ohio <strong>State</strong>,<br />
Purdue and the <strong>University</strong> of Florida in developing<br />
technologies to produce biofuels and biobased products<br />
from biomass. Four graduate and three undergraduate<br />
students at A&T have been educated in bioprocess<br />
engineering, thus preparing them for careers in this<br />
promising new agricultural industry. The re<strong>search</strong><br />
achievements under this project so far include: (1)<br />
establishing a technical procedure to characterize the<br />
physical and chemical properties of biomass materials;<br />
(2) establishing a procedure to quantify the supply<br />
economics of biomass feedstock; (3) perfecting methods<br />
to enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis and cellulosic<br />
ethanol fermentation; (4) developing a process to<br />
improve the synergetic fermentation of ethanol from<br />
glucose and acetic acid from xylose; and (5) developing<br />
and refining a pyrolysis process to convert fermentation<br />
residues to activated carbon.<br />
INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND OUTREACH INTERVENTION<br />
TO PREPARE SMALL-SCALE PRODUCE FARMERS IN<br />
NORTH CAROLINA FOR UPCOMING TRACEABILITY<br />
REQUIREMENTS<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Ipek Goktepe<br />
Food safety is the focus of this project, which will<br />
aid small producers and health professionals in<br />
tracing fruits and vegetables as they move through<br />
the distribution chain from farm to consumer. The<br />
project examines the voluntary barcode and labeling<br />
system that is used by large producers for tracing<br />
foods. This system is effective in halting the spread of<br />
foodborne pathogens, but expensive and cumbersome<br />
for small producers. This project team will enroll<br />
small farmers in a pilot study to examine the costs<br />
of implementation and impact, while also providing<br />
training in the technology. The outcome is expected to<br />
be recommendations appropriate for small farmers.<br />
PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES THROUGH<br />
SMART KITCHEN LABORATORY DESIGN<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Valerie L. Giddings<br />
The goals here are long-term solutions to the nutritional<br />
needs of families, and addressing childhood obesity.<br />
A “smart kitchen” and food preparation laboratory<br />
for Family and Consumer Sciences students will be<br />
constructed with teaching and learning stations. A<br />
database of recipes, dietary standards and nutritional<br />
assessments will be developed in order to improve<br />
the capacity of the department to better prepare<br />
students for careers in nutritional sciences, and family<br />
and consumer sciences education. The food and<br />
nutritional sciences curriculum at A&T will incorporate<br />
the database technology to better prepare students.<br />
Workshops for community groups will be held to<br />
teach kitchen technology for quality meal preparation,<br />
and graduates and undergraduates will use the new<br />
technology for re<strong>search</strong> projects.<br />
ENGAGING LIMITED-RESOURCE AUDIENCES TO<br />
PROMOTE BEST AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES IN<br />
NORTH CAROLINA<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Joshua Idassi<br />
Agroforestry, which is the practice of growing income-<br />
producing trees together with food crops, has the<br />
potential to create new economic opportunities for<br />
small-scale farmers in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>. Consequently, the
project team is developing an agroforestry curriculum to<br />
educate Extension agents in the practice, and is planting a<br />
demonstration site to exhibit agroforestry techniques.<br />
ENHANCEMENT OF GRADUATE STUDENT<br />
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION IN FOOD,<br />
AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES.<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. M.R. <strong>Re</strong>ddy<br />
Eighteen students from under represented groups<br />
were recruited into graduate programs in the School<br />
of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Graduate<br />
assistantships were offered and the students were trained<br />
in re<strong>search</strong> techniques and skills. Linkages were established<br />
with four-year colleges and universities in <strong>North</strong> <strong>Carolina</strong>,<br />
Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The graduate<br />
students attended professional meetings and presented<br />
papers at regional and national professional meetings. An<br />
SAES graduate program website is being developed.<br />
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR<br />
EDUCATING STUDENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL CAREERS<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kenrett Jefferson-Moore<br />
A new weeklong residential summer enrichment<br />
program and curriculum for high-school students who<br />
are interested in agribusiness careers was piloted in 2010,<br />
refined in 2011, and is now established. In addition, a<br />
group of A&T students were identified as future leaders<br />
in agribusiness, and traveled to the annual Agriculture<br />
Future of America (AFA) Leaders Conference in Kansas<br />
City, Mo. Marketing materials were developed, and an<br />
organized system was adapted for advising new freshmen<br />
and sophomores within the department. Additional<br />
recruitment strategies for attracting “millennials” into<br />
food and agribusiness industries is being developed.<br />
BIOCONTROL AND HURDLE TECHNOLOGY TO<br />
ENHANCE MICROBIAL SAFETY OF FRESH PRODUCE<br />
Principal investigator: Dr. Ipek Goktepe<br />
The results of this study suggest that naturally occurring<br />
bacteriophages may be useful in reducing E. coli 017:H7<br />
contamination on lettuce and spinach at refrigerated<br />
temperatures, as well as reducing listeria and salmonella<br />
on fresh produce. Therefore, re<strong>search</strong>ers suggest that the<br />
approach of using bacteriophages to reduce contamination<br />
of foods by bacterial pathogens may be an effective natural<br />
approach to eliminate foodborne diseases without leaving<br />
harmful residues in treated products.<br />
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN OBESITY REDUCTION VIA<br />
INTERACTIVE TEACHING AND EXPERIMENTS (FAVORITE)<br />
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna<br />
<strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>ers took on childhood obesity by asking if<br />
play could increase children’s acceptance of fruits and<br />
vegetables. The team assembled commercially available<br />
food-related games and toys, and developed new play<br />
activities as well. Data were collected from observations<br />
and questionnaires with 124 preschool children and<br />
parents at three different schools. <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong>ers reported a<br />
25 percent and 20 percent increase in children’s liking of<br />
fruits and vegetables, respectively, immediately following<br />
the pilot play program. While the nutrition-educational<br />
intervention showed more impact among children of<br />
low socioeconomic status, the ability of children to learn<br />
appeared to be independent of socioeconomic status, and<br />
was enhanced by hands-on interactive learning activities.<br />
Children at age 4 were the most receptive and most<br />
impacted by the nutrition education interventions, leading<br />
the study team to suggest this age group would be ideal<br />
for early education interventions aimed at long-lasting<br />
change in dietary habits.<br />
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
Dr. Jimo Ibrahim, a specialist with The Cooperative Extension<br />
Program, displays a crawfish during a demonstration of<br />
integrated crawfish and rice farming at the <strong>University</strong> Farm’s<br />
2011 Small Farms Field Day.
<strong>Re</strong>:<br />
A magazine of the Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program in the<br />
School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at <strong>North</strong><br />
<strong>Carolina</strong> Agricultural and Technical <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
<strong>Re</strong>:information raczkowc@ncat.edu<br />
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Jason Shelton, an undergraduate re<strong>search</strong> scholar, examines a soil sample during field work<br />
for his re<strong>search</strong> on soil quality. Shelton reported that crimson clover and rye cover crops<br />
can help prevent erosion as they decompose, thus adding more carbohydrates to the soil<br />
and thereby feeding microorganisms. Cover crops, agroforestry and no-till are some of the<br />
sustainable agricultural practices getting attention from A&T’s Agricultural <strong>Re</strong><strong>search</strong> Program.