SyndicateMizzou Video Podcast

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - “Doing” sustainable agriculture

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:22:54 GMT

Most of Jose Garcia’s work involves doing outreach and teaching about sustainable agriculture to various groups of people, from farmers in rural Missouri communities to students, faculty, and staff at MU. There are three dimensions emphasized by use of the term “sustainable agriculture” explains Garcia. “Because food and agriculture are totally connected to people and to communities and to laborers,” sustainable agriculture refers to an approach to farming and food, in which economic viability, environmental impact, and social responsibility are considered in any decision.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - Examples of Garcia’s outreach activities

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:25:30 GMT

Garcia describes a few projects within the realm of sustainable agriculture. For example, Garcia trains extension educators on various sustainability issues. The educators may then go back to their communities and work directly with farmers and workers, “so that those farmers are more exposed to sustainable agriculture issues, including, for example, sustainable agriculture practices, natural resources, conservation issues, and funding opportunities for sustainable agriculture projects for their farms.” Garcia works as well with MU’s community of students, staff, and faculty, offering a monthly seminar called, “What’s New in Sustainable Food and Farming.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - MU’s new undergraduate major in sustainable agriculture

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:26:36 GMT

In addition to teaching farmers and extension educators, Garcia teaches a class at MU in sustainable agriculture, part of the undergraduate major in sustainable agriculture that began last fall.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - Working with minorities in agriculture

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:28:11 GMT

While he sometimes presents workshops directly to Latino farmers and agricultural workers, often Garcia targets employers of food and agricultural workers. He provides them with information about legal issues, communication, and culture necessary in order to hire and retain Latino agricultural workers.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - Issues arising from increased Latino labor force in Missouri

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:29:42 GMT

“There are a number of issues that impact the Latino labor force in rural parts of the state of Missouri,” explains Garcia. Immigration is obviously a big one, along with education, poverty, health, and vulnerability to abuse. Sometimes the main challenges involving Latino agricultural workers results from their past negative experiences with authority and the government. To address these issues, Garcia has coordinated a series of workshops and institutes on cultural competency for extension workers.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - Another recent event

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:30:45 GMT

Garcia and his colleagues across the state rely on “virtual meetings” over the Internet with extension agriculturalists to touch base about certain issues related to sustainable agriculture.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - Garcia’s outreach work with Hmong farmers

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:34:48 GMT

Beyond the Latino farmers and workers, Garcia does similar workshops and presentations for extension people working with Hmong and other immigrant farmers in Missouri. Part of his work involves bridging existing services, and facilitating partnerships and connections. “It has to be collaborative,” he says, “I’d kill myself if I tried to everything on my own. Success relies heavily on those collaborations.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: José Garcia - Garcia’s research on Latino farmers

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:35:53 GMT

Garcia has been conducting research on Latino farmers and their access to financial services, an extension project that became integrated with a research project.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Linda Blockus - Linda Blockus, A Road Not Forgotten

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:37:56 GMT

The undergraduate research experience is a unique opportunity. Blockus reports that aside from preparing students for graduate school, research is a growth experience in which students will be “perhaps encountering some of the same frustrations, challenges, and problems as well as some of the same successes and accomplishments.” She observes that students “learn from each other, feed off of each other, and hopefully form friendships as well.” Blockus herself is living proof of the power of research on a young mind. As a college student she spent a summer working for the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, OARDC, a “very valuable experience.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Karen Cone - Why this Research is Important

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:53:19 GMT

If researchers can better understand how this DNA packaging occurs, they might eventually be able to control the process to their advantage. As Cone observes, “being able to understand that process might give us a chance down the road to manipulate it, to potentially improve features of the plant for crop production.”