Washington State University alumnus Gordon Davis (’69, Agricultural Science, Agricultural Education) was recognized this summer by the American Meat Science Association for leadership and contributions to the science of meat.

The Association honored Davis with its 2020 Industry & Organizational Leadership Award, Aug. 6, at the virtual 66th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology and AMSA’s 73rd Reciprocal Meat Conference. The award is sponsored by Smithfield Foods, Inc.

An animal sciences teacher, coach, and successful business leader, Davis is known for his passion for student learning, involvement in intercollegiate meat judging programs, and for his philanthropic support of animal science and education.

Davis grew up on an eastern Washington dairy farm, helping his family earn state Dairy Family of the Year honors in 1964. Drawn to WSU in part by his interest in meats judging, Davis became an avid competitor and coach who helped many students hone scientific and practical knowledge, skills, and determination through judging teams.

As founder and chairman of an educational resource company, CEV Multimedia, Davis has reached millions of students, allowing them to learn, compete, and ultimately become involved in the meats industry, agriculture, and many other fields. More than four million students have learned about meat science through Davis’ educational programs. Many of these have gone on to university meat science classrooms and careers in science and industry.

Davis’s success has allowed him to shape the future of science and education through multiple educational endowments in agriculture, including six meat science endowment funds. A member of AMSA for 48 years, he has been recognized with some of the association’s top awards, as well as honors from WSU, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, USDA, Sigma Chi International Fraternity, for his service, philanthropy, and leadership.

At WSU, Davis has been deeply involved in supporting student and faculty excellence, creating the Cashup Davis Family Endowed Dean of CAHNRS, named for his ancestor, Palouse pioneer and entrepreneur James S. “Cashup” Davis, and serving on the CAHNRS Campaign council.

He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in meat science from Texas A&M University, and served as an academic meat scientist at the University of Tennessee and Texas Tech University. He has published hundreds of journal and technical articles, produced more than 120 videos, and recruited 45 meat science collaborators for his company.

Davis also co-founded the Cargill High Plains Meat Judging contest, providing competition opportunities for more than 4,500 collegiate meat judging students from more than 40 colleges and universities over the past 39 years.

Learn more about the American Meat Science Association here.

Each month, experts with WSU Extension publish new guides aimed at helping Washington farmers and families succeed.

The latest free guides from the WSU Extension Online Bookstore help communities launch gleaning programs to boost food access, and inform farmers on irrigation methods that boost savings and productivity.

Starting a Community Gleaning Program (FS346E). Gleaning is the act of collecting excess fresh fruits and vegetables from farms, gardens, and orchards. Communities across the U.S. use gleaning to address food insecurity and food waste. This guide helps groups and volunteers learn how to start a gleaning program. Authors include Clallam Extension Director Clea Rome, Consumer Food Safety Specialist Stephanie Smith, Kitsap Extension Director Laura Ryser, Community Health and Food Access Coordinator Karlena Brailey, and Gleaning Coordinator Sharah Truett.

Management of Traveler Gun Irrigation Systems in the Pacific Northwest (FS348E). The traveling or reel big gun irrigation system is one of the most popular forms of irrigation in Washington, watering more than 38,760 acres. This free guide shows how growers can properly manage traveling gun irrigation systems to save water and energy and increase crop productivity and profitability. Written by Skagit County Extension Irrigation Engineer Abdelmoneim Mohamed, Professor and Extension Irrigation Specialist Troy Peters, and Skagit County Extension Director Don McMoran.

Find the latest guides here.

Modhurima Dey Amin, a spring 2020 doctoral graduate from the School of Economic Sciences, won first place this summer in the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) graduate student research competition.

Amin studies applied economics, statistics, and data science with a focus on agriculture, industrial organization, energy, and resources.

In her paper, Amin used machine learning with national census data to predict food deserts, which have no grocery stores with healthful options, as well as ‘food swamps,’ which have an excess of less healthful foods, such as fast food restaurants, in relation to grocery stores. She found that education, income, population density, and race are strong predictors of the retail food environment;  Black population is an important predictor of both food deserts and swamps. Food swamps suffer more from poverty, inequality, and transportation problems, while food deserts are more likely to be rural areas.

Her model helps shed light on the different nutritional challenges that diverse U.S. communities face and shows that they require different approaches to solve.

“My research shows that it’s possible to make more informed decisions on existing social problems, when approached with machine learning and artificial intelligence,” Amin said.

The competition was created by the Committee on the Opportunities and Status of Blacks in Agricultural Economics (COSBAE) and the Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics (CWAE) to help link students, post-doctoral associates, and early-career faculty with mentors at land-grant institutions, agencies, and industry.

The competition committee unanimously recommended Amin’s research report for the first-place award.

“The committee’s recognition encourages me and many other scientists in the field to investigate the issues from a modern, data-driven angle,” she said. “It inspires me to do more exciting research in the future, and helps to expand my network for interdisciplinary collaboration.”

Amin graduated in May, and is now a tenure-track assistant professor at Texas Tech University. She was advised at WSU by Regents Professor Jill McCluskey.

Learn more about Amin’s academic journey in this 2020 graduate profile.

By Julia Layland and Sarah Appel, CAHNRS Academic Programs

Recent CAHNRS Coug Neftali Garcia is making life a little easier for current students. The May 2020 WSU graduate donated his entire first paycheck back to the Washington Apple Education Foundation (WAEF), which supported him through his college career.

Neftali received the WAEF Scholarship his junior and senior year of college and talked about how he almost didn’t apply for it.

“I never applied, I never thought scholarships were for me,” he said. “I had applied to other scholarships and never got them before. I didn’t want to waste my time. But my roommates told me to just go for it.”

The Basin City, Wash. native is the first in his family to graduate from college. He double majored in the Fruit and Vegetable Management degree program (Landscape Nursery as well as Greenhouse Management) with a minor in Horticulture and with an organic agriculture certification.

The scholarship lifted a financial burden because Neftali had been working through the summers to afford living expenses during the school year. That work time was restricted when Neftali took summer courses. Neftali wishes he tried for scholarships earlier to help.

“Apply to a lot of scholarships, that was the one thing I regret not doing,” he said. “There are a lot of scholarships out there just waiting. I would say the best thing I would have done is apply, apply, apply, instead of doubting myself. The worst-case scenario is you apply for a lot and only get a few.”

College forces students to meet and talk to new people almost daily. Neftali explained how this impacted him in his pursuit of a degree, or multiple in his case, and how CAHNRS has opportunities for all who choose to get involved.

“Growing up I was never one of the people to really speak up, or anything,” he said. “But I met more people along the way at WSU and I felt more comfortable. I was stepping out of my comfort zone.”

Neftali advises prospective and current students to try everything once and decide from your experiences what you want to do.

“Go at it. Try to join all the groups they have, step out of your comfort zone,” he said. “You meet a lot of great people at CAHNRS and at WSU. I know I have. There is plenty of knowledge to learn from faculty and the people there.”

As a founding member of the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resource and Related Sciences (MANRRS), Neftali said the club is a great resource for students from all backgrounds.

“I was there with all of my friends and my roommates, and just a bunch of people who were like, ‘yeah this is a great organization to begin here at WSU,’” he said. “It will benefit a lot of people who want to get into the industry.”

Neftali is currently employed with Zirkel Fruit after interning with the company since his sophomore year at WSU. This year is his first full-time position, and he hopes to work there for years to come.

Neftali is one of many people that inspired the CAHNRS Academic Programs unit to start a young alumni group called CAHNRS Legends. While this group is in the beginning stages of development, CAHNRS hopes it will allow recent graduates to unite and advocate for both themselves and the college where they received their education. The team will strive to connect with other alumni across the nation. They will represent CAHNRS at multiple events throughout local communities and will recruit prospective students and industry partners. Finally, they will celebrate their accomplishments together as CAHNRS Legends. Anyone interested in CAHNRS Legends, please contact Josh Davis at josh.davis@wsu.edu.

Thank you, Neftali, for reflecting what it means to be a CAHNRS Legends through your generosity and commitment to future generations of CAHNRS Cougs. Congratulations on graduating from WSU and CAHNRS and all of your success.

The American Society of Animal Science presented Mark Nelson, retired associate professor with Washington State University’s Department of Animal Sciences, with its Fellow Award for Teaching, during the society’s Virtual Annual Meeting and Trade Show in July.

The Fellow Award recognizes a long-serving society member’s distinguished contributions to animal science and the livestock industry.

A faculty member at WSU for 34 years, Nelson taught or partnered to deliver dozens of different courses ranging from introductory lectures and laboratory courses to a graduate nutrition course, as well as numerous Extension short courses, workshops, and field days.

In his courses, Nelson emphasizing critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, scientific and information literacy, communication skills and integration of learning. He trained 22 graduate students, wrote more than 225 publications and presented more than 150 talks.

Nelson was also active in the WSU Writing Program, and in extracurricular activities included advising the WSU Block and Bridle Club, Ceres Women’s Agriculture Fraternity, Cougar Cattle Feeders, and numerous undergraduate research projects. Numerous awards recognized his integration of teaching, research, advising, and Extension programs.

He retired in 2018.

The virtual meeting was held jointly with the Canadian Society of Animal Science and the Western Section of the American Society of Animal Science, July 19-23, 2020.

Gregmar Galinato, associate professor in WSU’s School of Economic Sciences, recently received the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics Best Paper award for the second consecutive year.

He received the award at the recent Western Agricultural Economics Association (virtual) annual meeting.

Galinato received the award this year for his paper Revenue-Neutral Pollution Taxes in the Presence of a Renewable Fuel Standard.

“I was shocked because I haven’t heard of anyone winning this award twice, let alone consecutively,” said Galinato, who is a former editor of the journal. “I’m extremely grateful and proud that my peers feel this paper is worthy of being honored.”

This year’s winning paper looks at how to best use revenue neutral tax money to incentivize the purchase of cellulose-based biofuels to include in gasoline, while trying to move away from the relatively more polluting crude oil. Revenue neutral taxes means a new tax is added, but it is used to reduce another revenue stream.

In this case, a tax is added on a polluting input like crude oil, while the overall sales tax rate is reduced, so that taxes collected from crude oil offset the losses in sales tax revenue.

The higher price in crude oil would reduce demand for this input and incentivize the purchase of other types of inputs that are relatively cheaper (and less polluting), like bio-ethanol. One type of bio-ethanol is cellulose-based biofuels, which come from products like switchgrass or tree residues. They don’t include biofuels produced using corn.

He and co-author Tristan Skolrud, who earned a doctorate at WSU in economics and is now a tenure track assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, created a model that looked at the impacts on cellulose-based biofuels sales when taxes on carbon-based non-sustainable fuels are increased and sales taxes for consumers are reduced.

“Our model found that this only increased biofuel sales a very small amount,” Galinato said. “The hope for these policy plans is to reduce crude oil use, which becomes more expensive, and to increase demand for cellulosic ethanol.”

Money saved from reduced sales tax would help compensate consumers for any increase in overall gasoline prices that they might face.

“We did not see any substantial increase in demand for cellulosic ethanol,” Galinato said. “However, overall welfare increased for the state.”

The results of the paper surprised the authors, who expected a larger benefit for the biofuel industry.

“If you reduce sales tax, you help a lot of people, which explains the overall increase in welfare,” Galinato said. “But it doesn’t directly affect cellulose-based biofuel producers much at all. Revenue neutral taxes are helpful, but it depends on who you want to help.”

The authors also wrote a companion paper that used their models to look at using revenue neutral taxes to directly subsidize cellulosic biofuel producers using the money raised from the crude oil tax. Not surprisingly, that paper found that method had major benefits to the cellulosic biofuel industry, but significantly lower impact on overall welfare.

Galinato hopes the papers will help policy makers as they work to help boost the biofuel industry.

“Since 2007, policy makers have wanted the biofuels industry to grow and reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources,” Galinato said. “We’re still working on that. With a revenue neutral tax policy, we identified one instrument that can affect overall welfare for society or be more focused on helping a particular industry in the state.”

Every month, the WSU Extension Publications Store shares free guides that support better farms and businesses. The latest publications help farmers identify and manage a troublesome weed, and assist community groups and business owners in choosing software to run an online food market.

• (PNW660). Feral rye, also known as volunteer, or cereal rye, plagues winter wheat growers in low rainfall zones of eastern Washington and Oregon and southern Idaho. This guide examines the biology, characteristics, and management of this troublesome weed. Authored by Drew Lyon, WSU Endowed Chair Small Grains Extension and Research, Weed Science; Andrew Hulting, Oregon State University Extension Weed Science Specialist; Judit Barroso, OSU Weed Scientist; and Joan Campbell, University of Idaho Weed Science Principle Researcher.

• (FS345E). Online local food markets support farms and specialty businesses, increasing access for customers. Starting an online market demands time, planning, and many decisions. Markets are driven by software, and it’s hard to know how to get started. This free guide help businesses, cooperatives, farmers, and organizations identify which software to choose. Authored by WSU Kitsap Extension Director and Community and Economic Director Laura Ryser and Clallam County Extension Director Clea Rome.

Find the latest monthly publications here.

A WSU Extension emergency management planning expert gave a presentation to other land grant universities who want to learn more about how they can help with disaster education.

Christina Sanders is the director of both WSU’s Office of Emergency Management and WSU Extension’s Division of Governmental Studies and Services. Last month, she gave a presentation to the 1890-EDEN Advisory Group.

EDEN is the Extension Disaster Education Network. 1890 refers to the group of 19 historically black land grant colleges and universities that were part of the Second Morrill Act of 1890.

“The 1890 land grant universities are really interested in expanding the resources and programs they can provide for disaster education,” Sanders said. “These schools are historically underfunded, but still want to do the best they can to expand the positive impacts in their states and communities.”

She talked to the advisory group about the unique way WSU Extension and emergency preparedness work together.

“Extension doesn’t typically play a direct role in emergency management at any of the 1890 schools,” Sanders said. “Here, I’m the Emergency Management director for the university and have an Extension appointment. I shared how we work with other institutions on campus and in the community.”

She talked to the group about ways they can get started, such as doing Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainings.

“There was a lot of interest from those in attendance wanting to learn more following their conference,” Sanders said. “Many attendees don’t have much experience with CERT, and don’t know how to get started, but are eager to build their emergency planning and preparedness capacity. That’s where we are able to help.”

The 1890-EDEN Advisory Group provides guidance for increasing the participation of 1890 Land-Grant Universities in EDEN. The group also leverages resources through partnerships to improve disaster programming for limited resource clientele.