Past News
Agritourism offers safe summer fun during COVID-19
June 22, 2020
By day, Marshall Martin is a professor of agricultural economics, the senior associate director of agricultural research and graduate education and assistant dean in the College of Agriculture. In the evenings, he’s known to many customers as just the “blueberry man.” While much at Martin Acres LLC, the West Lafayette farm he manages with his wife, Berdine, remains the same this year, they are taking precautions due to COVID-19. Martin is basing these necessary safety adjustments on guidelines for U-pick operations published by Purdue Extension.
Purdue Agronomy professor reflects on 35-year research project
June 10, 2020
"I was the new kid on the block when this project started in 1982,” said Eileen Kladivko, professor of agronomy at Purdue University. “I knew almost nothing about drainage, but that quickly changed.” Kladivko began her career at Purdue University as an assistant professor of agronomy. Little did she realize that for the next 35 years, she would work on a water drainage project that she initially learned about during her interview.
Purdue Agronomy professor reflects on 35-year research project
Cues for Ethnographers in a Pandemic-Altered World
June 8, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently altered many aspects of everyday life for people and cultures around the world. This fact presents some particularly unique challenges for those in the field of Ethnography. Assistant professor of Anthropology and Center affiliate within the Building Sustainable Communities Signature Research Area Jennifer Lee Johnson along with Alder Keleman Saxena, Assistant Research Professor of Anthropology at Northern Arizona University, have developed a series of “cues” to be considered by ethnographers in a world undergoing numerous significant transformations.
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From Cows to People: New Testing Options for Coronavirus
May 29, 2020
When you think of COVID-19, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t cows. However, that’s exactly the link that Center affiliate and Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Mohit Verma hopes to increase testing abilities for the novel Coronavirus.
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Data Science, Human Behavior and Improving Responses to COVID-19
May 29, 2020
COVID-19 loves densely populated spaces. As we have seen in situations such as Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, spring break beach parties in Miami, Florida, and even large funerals in Williamsburg, New York, peoples’ behaviors, both individually and collectively, provide keys to how governments and policy makers might need to suggest, regulate or even mandate public movement and behavior to mitigate virus transmission. Two current studies involving faculty affiliates are investigating this through analysis of mobile phone data and through the creation of a software infrastructure that will help scientists investigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 and suggest how we may better prepare for future epidemics in light of high-density locations.
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The Future of Sustainable Travel post-COVID-19
May 28, 2020
For most of us, it has been several months since we’ve traveled anywhere; though we may be eagerly anticipating our next trip, that travel likely won’t look the same. Jonathon Day, Center affiliate and Associate Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management, has weighed in on the topic of sustainable tourism and what the travel industry may expect in upcoming months.
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Farmers, Agriculture, and Impacts on our Food Supply
May 28, 2020
After being concerned about having household disinfectants, paper towels and toilet paper on hand, many Americans worried about our food supply and related food production and distribution chains. Such concerns have highlighted several long-standing issues about the way we grow food and other agricultural products both in the US and world-wide. Center affiliates have been contributing to this conversation through individual and group engagement through various publication outlets and new research projects.
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The urgency of transforming the Midwestern U.S. landscape into more than corn and soybean
May 27, 2020
The current agri-food system emerged out of a desire to provide an inexpensive and secure food supply. Yet even before COVID-19, the abundant agricultural production of the Midwestern United States was generated amid a backdrop of increasing farm bankruptcies, declining farm employment and rural communities, and climbing farmer suicide rates. The environmental costs of this system were well established and include Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, elevated sediment and nutrient levels in waterways, and impacts to air quality, biodiversity and climate change. The economic, social and environmental consequences of contemporary agriculture already indicated the need for a wholesale revisiting of the dominant agricultural paradigm of highly specialized and subsidized production.
The urgency of transforming the Midwestern U.S. landscape into more than corn and soybean
Engaging Safely with our Surroundings
May 27, 2020
From opening up our campus buildings, to cleaning our homes, and to preparing to jump into our pools and lakes for the first time, affiliates of the Center for the Environment have been on hand on local and national levels to provide guidance, appease jitters and help us all adapt to our ‘new normal’ for summer 2020 and beyond.
This Is Purdue Podcast: Episode 9 - Agriculture + Public Health
May 19, 2020
A Purdue entomologist talks about why we need mosquitoes even though most of us would prefer they go away ... and how to keep them from biting us during the summer months. And, a food science expert answers questions about whether we can trust the fresh fruits and vegetables in our produce section during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Is Purdue Podcast: Episode 9 - Agriculture + Public Health