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Wheat breeders spend years meticulously crossing varieties to coax the best traits out of each species, carefully propagating plant varieties that are healthier, heartier and better suited for the environments where they are grown. Brewmasters are equally painstaking when choosing the components that will give their beers a specific flavor profile. These two exacting professions came together this spring when Athens-based Creature Comforts Brewing Co. reached out to the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to find a sustainable wheat variety they could use to make a good beer for a great cause.

Stanley Culpepper has dedicated the length of his career to supporting farmers in their mission to feed and clothe the world. For the past 25 years, Culpepper has been a weed science specialist for University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty member. Recently his job has become increasingly complex as mounting challenges around the availability of pesticides — primarily herbicides — have taken center stage in agricultural production.

Two recently published studies by University of Georgia researchers show that the consumers surveyed believe buying local is a more sustainable option, but they also value the convenience of online shopping and prefer that retailers provide basic information about the environmental impact of local products in the digital marketplace. Driven by increasing consumer interest in buying local and concerns about the impact of agricultural production systems on a changing climate, the studies were based on data from a web-based survey about consumer interest in sustainability, information about food production and online marketing preferences.

University of Georgia plant genomics expert Robin Buell is part of an international team seeking to mine an untapped genetic resource for wheat improvement by sequencing the genomes of ancient varieties representing the worldwide diversity of bread wheat. The two-year project— called the Wheat Diversity Project — is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and will bring Buell together with researchers from the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) and collaborators in France to sequence 12 landrace genomes.

Composting has become a popular topic in recent years, and many of us have heard that it is something we should be doing in some form. But why? There are many reasons that individuals, communities and governments promote composting, with some focused on diverting compostable waste from landfills and others who are in it for the dirt.

Without direct intervention, food systems could be the largest contributor to environmental pollution by mid-century. This warning — and more importantly, the research efforts in place to make change — were highlighted in Edward Buckler’s keynote address at the 2023 D.W. Brooks Lecture and Awards. “Right now our food system is costing us more than the value we are getting out of it. This is something we need to fundamentally address,“ said Buckler, a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.

The Great Southeast Pollinator Census, which will be held Aug. 18 and 19 this year, received a commendation from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in advance of the annual event’s fifth anniversary. The governor honored the contributions of the citizen-science project to the continued health of pollinators in the region.

Consumers hold high standards for fresh food, which farmers aim to meet, but hot summer temperatures and long-haul deliveries can degrade quality even before produce makes it into stores. In a collaborative study, Angelos Deltsidis, assistant professor of horticulture in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, teamed up with UGA Cooperative Extension agents to improve upon a decades-old method of precooling to increase efficiency and reduce postharvest losses along the value chain.

Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have been awarded nearly $4 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a climate-smart “4-D Farm.”

The University of Georgia will continue to serve as host institution for the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture program has funded farmer-driven grants and grassroots education programs resulting in climate-smart solutions for farms and ranches in every state and island protectorate since 1988.