New life for the University of Illinois Stock Pavilion

URBANA, Ill. – This year’s 2019 Celebrate Food and Agriculture festivities brought a new audience to the University of Illinois Stock Pavilion. The primary use of the Stock Pavilion is instructional but since its construction in 1912, it’s been one of the most versatile spaces on campus. With some recent upgrades, it was an ideal setting for alumni and friends of the College of ACES to gather for this year’s pre-game celebration.

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Agricultural economics student selected as a 2019 Cargill Global Scholar

College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences student Austin Schorfheide, a sophomore majoring in agricultural economics with a concentration in public policy and law, has been selected as a 2019 Cargill Global Scholar. He is one of three University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students to be selected for the program this year.

The prestigious Cargill Global Scholars Program, a distinctive international scholarship program that began in 2013, offers a scholarship award of $2,500 per year for up to two years.

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Soybean Innovation Lab is connecting people around the globe with new, free online course

URBANA, Ill. – The Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) recently launched Africa’s first free, open-access, certificate-based online course in integrated pest management (IPM) and pesticide safety.

Insect pests, weeds, and diseases are common problems for farmers worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, pest control is typically manual, which is labor-intensive and often ineffective.

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Study tracks evolutionary history of metabolic networks

Crop sciences professor Gustavo Caetano-Anollés and graduate student Fizza Mughal used a bioinformatics approach to reconstruct the evolutionary history of metabolic networks.

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Institute: Nitrogen reduction will take a revolution

A revolution in Midwestern agriculture has to happen to minimize the Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic zone, according to the University of Illinois Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).

It is a little-known fact that corn — a Midwestern staple crop — has a bearing on the Gulf of Mexico’s health. The link is nitrogen, a common agricultural fertilizer component. According to a team of Illinois researchers, each annual harvest removes just 60-70% of nitrogen from fields.

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Play on! New Child Development Laboratory playground made possible by gift from ACES alumna

URBANA, Ill. – The Child Development Laboratory (CDL) at the University of Illinois has been part of the campus and Champaign-Urbana community for more than 77 years, preparing over 4,000 young children for successful futures.

A gift from Nannette “Nann” Armstrong, an alumna of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I, is helping to support the CDL in its commitment to provide high-quality early care and education for children, as well as to serve the campus through its teaching, research, and outreach and engagement.

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Potato as effective as carbohydrate gels for boosting athletic performance, study finds

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Consuming potato puree during prolonged exercise works just as well as a commercial carbohydrate gel in sustaining blood glucose levels and boosting performance in trained athletes, scientists report. Read More.

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International research community calls for recognition of forests’ role in human prosperity

URBANA, Ill. – World leaders convened for the UN Climate Summit in September amid dire projections of climate instability. The problem is multifaceted, of course, but a recent IPCC report identifies deforestation as the main driver of land-based greenhouse gas emissions, which comprise almost a quarter of all human contributions to climate change. What if more people around the world could be paid to keep forests healthy and intact?

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University of Illinois requests data from farmers to better understand unique growing year

URBANA, Ill. – Researchers and Extension Specialists from University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences are asking Illinois growers to share basic planting, harvest, and yield data with the college to learn from the extraordinary growing conditions experienced this year.

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New paper-based technology allows reliable, low-cost sensing of iron levels in fortified foods

URBANA, Ill. – Many low-income countries have turned to mass food fortification programs to address nutrient deficiencies in their populations. But many of these programs lack the resources needed to determine if the appropriate amount of nutrients is consistently present in those food products.

A team of University of Illinois researchers has developed an affordable, reliable paper-based sensor that works with a cellphone app – also developed at U of I – to detect levels of iron in fortified food products.

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