ACE

URBANA, Ill. – The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois is proud to welcome nine faculty members who have joined since fall semester, 2019. Their expertise will add to the existing strengths in five academic units, as well as University of Illinois Extension, which is housed in the college.

URBANA, Ill. ­– Urban areas face increasing problems with stormwater management. Impervious surfaces on roads and buildings cause flooding, which impacts the water quality of streams, rivers and lakes. Green infrastructure, including features such as rain barrels, green roofs, rain gardens, and on-site water treatment, can provide affordable and environmentally sound ways to manage precipitation.

URBANA, Ill. – Robert G. F. Spitze was a true champion for faculty and student success during his 30-year tenure in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES). Spitze passed away on January 21, 2020.

Canadian adults with food insecurity are 10% to 37% more likely to die prematurely from any cause other than cancer compared to food-secure people, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).  Craig Gundersen, distinguished professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois, is a co-author on the study. Read more.

URBANA, Ill. – Affirmative action policies (AAP) such as quota systems based on racial or socio-economic criteria are often recommended as a way to increase enrollment of underrepresented students in higher education. But those policies can be controversial and their results are sometimes questioned.

URBANA, Ill. – School test scores often show gaps in performance between white and non-white students. Understanding the complex reasons behind this can help reduce those gaps and promote social equality, explains Mary Paula Arends-Kuenning, associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois.

Arends-Kuenning is co-author of a study that analyzes math test scores for 9^th-grade students in Brazil and breaks down the characteristics associated with performance gaps between different racial groups.

URBANA, Ill. – An international research team has received a $1.4 million grant from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council to investigate food availability and food security among indigenous mothers and children in remote Australian communities.

URBANA, Ill. – The U.S. Midwest produces at least a third of the world’s corn and soybean supply each year. Feeding the world requires a lot of fertilizer, mostly in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus. While nitrogen can literally be pulled out of the air, phosphorus has to be mined from finite phosphate rock reserves and treated to be made available to plants. Most of the world’s phosphate rock is in Morocco, and at some point these reserves will run out.

URBANA, Ill. – Speakers from University of Illinois Extension and the farmdoc team from the U of I Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics will explore topics such as the 2020 outlook for crop and livestock prices, the next farm bill, farm profitability and management topics, and the impacts of trade and policy issues at the 2019 Illinois Farm Economics Summit in December.

The ongoing trade war with China, combined with one of the wettest spring planting seasons on record, made 2019 a challenging year for Illinois agriculture.

URBANA, Ill. – The United States is the world’s leading producer of soybean and the second-leading exporter. Nearly 90% of oilseed production in the U.S. comes from soybean. A biological threat to soybean crops in America could affect the global economy, and the result could be devastating to the American soybean farmer, according to researchers in the USAID Soybean Innovation Laboratory (SIL), housed in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.