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Editor's Note
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is pleased
to present "Fresh from the Field," a weekly newsletter highlighting success stories from our grantee partners: land-grant and non land-grant
universities, small business, community groups, federal agencies, state institutions, nonprofit groups, researchers, and others.
The stories featured here showcase the
transformative and groundbreaking discoveries and societal impacts made, in
part, by NIFA funding.
As the editor of “Fresh from the Field," I look forward to sharing your success stories with interested audiences.
If you receive a NIFA grant and would like to share information
(news clips, videos, fact sheets, photographs, etc.) about your project’s
progress, outcomes or impacts, send that information to ImpactStories@nifa.usda.gov or
post a Tweet at #NIFAImpacts.
Hope you enjoy the first edition of this newsletter!
Please send feedback, suggestions or comments to Falita Liles at Fliles@nifa.usda.gov
Sincerely,
Falita Liles
Fresh from the Field Editor
 MSU Extension Responded in Real Time
to Water Crisis in Flint
In November 2015, Michigan State University (MSU) and MSU Extension, provided an
educational and nutritional response to the lead contamination water crisis in Flint,
Michigan. Ingesting high levels of lead is especially dangerous for children
and can lead to behavior and learning problems, lower IQ, hyperactivity, slowed
growth, hearing problems, anemia, and kidney damage. MSU Extension facilitated the distribution of
12,000 gallons of milk to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan—milk can be used to
mitigate the effects of lead absorption, as it is rich in iron, vitamin C, and
calcium.
The water emergency in Flint remains primarily a public health crisis that is currently being addressed by the MSU Extension Team. Learn more about what MSU Extension is presently doing to fight the lead contamination.
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 New Web-based Tool Helps Farmers Plant Veggies at Just
the Right Time
A team at Oregon State University has built a web-based
predictive tool that Willamette Valley vegetable farmers can use to schedule
their plantings and harvests for the most favorable times.
The interactive tool, called Croptime, taps into temperature
data and weather and climate forecasts to calculate optimal dates for planting
of vegetable crops grown in the valley.
By enabling growers to identify their optimum planting
dates, Croptime promises to take some of the uncertainty out of harvest
scheduling. Read more about this interesting tool on the Oregon
State University Extension website.
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 Study Examines the Population Decline of Clams on
Lummi Nation Tidal Flats
By Andres Quesada, associate director, National Indian
Center for Marine Environmental Research and Education, Northwest Indian
College
This guest blog describes
how USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) supports tribal
food sovereignty and economic growth. Read full NIFA blog article online.
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 Celebrity Chefs are Cooking up Poor Food Safety Habits, According to a Kansas State University Study
The chefs' most common food safety hazards included lack of hand-washing, not changing the cutting boards between raw meat and vegetables that wouldn't be cooked, and not using a meat thermometer to check meat doneness. Read the full Kansas State article online.
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Drainage Design & Management Practices to Improve
Water Quality
NCERA-217 worked to improve subsurface drainage systems and practices. The group's findings were used by state governments to develop standards, which are a necessary first step toward farmers adopting sustainable practices. When implemented, improved drainage management has significantly reduced nitrogen, phosphorus, and other contaminant losses from drained lands and dramatically reduced water quality problems and associated environmental and human health risks. Read the full NCERA-217 Impact Summary.
 #NIFAImpacts
Researchers from the University of New Hampshire analyzed infection data
and population trends of the little brown bat in the eastern United States. They found that persisting populations long exposed to the
disease had much lower fungal infection levels at the end of winter than bat
populations that were still declining and only recently exposed.
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