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Partnerships nurture good results
Cooperative Extension
Tech
center project officially launched
Gateway Technology
Center
NCSU
students get new offering
College of Management
Letter
to the editor: Foundation's aim
Institute for Nonprofits
N.C.
shores not immune to killer wave
Ernest Knowles (emeritus), marine, earth and atmospheric sciences
Partnerships nurture good results
Dec. 30, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
The closing of a calendar year usually allows us to pause and reflect on many aspects of the past year that have impacted our lives.
N.C. Cooperative Extension has had the opportunity to touch and change many lives this year. More than 2,700 sixth-grade students have a better understanding about the food they eat, where it comes from, agribusiness' impact in the county and human interaction with the environment.
This successful collaboration between Cabarrus County government, the Cabarrus County Fair, Cabarrus County Schools, Kannapolis City Schools, Cabarrus Soil and Water Conservation, Cabarrus Agribusiness Council, Cooperative Extension and many others enabled youth to expand their understanding of basic concepts related to soils, water, air, animals and how human interactions influence all of this.
Collaborations and partnerships are the best way to accomplish a variety of goals and create the best possible situation for everyone involved. We are very thankful for our opportunity to work with Time Warner Cable's Channel 22 to deliver a monthly program update and timely horticultural information for our homeowners.
Another successful partnership includes Cabarrus County Schools and the Kids: Plus program. Together we deliver 4-H after-school activities through the Kids: Plus program. There are 4-H clubs in each of the schools, and students gain access to fun, creative and educational enrichment activities, and we have the ability to work with additional youth in our community.
The Successful Gardener Kids program delivered gardening activities, and the "4-H Mission...Nutrition" program enables all youth to add movement to their lives and begin to think about changing unhealthy habits.
These are only a few of the activities and programs we offer together with the county school system.
Partnerships are win-win for everyone, and we thank Cabarrus County government and the county commissioners for their strong partnership with N.C. State University and N.C. A&T State University. We have a link with A&T that we've never had before. Our new local community development extension agent is here through the cooperation of Cabarrus County and the two universities.
We are excited about this new community link and look forward to great things in 2005.
Dec. 30, 2004
Rocky Mount Telegram
By Natalie Jordan
© Copyright 2004
State and local officials gathered to break ground at an area college, a sign of good things to come to Rocky Mount in the new year.
A joint venture between area community colleges, N.C. State University, East Carolina University, state elected officials, the Rocky Mount-based Golden LEAF Foundation and Carolinas Gateway Partnership will bring the Gateway Technology Center to the campus of N.C. Wesleyan College.
"It will be a state-of-the-art building that will have everything needed," said Thomas Betts, chairman of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership. "Eventually, this will be the biggest thing in the city."
The center, which will be located on 3.65 acres of land on the college's campus, will serve students interested in pursuing engineering and business careers.
"The idea for this building grew out of need for highly qualified professionals in areas of industrial engineering, which will benefit companies such as Honeywell and RBC Centura," said John Gessaman, president of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership. "It will be a prominent site, one that could stand on its own, where individuals could come and continue their education either by fulfilling the requirements of a four-year degree or finishing the last two years to receive their bachelor's without leaving our little area."
Betts said the center will be paramount to the city's economic development.
"Honeywell came and said, 'We have people working here who are interested in moving up in their field of engineering, and we need somewhere to train them,'" Betts said. "Not only will this be a center to train engineers, but a facility where N.C. State and ECU can bring professors to teach. So we are bringing the teachers to the students, and the course study will be the same caliber as taught on the campus in Raleigh or Greenville."
With shovels in hand, Betts and Gessaman were joined by a group of local officials and state lawmakers to help kick off the ground breaking.
"This center will provide extremely good education," said Nash County Board of Commissioners Chairman Claude Mayo. "It will not cause competition with the area colleges, but help expand their opportunities. And it should help bring engineers to the area."
The building project will cost about $4 million to construct, with $2.5 million from Carolinas Gateway Partnership and $1.5 million from the Golden LEAF Foundation. Three million dollars of the funding will go to construction, while $1 million will go to providing the technology such as computers and labs for the building, with a completion date of late 2005 or early 2006.
"Three hundred and sixty days is our timeline on this, and we hope it doesn't take longer than that," said Nash County Commissioner Robbie Davis, president and owner of Turn-Key Contractors. "There were seven contractors who bid on this project, and we had the lowest. It's real convenient, and considered to be a high-profile job. Plus, we always like to work closer to home."
Paul Black, associate director of planning and development services for the Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments, said the partnership has collaborated with several two-year institutions, and this is way to bridge the connection with four-year institutions.
"We are trying to fill the gap in the educational structures," said Black, who wrote the grant for the federal portion. "There are a lot of industrial centers here, and in the schools there is training for engineering workers, but there are gaps on the supervisory levels.
"And this is geared specifically toward engineers."
Letter to the editor: Foundation's aim
Dec. 30, 2004
News & Observer
© Copyright 2004
As you reported in the Dec. 28 article "Foundation to prod legislators," the A.J. Fletcher Foundation is building on its grant-making tradition by working to help shape public policy.
For more than 55 years, the foundation has funded programs in fields ranging from the arts to human services, and has invested in helping nonprofits be more effective. We continue to make grants to individual organizations such as The Fletcher Academy School of Achievement and The Healing Place of Wake County. And we continue to work to strengthen the nonprofit sector through support of the Philanthropy Journal, the Institute for Nonprofits at N.C. State University and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
But philanthropy is more than money. North Carolina faces urgent social problems caused by legislative policy neglect. To fix what is wrong, charitable organizations must raise their voices and work with one another and with government and business to make change happen.
By expanding our focus from making grants to influencing public policy, the foundation aims to help make our state a better place to live and work.
Barbara Goodmon
President, A.J. Fletcher Foundation
Raleigh
NCSU students get new offering
Dec. 30, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- N.C. State University will begin offering a concentration in biotechnology-pharmaceutical to its Master of Business Administration students starting next fall.
Students in the new concentration will complete the MBA program's regular four-course concentration in a traditional area such as entrepreneurship, finance or marketing, plus three additional courses that cover issues faced by the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Full-time MBA students also will complete an internship with a biotechnology or pharmaceutical firm.
The new concentration was designed for full-time or part-time students with solid life sciences backgrounds, N.C. State said in a press release. Additional information about the new and existing concentrations will be available at the College of Management's upcoming information sessions on Jan. 10, Jan. 31 and Feb. 23. For more information, see the program's Web site at www.mba.ncsu.edu.
Tobacco buyout affects outlook for 2005 crops
Dec. 29, 2004
Southeast Farm Press
By Paul L. Hollis
© Copyright 2004
The 2005 outlook for U.S. flue-cured tobacco comes slightly more into focus with the end of the tobacco program. However, many uncertainties remain, according to two agricultural economists.
“With most of the United States and Brazil crops under contract, changes in production after a buyout will be largely coordinated by international leaf and cigarette merchants,” according to a paper released by Blake Brown of North Carolina State University and William Snell of the University of Kentucky.
Since the 2005 Brazil crop was contracted for and planted by the time buyout legislation was passed, it’s unlikely that leaf merchants or cigarette manufacturers will expand 2005 U.S. production substantially, say the economists. However, U.S. flue-cured production could increase towards a level of 800 million pounds over the next two to three years.
Many flue-cured farmers would exit production with the end of the program, they say. “The pace of consolidation of production units would increase, resulting in fewer farms, but in larger aggregate U.S. production. Price would decline to under $1.50 per pound within one to two years and could decrease toward $1.25 as production expanded.”
In addition, world production of flue-cured tobacco would not likely expand substantially, according to the forecast. “Increases in the United States likely would come as merchants shifted some production from Brazil to the United States and moved future decreases in Zimbabwe production to the United States.”
Brazil, they say, will remain the dominant producer and exporter of flavor-type flue-cured tobacco. However, merchants have expressed some nervousness about disease or weather risks associated with having so much of the world’s flavor-type flue-cured production concentrated in the small geographic production region of southern Brazil.
The production/price environment for the 2005 U.S. burley tobacco crop becomes very uncertain with the passage of the buyout, say the economists.
“Prices will fall to reflect the absence of quota rents and price supports, but it remains unclear what types of prices incentives the companies will offer to encourage enough growers to remain in business.
“Labor, credit and management constraints may limit expansion in the short run. However, over a two to three-year period, U.S. burley production could increase to over 400 million pounds without production controls. Prices likely will decline toward $1.50 per pound during this period.”
A large exodus of small producers is expected with the buyout, particularly in the Applachian region, states the forecast. “Some exceptions to this scenario may be in areas of Appalachia where few alternative sources of income exist. As with flue-cured, the pace of consolidation of burley farms would increase. While the number of burley farms likely would decline dramatically, those burley farms remaining will be considerably larger so that aggregate U.S. burley production will increase.
If geographical restrictions are not included in the buyout, production will shift out of the higher cost or production regions such as eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and West Virginia, according to the economists.
“Some farms in central Kentucky and Tennessee may grow more, but most of the growth likely will be in the western half of Kentucky in response to the low-cost environment created by higher yields and cropland availability. Additional expansion could occur in southern Illinois, southern Indiana and perhaps parts of central North Carolina and Virginia.”
U.S. flue-cured production for 2004 was forecast at 512 million pounds, up slightly from 2003, according to Brown and Snell. The 2004 flue-cured basic quota was 471 million pounds, and the effective quota was about 500 million pounds.
“Consequently, many flue-cured producers expected to have extra tobacco to carry over into 2005. At writing (Sept. 21, 2004), the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corporation was taking about 16 percent of the crop. About 80 percent of the 2004 crop was sold via contracts. Stabilization had 81 million pounds of old crop tobacco in inventory.”
If Stabilization takes 15 percent of the 2004 effective quota, new crop inventory will be about 80 million pounds, giving a total inventory at the end of the season of about 161 million pounds, say the economists.
“Use of U.S. flue-cured by U.S. cigarette manufacturers has declined from more than 500 million pounds in the mid-1990s to an estimated 411 million pounds in 2004. Unmanufactured exports of U.S. flue-cured have declined from close to 400 million pounds to an estimated 190 million pounds during the same period.”
World flue-cured production for 2004 was projected at 8.29 billion pounds, up 4.3 percent from 2003 according to the August 2004 “World Leaf Production Summary” by Universal Corporation. The report estimated Brazil’s 2004 flue-cured production at 1.545 billion pounds, compared to estimates of 505 million pounds for the United States and 132 million pounds of Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe’s flue-cured production has continued to erode, down from 523 million pounds in 2000, with Brazil picking up much of Zimbabwe’s lost production. While world flue-cured producers are not in an over-supply situation, supplies are ample.”
U.S. burley tobacco production for 2004 was forecast at 301 million pounds or 7 percent higher than the 2003 crop. This still represents only 91 percent of the national effective quota of 332 million pounds. Burley markets opened in November.
In the 2003 marketing year, the Burley Tobacco Cooperative and Burley Stabilization received 40 million pounds out of 272 million pounds marketed or about 15 percent of marketings. Based on contract prices and price support schedules, average U.S. burley prices for the 2004 crop should continue to hover around $1.95 to $2 per pound. It’s expected that about 80 percent of the burley crop will be contracted, with the majority of auction marketings going under loan.
U.S. burley demand, say the economists, continues to be hampered by the increasing use of less expensive imported tobacco, declining domestic cigarette production and a growing deep-discount U.S. cigarette market that uses very little U.S. burley.
“One bright spot for the burley sector of late has been a surprising expansion of leaf exports. After slumping for several years, U.S. burley exports increased 6 percent in 2003 and an additional 12 percent for the first six months of 2004. Despite the recent modest increase in exports, total use of U.S. burley generally has fallen from its traditional level of 500 to 600 million pounds to approximately 300 to 350 million pounds.”
World production of burley tobacco in 2004 was estimated at 1.88 billion pounds, according to Universal Corporation’s “World Leaf Production Summary.” This is an 11.4 percent increase over 2003. Burley production in Brazil has increased steadily from 209 million pounds in 2000 to an estimated 317 million pounds in 2004.
Argentina has increased burley production from 86 million pounds to 123 million pounds during the same period.
“The quality of burley produced in Argentina and Brazil reportedly also has increased to the point of Brazilian and Argentine tobaccos now being close competitors to U.S. burley. Malawi has remained a substantial producer of ‘filler’ burley tobacco, producing an estimated 286 million pounds in 2004.”
N.C. shores not immune to killer wave
Dec. 29, 2004
Fresno Bee, CA; Mid Columbia Tri City Herald, WA
By CATHERINE CLABBY
© Copyright 2004
North Carolinians rightly fear hurricanes more than tsunamis. The familiar storms repeatedly hurl high winds, storm surge and lethal inland flooding our way.
But while the risk of a deadly tsunami reaching the Outer Banks, say, is tiny, it exists.
"They are rare, but these things can happen on any body of water," said Harry Woodworth, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Philadelphia who collects data on Atlantic Ocean tsunamis.
First the good news: While Atlantic tsunamis devastated spots in Europe and Canada in previous centuries, Woodworth has no evidence of a tsunami slamming into the East Coast since a mild one struck shores from Rhode Island down to New Jersey in the spring of 1964.
Big earthquakes most often cause lethal tsunamis of the sort that struck Asia this week. And the ocean floor off the East Coast is not prone to big earthquakes. The Earth's tectonic plates in this region, in contrast to those along the Pacific Rim, for the most part aren't on collision courses.
But scientists observe potential troubles in the Atlantic Ocean.
* One is the Puerto Rico Trench, a region where the North American plate is sinking under the Caribbean plate. That, one day, could produce quakes that could spawn tsunamis that could reach our shores.
"If it radiated north, it could hit some of the North Carolina beaches, like Atlantic Beach, which faces south," said Ernest Knowles, a retired N.C. State University physical oceanography professor.
* Earthquakes alone don't breed tsunamis. Landslides into water release energy that pushes walls of water toward shores too, where they can arrive unannounced.
Scientists see the potential for that at a volcano in the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco, called Cumbre Vieja. Geologists have observed that the western half of the volcano appears poised to collapse into the ocean when a big enough eruption occurs.
If it does, a huge amount of rock will tumble into the ocean. While some people are skeptical, others think the resulting walls of waves could strike the entire East Coast of the United States.
* If the volcano isn't scary enough, three researchers four years ago found trouble much closer to home. In a paper published in Geology Magazine, they revealed suspicious looking cracks on the sea floor along the continental shelf east of Cape Hatteras.
Trouble is, it's not clear whether the cracks are signs of trouble to come or of a prior event. If an underwater landslide happened, the toll could be comparable to the storm surge created by Hurricane Hazel in 1954, a Category 4 cyclone that created storm surge 18 feet high in spots.
Or a landslide could amount to something less.
"There is no way to say what the consequences could be," said Tyler Clark, chief geologist of the N.C. Geological Survey.
Given all this uncertainty, scientists don't discount the possibility that a tsunami could strike North Carolina. But no one is sounding an alarm, said UNC-Chapel Hill geology professor Jonathan Lees.
"This is not something we should worry about intensely," he said.