I would like to announce that effective November 13, Dr. Lanny Hass has assumed the position of interim director of Personal and Organizational Development for North Carolina Cooperative Extension.

To the position, he brings 28 years of Cooperative Extension Service as well as a national reputation for expertise in organizational development. Coming to North Carolina after 11 years as an agricultural economist at Virginia Tech, Lanny has served in many roles, ranging from county agent to area farm management specialist to associate director of Personal and Organizational Development.

As the interim director, Lanny will lead the POD team as it continues to focus on building Cooperative Extension’s capacity through organizational and individual growth. Please join me in welcoming Lanny to his new position.

--Dr. Jon Ort, director, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, N.C. State University

It's a country restaurant in a small town, with a down-home menu that is literally down on the farm. Almost all of the meat and vegetables are from local farms.

Marvin is Marvin Bost. He and his wife, Cabarrus County extension agent Debbie Bost, live on a state-recognized "century farm" - meaning a farm that has been farmed in the same family for more than 100 years - although their 145-acre spread actually dates back to an original land grant to Marvin's ancestors.

Read more in the Charlotte Observer

Following their training this week, the teens will be expected to return to their communities and work on their own lifestyle changes, involve their household in changes, and conduct at least two programs that involve their family, friends and community.

Read more news from NC A&T State University, ag e-dispatch

Braving blustery, chilly weather, 30 delegates traveled to Hershey, Pa. to represent North Carolina at the 75th annual National Junior Horticultural Association annual convention. 4-H youth and adult leaders participated in a weekend of contests, field trips and workshops to share their interest in plants, meet new friends from across the country and learn about Mid-Atlantic horticulture.

As part of a 75th anniversary celebration, NJHA invited past alumni to return, and one of North Carolina’s Extension legends was honored. Larry Bass, retired 4-H horticulture specialist, attended and received an induction into the NJHA Hall of Fame. NJHA was founded in 1934 by Grant Snyder, and since that time, it has had annual conventions to educate youth about horticulture, careers, leadership and education. The 2010 convention will be held in Cleveland, Ohio.

The course will run seven weeks (March 12 – April 30) and will meet once-a-week, via Elluminate (Thursday evenings from 7-8:30pm). In addition to live (synchronous) online class discussions and lectures, the course will include a variety of assignments aimed at providing students with the opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience working with tourism businesses and professionals.

Michael Hylton, interim director of the Cooperative Extension program in Stokes County, has been named permanent Stokes County director.

Hylton's appointment as Stokes extension director was announced by Extension Director Dr. Jon Ort and Bryan Steen, Stokes County manager. Hylton has been a member of the Stokes extension staff for seven years, serving as the county's horticulture agent before being named interim county director.

Prior to joining extension, Hylton spent nine years working for landscaping firms and a nursery. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and speech communications from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s degree in agricultural science from North Carolina A&T State University.

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) is bringing Will Allen to Raleigh for its 2009 Sustainable Agriculture Lecture on Nov. 9. Allen’s Growing Power Inc. in Milwaukee has become a national model for adapting community supported agriculture to work for inner-city consumers, and he was selected for of one of the 2008 MacArthur Fellowships (the “genius award”) for urban farming initiatives he has developed. Allen will be discussing “Steps to Successful Urban Farming” during a talk that will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the McKimmon Center on the N.C. State campus. This talk will be free and open to the public, but seating is limited. The SAES, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State, and the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Sciences operate the CEFS jointly. Among its research units is a Small Farm Center, and the CEFS also has swine, dairy, organic cropping, farm systems and pasture-based beef units devoted to innovative practices for advancing sustainable food and farming.

Read more about the lecture
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Secretary Awards for Excellence:
Jean Carter, Campus Chapter
Rebecca Castello, Northeast District
Joan Hobbes, Southeast District
Jane McDaniel, West District
Judy Moore, West Central District
State Winner: Jean Carter, Campus Chapter

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) invites
you to join us as we acknowledge 40 years of service at our upcoming
anniversary and Hunger Issues Forum Dec. 4, McKimmon Center, N.C. State University.

The Forum entitled "Cultivating Solutions to Hunger" will address issues in the community through keynote speeches and three breakout sessions featuring national and state experts.

Breakout session topics include:
* Hunger, Nutrition and Obesity
* Connecting People to Food
* Mobilizing Community Resources to Reduce Hunger

KANNAPOLIS -- N.C. State University’s Program for Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture will become N.C. MarketReady, effective Oct. 20.

The value-added program was founded in 2006 by Dr. Blake Brown, director and a professor in the N.C. State Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, with funding from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Since then, the program team, based at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, has grown to five faculty and four staff members. It works closely with N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute, also based at the N.C. Research Campus, as well as with faculty from main campus and Cooperative Extension field faculty across the state.

“We are excited about this new name,” Brown said. “The new name, N.C. MarketReady, more accurately communicates the scope of our program’s work.

Farmers living more than 130 miles from campus who would like to get their name in the hat for lodging, meals and waiver of registration fees for Small Farms Week activities on campus March 22 and 23 have until Jan. 15, 2010, to apply for a scholarship. In addition to living more than 130 miles from campus, applicants must rely on farming for at least 50 percent of annual gross income, and be part of a operation that has a family member making the general managerial decisions.

Read more from ag e-dispatch

Extension Day, Friday, Dec. 4, will include a three-hour morning (9 am – 12 noon) workshop focusing on local food, sustainable business practices and safe food handling and an afternoon tour of value-added facilities. Dec. 5 and 6 will be devoted to CFSA SAC.

Project Learning Tree® partnered with the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance to present a two-day educational workshop for 22 teachers and solid waste professionals in Wilkesboro, Sept. 24 and 25. The workshop included educational activities to help bring lesson plans focusing on waste and recycling into the classroom, as well as tours of a local material recovery facility and landfill.

“With the plastic bottle ban that began on Oct. 1, this is a great time to help get teachers excited about recycling in their schools, as well as providing them tools and ideas to help that happen,” said Kelley Dennings, education and outreach project manager with DPPEA. “Every second, 100 plastic bottles are disposed of in North Carolina. Now they must be recycled, not thrown into landfills.”

Despite drought conditions in parts of the state for most of the year, there should be plenty of colorful foliage worth seeing across North Carolina this fall, according to a North Carolina State University expert. Dr. Robert Bardon, associate professor of forestry and extension forestry specialist at N.C. State, says that in areas of the state that have experienced drought, people should expect to see colors early, and that the leaves will change color faster.

“People should be hoping for weather conditions that are warmer during the day and cooler at nighttime – since they create the most vibrant fall colors,” Bardon says. “However, if we have a wet fall, we can expect less vibrant colors this season.”

During the spring and summer, leaves manufacture most of the food necessary for a tree’s growth. The food-making process occurs in cells that contain the pigment chlorophyll, which gives the leaves their green color. The leaves also contain other pigments that are masked most of the year by the greater amount of chlorophyll.