Having trouble viewing this email? Try the online version
CTAHR Alumni & Friends

Issue 4   |   January 03, 2011

News & Events

Dean's Message

Sylvia YuenHappy New Year! Now that I’ve got a semester as Interim Dean of CTAHR under my belt and have weathered the transition period, I’m looking forward to an exciting Spring semester, when I’ll see some new ideas come to fruition. That’s one of the things I am loving most about this position, envisioning potential and working to bring it to reality. In this edition of Alumni & Friends, we look back on the groundbreaking work that now-retired members of the CTAHR ‘ohana have done over the years and celebrate the strides forward that present faculty, staff, and students are making—and gain fresh inspiration for our own efforts. For instance, now we take hydroponics for granted, but remember when the idea of growing vegetables in nothing but water would have sounded bizarre, to say the least? How about the conventional wisdom that grain-fed beef is always tastier than grass-fed? Now we have gustatory evidence that’s just not so. And what about the idea that plants can contribute to their own defense against pests? Doesn’t it make more sense to grow varieties that are resistant to what’s eating them so we can reduce the use of pesticides? What other ideas do we take for granted that someday soon a CTAHR researcher will be turning upside down? In this new year, let’s all try to expand the possibilities we see—to become, each in our own way, visionaries for change.

Growing the Bones

Jingzeng YangMolecular biologist Jinzeng Yang (HNFAS) is the leader of a research team that recently developed innovative techniques that could have profound effects on research into congenital cervical vertebrae malformation. The cover-featured article of the Nov. issue of Molecular Reproduction and Development, Transgenic Over-Expression of Growth Differentiation Factor 11 Propeptide in Skeleton Results in Transformation of the Seventh Cervical Vertebra into a Thoracic Vertebra,” describes how researchers looked into congenital cervical vertebrae malformation in humans that can cause neural problems and increase susceptibility to stillbirth in women. Research on abnormal vertebrae development has previously been limited due to the lack of lab animals that are close enough to humans to provide useful information, but researchers from Yang’s laboratory have developed a new mouse model that reveals how patterning and developmental proteins can influence cervical vertebrae formation. The model uses a gene-suppression technique that induces skeletal formation, creating mice that appear normal but have striking cervical vertebrae formation. Yang's new gene-suppression technique offers benefits over the previously used “knockout mice” created by complete gene removal, which die shortly after birth.

Like Buy One Plant?

Student Plant SaleTPSS students held a successful 3-day plant sale at the Campus Center as part of their TPSS 430 Nursery Management class. The course approach has been revised by professor Kheng Cheah to provide a deeper understanding of what is involved in becoming a nursery manager or owner or an employee of a large agribusiness, as well as to develop practical skills needed in the next generation of Hawai‘i’s nursery managers and owners. The emphasis is on the strategic thinking behind setting up a nursery business and on modern applied business management principles. The class includes broad integrative experiences, from choosing nursery business models to strategizing production, financial, and marketing plans to actually selling plants as a way to test the students' business models and products. Participatory learning techniques such as teamwork and collaboration—and plant sales—are essential in this class.

Grants & Awards

Progressive Agriculture

Milton Yamasaki with tea cropAgriculturist Milton Yamasaki will honored at the 18th Annual Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival on Feb. 5. Milton retired last fall as long-time manager of CTAHR’s Mealani Research Station, where he oversaw operations at five Big Island research sites. Milton helped to initiate the development of several healthy food systems crops, such as 100-percent grass-fed beef, green tea, and blueberries. He was named Governor’s Award Honoree for Distinguished State Service at UH in 2007 and also earned UH’s Dean’s Award from CTAHR and the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Civil Service Employee at UH-Manoa. Milton helped to introduce annual Forage Field Days to educate ranchers on grass-finishing beef and was also involved in founding Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range, which showcases how great that beef can taste. Milton is focused on progressive methods: “I’m happy that in recent years we have started to lead the industry by developing new products and methods, instead of just solving current problems,” he says. The Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival (9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday) will offer a wide range of activities, including Japanese and multicultural performing arts, plus demonstrations of bonsai, origami, tea ceremony, quilting and mochi pounding, as well as crafts for sale. For more information, please call (808) 961-8706.

Spotlight on Our Community

Radical Lettuce

Bernard Kratky with lettuce“Thank you for accepting my sometimes radical ideas,” writes Bernie Kratky (TPSS, Emeritus) on the occasion of his retirement after 39½ years with CTAHR. These include explorations of growing crops in protected culture, experiments in plasticulture (that’s the use of plastics in agriculture), and non-circulating hydroponic growing methods. Having begun his research on a Wisconsin dairy farm, he studied throughout the world, including in China and Australia, and brought that experience to a Hawai‘i setting. Bernie notes with pride the Hawai‘i farms using his techniques, such as Prime Kine Lettuce Farm in Hilo, which has been growing lettuce since 1993 based upon his team’s hydroponics research. He predicts retirement will be very similar to his working life: more papers, more projects, more radical ideas to help local farmers grow.

Helping Plants Help Themselves

Don Schmitt on John Deere tractorNematodes, or parasitic roundworms, are apparently as addicted to coffee as the rest of us, but it’s the roots of the plants they like, not the final brew. Enter Don Schmitt (PEPS, Emeritus), who was instrumental in the development and deployment of the ‘Fukunaga’ rootstock, which is resistant to the Kona coffee root-knot nematode and is now widely used by Kona coffee growers. Growing plants that help themselves also helps the growers—less hassle, fewer losses, more money saved—and the ‘aina—fewer pesticides. Don also served as the chair of the Plant Pathology Department (now PEPS). After leaving CTAHR in 2003, Don went on to redefine “retirement”: He moved to North Carolina and now operates a 600-acre farm that grows corn, soybeans, and wheat. His wife and daughter manage a flower and gift shop, where Don helps out when he's not farming—or enjoying nature in its natural state. He writes that in addition to his acres under cultivation, he has “about 100 acres of unmanaged forest, which is great for wildlife (deer, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, and a wide array of birds).” And possibly even nematodes.

Engage in Extreme Exertion in the Desert—Check!

Ashley Stokes on bicycleCongratulations to Ashley Stokes (HNFAS, Extension veterinarian) for recently completing the Ford Arizona Ironman Triathlon in Tempe, AZ. The event included a 2.4-mile swim in Tempe Town Lake, a 112-mile bike ride in the Sonoran Desert, and a 26.2-mile run. She says that she wanted to tick this one off her “bucket list.” We can only wonder what else is on that list!