November 18, 2023
Patrick Drohan, Professor of Soils at Penn State University, joined Mark Gibson, Head of the Teagasc Outreach & Innovation Department, on the latest podcast version of the Signpost Series to discuss catchment management initiatives in the USA.
October 1, 2023
Penn State collaborated with the Lupton Family, PA Bureau of Forestry, and State Parks to host the 2023 Northeast Regional Soil Judging Competition.
August 31, 2023
MS student Abby Owens and PhD Student Jhony Benavides graduated in Summer 2023.
May 14, 2023
The soil judging team traveled to Woodward, OK for Nationals March 26-31. About 240 students from 24 universities competed.
October 26, 2022
Penn State’s student Soil Judging Team recently captured third place overall in a regional competition to qualify for the national championships next spring.
March 23, 2022
A team of Penn State researchers will develop recommendations and protocols for the testing and management of soils for safe production of garden and food crops in urban settings, funded by a $100,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
January 20, 2022
Both students accomplished an incredibly hard feat, especially given they were in graduate school during COVID.
October 9, 2021
This past summer, Hoelsken worked as an undergraduate researcher with Abigail Owens, a graduate student in soil science. Owens is studying the effect of Penn State’s Living Filter and wastewater practices on local soil. They searched for iron concentrations and depletions in the soil and bedrock that might interrupt the supply of groundwater.
February 9, 2021
PhD student Fei Jiang finds that growing the right crop in the right place within an impaired watershed can achieve significant water quality improvement. Jiang's research, published in Agricultural Systems, finds crop reallocation simulations resulted in a 15% reduction in total nitrogen losses, a 14% reduction in total phosphorus losses and a 39% reduction in sediment losses at an average annual scale across the watershed.
February 9, 2021
PhD student Fei Jiang finds that allowing farmers to harvest vegetation from their riparian buffers will not significantly impede the ability of those streamside tracts to protect water quality by capturing nutrients and sediment -- and it will boost farmers' willingness to establish buffers. Jiang's research is published in the Journal of Environmental Quality.
September 1, 2020
The goal of PARN is to rapidly scale-up an open source platform that connects producers, suppliers, manufacturers, and workers along PA’s food supply chain, thus minimizing bottlenecks. Our platform can reach a diverse group of stakeholders to provide urgently needed support now, while also building infrastructure for a more resilient regional food economy over the long term.
March 26, 2020
Our lab group knows of no current issues with the Agricultural supply chain in the USA and COVID-19 disruptions. However, the potential trend of "soon overwhelmed health systems" has us concerned. What we are most concerned about is a fragile demographic (farming now) and the risk of C19 further disrupting it and creating a negative economic feedback. Around the USA, Land Grants could take a lead in developing Agriculture Assessment Planning Teams but state committee membership should not be limited to College of Ag members. There are likely people in Business programs, other academic departments, and outside University entities, who all could be helpful to have on such a committee. For example, are their retired military experts in logistics planning who could be members? We are currently working with others to support development of a support network for farmers.
