OSU agricultural
research is where food begins in Oregon and beyond.
Urban and rural communities find common ground in shared
food systems.
During the 1990s, Oregon coastal
communities lost significant employment with the collapse of the coastal salmon
fishery and closure of traditional seafood canneries. But while traditionally
targeted species were growing scarce, some of the more abundant species were
considered unappealing to consumers and therefore not marketable in the U.S.
The OSU Seafoods Laboratory, part
of the Agricultural Experiment Station, worked with the seafood industry to
demonstrate that an Oregon shore-based
surimi industry could produce and market quality Pacific whiting as surimi.
Today, the Pacific whiting industry is one of Oregon's largest fisheries,
contributing $15-20 million annually to the Oregon economy. The Seafoods Lab
conducts annual surimi schools in Oregon, Asia and Europe, showing industry representatives
from around the world how to use this Oregon product to make better surimi
products.
OSU's fermentation science has come of age as Oregon bubbles to the top
of the microbrew industry. With the nation's first endowed professorship in
fermentation science, and one of only two university-based brew houses, OSU's
Food Science and Technology provide research and testing for new beer
varieties. Graduates from the CAS program are in high demand throughout the
industry.
The Willamette Valley produces 98
percent of the nation's hazelnuts.
However, in the 1970s, a fungal disease was killing trees and contaminating
entire orchards, threatening the entire industry. Twenty years of CAS research
and extension has developed disease-resistant varieties and helped to save the
industry, today worth more than $65 million.
OSU's vegetable breeding program has provided generations of Oregonians
with the best possible vegetables. Vegetable breeding has been a part of OSU's
Agricultural Experiment Station for generations, resulting in 90 percent of the
commercial green bean varieties and 75 percent of the commercial potato
varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest. CAS vegetable breeders have developed
healthier tomatoes with added phytonutrients and several hardy varieties for
the booming organic vegetable market.
As a partner in the Community Seafood Initiative, AES
research helps seafood-based businesses gain a competitive edge, which helps
coastal communities throughout Oregon.
Applied research has resulted in documenting the lower mercury levels in local
albacore tuna; measuring the high Omega-3 content in locally caught sardines;
and tracking salmon and tuna from sea to market, and thus adding value to
locally caught seafood.
OSU's innovations in
improving human health increase the quality of life for Oregonians now and into
the future.
Using various models for human health-from rainbow trout to
mustard plants- faculty in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences faculty have
made critical discoveries leading to improved human health.
Scientists at OSU studying the relationship betweendiet and cancer were among the first to
isolate the toxins responsible for the plague of liver cancer in developing
countries. That same research has now led to the discovery of a simple,
inexpensive compound that can block the ability of those toxins to cause cancer
in thousands of people around the world. Studies of rainbow trout helped CAS
researcher George Bailey and colleagues confirm the anti-cancer properties of
chlorophyllin, a derivative of one of the most common substances on earth.
The source of the various colors
of berries, apples and cherries are called fruit pigments, and researchers at Oregon State
University have revealed
their value as dietary antioxidants.
Researchers from OSU's Food Science and Technology Department, under the leadership
of internationally recognized food scientist Ron Wrolstad, isolated and
concentrated the anthocyanin pigments and polyphenolic compounds found in
pigments that pack the most vitamin value. This was a crucial first step toward
identifying and extracting the active health components of blueberries,
cherries, strawberries and other fruits and vegetables.Their research has
yielded benefits for both fruit consumers and Oregon fruit producers.
Manmade nanoparticles are specifically
designed in laboratories to have commercially useful properties, but it is
important to determine whether these useful properties produce adverse
responses in animals or humans before they are commercialized. For more than a
decade, Robert Tanguay, a researcher in OSU's Department of Environmental and
Molecular Toxicology and in the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies
Institute has used zebrafish-a small
aquarium fish-to examine the effects of environmental contaminants and
pharmaceuticals on early embryonic development. His work makes it possible to
test these new technologies and
determine their safety before they enter the marketplace.
The National Pesticide Medical Monitoring
Program is an OSU-EPA collaboration that provides information for those
assessing human exposures to pesticides. Physician and OSU medical toxicologist
Daniel Sudakin and staff answer thousands of inquiries each year about
exposures to toxic substances, from the EPA, from the public, from pesticide
applicators, from state and federal agencies and from physicians.
In cell wars, it's microRNA calling the shots. James Carrington,
a plant biologist and director of OSU's CGRB, has uncovered the role of little
known and under-appreciated genetic material in the war against invading
viruses. Using a type of mustard plant, he has found how viruses move through
host plants, how plants respond to viruses, and how viruses counter-respond to
the plant's defenses.
A team of OSU researchers began
studying the cancer-fighting properties
of hops in the 1990s, focusing on a flavonoid compound called xanthohumol.
Since then, they and others around the world have found that xanthohumol is one
of the more significant compounds for everything from hormone replacement
therapy for women to combating prostate, breast, and colon cancer. Xanthohumol
appears to be an antioxidant even more powerful than vitamin E and can reduce
the oxidation of LDL, or bad cholesterol, according to Donald Buhler, a
biochemical toxicologist in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences and part of
the OSU team studying the hops flavonoid. Fred Stevens leads the current
research in OSU's Linus Pauling Institute.
OSU research has
practical and significant applications for sustaining Oregon's environment.
Decision-makers rely on on-the-ground research expertise by
CAS scientists to help address Oregon's thorniest environmental conflicts.
CAS research and extension has
helped Willamette Valley grass-seed growers change the course of their industry
by reducing field burningby 90 percent. Researchers from OSU and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed new grass-seed varieties that do
not require burning and new methods to use straw residue to fertilize fields
(which saved $40 to $60 an acre in fertilizer). As a result, despite burning
restrictions, the grass seed industry today continues to grow and is valued at
more than $500 million.
In 1999, sudden oak death spread to Oregon,
killing oaks, infecting other plants, and threatening Oregon's billion-dollar nursery industry.
Rapid response from OSU scientists has helped to contain the spread of sudden
oak death in Oregon.
Whale researcher Bruce Mate and
colleagues at OSU's Marine Mammal
Institute have pioneered the use of satellites to track tagged whales. More
than two decades of research has yielded information for the first time about
the animals' migration and behavior as they move between feeding and calving
areas. The work shows how whales migrate in close proximity to human activities
and how their feeding areas have changed in recent years in response to warming
in the Bering Sea
Seven years after a devastating
drought split the community, Klamath
Basin residents are working out a solution and the OSU research and
Extension faculty are in the thick of the action. OSU faculty function as
catalyst and facilitator, based on credibility as a neutral party to provide
credible scientific information and keep the channels of communication open.
In a five-year study for the
National Park Service, CAS researchers and colleagues documented contamination in the world's most remote
places. They measured toxic metals and other contaminants in snow, soil,
air, water, fish, and vegetation in places once thought to be among the most
pristine areas in the planet. And they found that some of these contaminants
have a very long commute, crossing the Pacific Ocean on atmospheric currents
from as far away as Asia and eastern Europe.
The top of the Portland Building
opens onto a rooftop meadow and one of Oregon State
University's latest
agricultural experiments. OSU's green
roof research program is testing these hard-working landscapes on the
Portland skyline, which help to mitigate storm water run-off and temperature
extremes in an otherwise asphalt landscape.
The Pacific Northwest Ecosystem
Research Consortium, led by fisheries and wildlife scientist Stan Gregory,
helped residents in Oregon's most
populated regionplot their shared
future. The scientific team mapped the river basin as it would look 50
years from now under three different scenarios: if current land management
continued; if more development was encouraged; and if more conservation was
encouraged. They used the past as a compass and engaged people in the basin to
plot alternative paths into their future.
OSU fish pathologists have been at
the forefront of fish disease research for over 30 years, beginning with the
pioneering efforts of John Fryer.
Faculty at OSU have trained many of the nation's professional fish pathologists
and fish health researchers, have identified the causes of several important
diseases afflicting fishes in the Pacific Northwest, and developed vaccines and
diagnostic tests that are routinely used for cultured and wild stocks of fish.
In addition, they have provided a wealth of knowledge on the pathogenic
mechanisms and epidemiology of most of the serious diseases of salmonids and
other fish. Since inception of the fish disease program, the fish species under
investigation have broadened to include wild marine fishes, ornamental species,
and fish used as research models. Nevertheless, diseases of salmonid fishes
remain a primary research focus.
OSU agricultural
research is leading Oregon in more sustainable ways to manage water.
Water is a critical-and limited- resource in Oregon and the
world.
Re-using water from food
processing to irrigate crops not only recycles water but also recycles
nutrients that can nourish crops rather than fouling groundwater. Don Horneck,
OSU Extension horticulturist at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and
Extension Center, is connecting irrigators and industries in the Columbia Basin
to develop options for water reuse.
Twenty years of negotiations
among tribes and irrigators have
created a plan to sustain both salmon and crops in the Umatilla Basin. OSU
students from the Umatilla tribe mentored by OSU researchers have made it
happen.
Years of OSU research has
documented the spread of western juniper
and the associated loss of groundwater throughout the intermountain west. Western
juniper covers 10 times more land than it did in the 1880s. An innovative experiment
in Central Oregon tapped an unexpected source of water when invasive juniper
was cut from a wooded watershed.
