Philosophy – Water Scarcity in California

In the philosophy class, Research Ethics, I decided to write a philosophical pater about:

WHAT ARE RESEARCH SCIENTISTS’ RESPONSIBILITIES WHEN CONSIDERING CALIFORNIA’S WATER SCARCITY PROBLEM?

Please feel free to have a look at this paper:

-philosophy_research_ethics_march2008

Organic Food Production

Local and National Organic Food Production

Group project, OSU Winter 2007  -  organic-food-production_poster_winter2007

The Organic Food Production Act of 1990 established the National Organic Program (NOP) under the direction of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), an arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Organic production is a system that is managed in accordance with the Act and regulations in response to site-specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Organic products are a commodity at both the local and national level; resulting in increased land and water issues. Farmers at local and national level have different standards and certification procedures. This mediates how consumers use their purchasing power to either support local or national companies.

Organic Soil Amendments

Comparative Study in Lab Incubations of Five Organic Soil Amendments at Two Different Temperatures

OSU Spring 2007 – organic-soil-amendments_group-project_2007

Abstract:

An experiment was conducted to analyze the difference that two temperatures (22°C and 37°C) have on nutrient content, nitrogen mineralization and carbon release in some common organic products used for organic growers in the Pacific Northwest. The products used for the current study were coffee grounds, feather meal, fish emulsion, shrimp shells and horse manure. These amendments were tested for pH, EC, N mineralization, CO2 lost through decomposition, and plant available nutrients through ion flux with PRS^TM probes in a 7 day period. Temperatures affected the amendments with C: N ratios lower than 10 (fish, feather, shrimp), more than the amendments with C: N ratios more than 20 (horse, coffee). The different temperatures did not affect micronutrient availability. All of the amendments did follow the trend of decomposing more quickly at higher temperatures.

Internship Project

In conjunction with my Mater’s project, I presented the ion technology, PRS probe, to my Nutrient Management in Organic Cropping System class.

Plant Root Simulator Probe_presentation-2007

In addition, I presented a poster, on the Belowground Dynamics of Inter-seeding Wheat and Pea, at the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association Conference in January  2008.

PNWDS_PRS_WAII_Poster_Jan08