News Stories - Page 69

Rock Eagle 4-H Center was announced as a recipient of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER II) in a press release from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office on Jan. 10. The release stated that the $2.2 million in funding “will support vitally needed improvements to the facility to increase safety and expand learning experience opportunities.”

Registration slots are still available to attend the 2022 Georgia Ag Forecast on Jan. 28. The annual event will be held in one location this year, at the University of Georgia Tifton Conference Center on the UGA Tifton campus, with a live virtual registration option available.

Partnerships with schools, businesses and educational institutions have been crucial components in the growth of the Great Georgia Pollinator Census, which was established by University of Georgia Cooperative Extension in 2019.

Andrew Malec was planning to go into photojournalism after he graduated from Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Zack Brendel majored in environmental economics and management in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

For most row crop producers in Georgia, corn, cotton and peanut are planted in the spring and harvested in late fall. After harvest, the ground is left relatively bare, with the residue of the harvested crop the only organic material left on the ground. This is where cover crops come in.

University of Georgia plant pathology researcher Melissa Mitchum will co-direct a $1.2 million award from the joint National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NSF-NIFA) Plant-Biotic Interactions Program to help combat a devastating soybean pathogen with colleagues at the University of Missouri.         

Four high school students from Cobb County took home top honors at the 4-H State Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging contest on Nov. 11, 2021, at Rock Eagle in Eatonton, Georgia. Sandhya Rajesh, Kshitij Badve, Haya Fatmi and Stefan Saboura earned the status of Master 4-H’er with their first-place win at the state level. Alyssa Haag from Oconee County also received Master 4-H’er status as the overall high individual in the contest.

A gene that causes bacteria to be resistant to one of the world’s most important antibiotics, colistin, has been detected in sewer water in Georgia. The presence of the MCR-9 gene is a major concern for public health because it causes antimicrobial resistance, a problem that the World Health Organization has declared “one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.”

As the new year approaches, many people discover a renewed enthusiasm for self-care and self-improvement. Georgia residents looking for guidance on matters of health, healthy relationships, financial literacy and more can count on University of Georgia Cooperative Extension for a wealth of resources to help reach those goals.

The authors of the Southeast chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment will hold virtual workshops in late January and early February and are inviting the public to share their thoughts on climate change-related issues.