The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Tuesday it is awarding $86.6 million in grant funding to support the specialty crop industry through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP). The program funds innovative projects designed to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) and the New Mexico State Livestock Board have finalized an agreement to enhance state meat and poultry food safety inspection through joining the State USDA Meat and Poultry Inspection (MPI) program.
New Mexico’s participation expands local inspection capacity, enhances food safety oversight, and boosts market access for small and very small meat and poultry processors while maintaining strong national standards. Oklahoma is already participating in the MPI Program.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at Detroit Metropolitan Airport intercepted a first-in-nation batch of potentially destructive giant scale insects earlier this year. The approximately 5-mm-long insects—dark in color and covered by waxy, light-colored protrusions—were found feeding on the surface of fresh pine bark brought in for medicinal purposes during a routine baggage examination of a passenger in transit from the Central Africa nation of Cameroon to Illinois.
Researchers at Oklahoma State University and Mississippi State University are evaluating bluemuda turfgrass, a system that combines bermudagrass and Kentucky bluegrass to improve year-round turf quality while reducing irrigation needs in transition-zone climates.
A University of Oklahoma (OU) researcher at the OU Health Campus in Tulsa is undertaking a study of one of the most common health risks facing older adults: falls that occur in the home.
An estimated 14 million Americans, or one in every four age 65 and older, falls every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While that risk of falls increases as we age, it is estimated to be two to three times higher for those 70,500 Oklahomans among 7.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease.
