A team of researchers from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is partnering with colleagues from Texas A&M University to find more effective production practices for organic onion growers in the Southern United States. Bhabesh Dutta, associate professor in the UGA Department of Plant Pathology is leading the team over the next four years through a recently funded $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Distinguished Research Professor Katrien Devos specializes in plant genetics, studying ways to optimize species like Panicum virgatum — commonly known as switchgrass — for use as feedstocks for biofuels. She is one of many UGA researchers affiliated with the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, based on Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

In honor of International Podcast Day on Sept. 30, we are highlighting a few shows out of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension. You will find Cultivating Curiosity, All About the Pod and Two Agents & the FACS wherever you get your podcasts.

Increasing populations and changing climate conditions will require both innovative and ancient growing methods to feed the world. Regenerative agriculture, a movement both burgeoning and broad, is underpinned by the public’s growing awareness of how land stewardship and agricultural production contribute to the fate of our planet.

Mel Garber remembers the phone call clearly. “How do we turn off the fireplace again?” His wife, Barbara Bankston, was on the other end of the line. She’d turned that fireplace on and off a thousand times. It’s a gas fireplace, so all you have to do is turn the knob, Mel told her. Maybe it was a one-time slip of the mind, he thought. They were getting older.

Members of the Southern Region Program Leadership Network, Association of Extension Administrators and the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors, including those from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, convened in Orlando, Florida, for the annual conference. This year, Laura Perry Johnson received the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors’ Award for Excellence in Leadership, a career-long service award for those who lead Extension programs across the Southeast.