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Friday, June 22, 2007

NOTE ON FORMATTING: When stories are transferred from the Web, certain punctuation marks and other marks in this report don't carry over and result in symbols and other formatting errors. To see or print the story in full without these translation errors, simply click on "full story" at the end of each item."

Total Clips: 8

	Date	Outlet
Eastman Chemical Helps [AU] Students Gain Fixture Design Training	06/22/2007	The Retail Environments Association
Large-animal veterinarians 'a dying breed' in Kentucky	06/22/2007	Lexington Herald-Leader
Cool wash reduces egg pathogen levels	06/22/2007	WorldPoultry.net
96 billion short	06/21/2007	Alexander City Outlook
From milk to meat, U.S. food prices spike upward	06/21/2007	Johnstown Breeze, The
Large-animal vets in short supply	06/21/2007	Louisville Courier-Journal
East Alabama: "Vision 13" Helps Rural Counties Prepare For Growth	06/21/2007	WTVM-TV
Economic Growth in East Alabama	06/21/2007	WSFA-TV


Eastman Chemical Helps [AU] Students Gain Fixture Design Training 06/22/2007 The Retail Environments Association		Return to Top
Christopher Arnold, assistant professor at AU Department of Industrial Design, is quoted in this article. June 14, 2007—To help the next generation of designers gain real-world experience, Eastman Chemical Co. and Sheffield Plastics recently partnered with Auburn University to give second-year design students a chance to develop unique store fixtures. Created with VIVAK® sheet, a transparent specialty plastic product made from Eastman's copolyester resin, the students’ projects were unveiled at a presentation ceremony and will be displayed to the larger design community through Eastman’s online Innovation Lab. Students first researched trends in retail displays, keeping up-to-date on what appears in stores and where industry leaders are headed. Each student then conceptualized a mock consumer products goods company and analyzed the in-store sales and marketing needs for their business. Using this research, students developed concepts for store fixtures that could be employed in a real-world retail environment. During the developmental stages, Eastman offered workshops and seminars on designing with plastics. Students also visited Eastman's production facility in Kingsport, Tenn., to see firsthand how plastic sheet is produced and learn how it can be fabricated to produce retail displays. Sheffield Plastics extruded and supplied the VIVAK sheet product, which enabled the students to work hands-on and transform their store fixture concepts into reality. “Eastman and Sheffield provided students with a comprehensive overview of how to use specialty plastics in creative applications as well as concrete insight and critique on the design ideas showcased during student presentations,” said Christopher Arnold, assistant professor at Auburn University Department of Industrial Design. “This served not only to help students design truly innovative store fixtures, but also to bring a necessary level of industry expertise into the classroom. Durable, flexible and fabrication-friendly, the VIVAK sheet product that Eastman and Sheffield provided is also easy to bend, route, and cut, which allowed the students to construct their one-of-a-kind displays with less difficulty.” At the presentation ceremony, 30 full-size models of the students’ works were displayed. Ranging from an organically shaped CD holder to a 6-foot-tall tissue display, these projects received positive feedback from the professional designers who attended the ceremony, many of whom commented upon the students’ creative use of VIVAK sheet. “Today’s students are talented and have innovative ideas and solutions that will continue to drive the strength of the design industry,” said Michael Hartman, Eastman's global market development manager for P-O-P and in-store fixtures and displays. “This program reflects Eastman’s commitment to the creative necessity not only of the store fixture market, but also the general design community, which plays a vital role in shaping and building brands.”
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Large-animal veterinarians 'a dying breed' in Kentucky 06/22/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader Dariush Shafa		Return to Top
Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine is mentioned in this story. Wanted: veterinarians for large animals. Must enjoy long drives through beautiful Kentucky countryside and long talks with colorful farmers. Strong stomachs, big hearts required. This is the life of Dr. Roger Wonderlich, the life of an endangered species: the industrious farm vet. 'We're kind of a dying breed,' Wonderlich said. 'We hope we don't go extinct. We hope they revive us.' Kentucky is home to 47,000 farms in all 120 counties, 25 of which are without a large-animal veterinarian, according to figures provided by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association. Although most of these counties are concentrated in Eastern Kentucky and along the Ohio River, areas that don't have heavy populations of farm animals, the trend is still alarming. The shortage of large-animal veterinarians stems from vets who are are retiring or leaving the profession and no new vets stepping up to replace them. There are only an estimated 200 to 240 large-animal veterinarians statewide. Wonderlich, one of four veterinarians at Shelby Animal Clinic in Shelbyville, and vets like him are a breed that has fallen victim to changing cultural values and more lucrative options. 'There aren't many students that want to go into large-animal work,' Wonderlich said. 'They'd prefer to do small-animal work.' Not only do small-animal veterinarians have better hours, but the pay is also better when compared with the amount of work. To be a large-animal veterinarian takes not just a love for animals but also a love for the people who care for them. 'There aren't that many students with a farm background, who have a love for farm life and farmers,' said Wonderlich, who grew up on a farm in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University's vet school in 1976. 'I enjoy the relationship we have, the talking back and forth, the talking about what's going on in their life and on their farm,' he said. Need is critical For farmers, not having a large-animal veterinarian could mean the difference between staying in business and selling the farm. 'My wife told Dr. Wonderlich if he quits, we'd quit,' said Jeff Gibson, who with his wife, Lisa, runs Kentucky Bluegrass Genetics, a dairy and breeding operation in Shelby County. Dennis and Susan Coleman have been running a dairy operation in Henry County for about 20 years, and they know how critical a vet is. A good veterinarian 'is the one thing you've got to have. If you live in an area without a vet, what are you going to do?' said Dennis Coleman. Many farmers who rely on vets like Wonderlich have been in business for some time and have few options. For David and Lea Miller, not having a specialist to care for the animals would mean raising only crops. 'I'm not young anymore so I don't like wrestling animals,' David Miller said while Wonderlich treated a sick -- and uncooperative -- dairy cow. 'I don't know what we'd do without him.' Clinic's advantages Sometimes, technology keeps vets close to home. For Dr. Scotty Head, one of five veterinarians at Boonesborough Animal Clinic in Winchester, it's easier if patients come to him. 'Haul-in practice is very time-efficient,' Head said. 'We can do our services here and it's easier for the farmers to unload and load right back.' At the clinic, large animals, often food animals, can be safely rounded up, held and cared for. Handling animals at the clinic also minimizes chances of injury to man and beast. 'It's a bit more difficult sometimes when we have to capture (on a farm). They're not in a facility where we can walk right up and get our hands on them.' Working at the clinic also saves vets' transportation costs and keeps the farmer's bill lower. From farm to plate Better health care for farm animals isn't just about being kind to the animals. 'When you talk about animal health, you can't do that without thinking about food safety,' said Marshall Coyle, president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, at a meeting Wednesday. That meeting brought farmers, veterinarians, education officials and legislators together to work on ways to relieve the large-animal vet shortage. Legislators attending said they want the committee to give them options. 'Give us plenty of tools in our toolbox to challenge this crisis,' said Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, chairman of the Kentucky House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. One tool is for Kentucky to focus on encouraging Kentucky students who go to veterinary school in Alabama to return to Kentucky and go into the large-animal practice by offering loan forgiveness programs in return for years of service. Also, making use of six more in-state tuition rate seats per year offered by Auburn University, added to the current 34 per year, would allow Kentucky to have more trained, home-grown vet students. 'It's evident that we have Kentuckians who are interested,' Moberly said, adding that the legislature would probably pay the money needed for the seats. 'What we need to do is incent more of them into becoming large-animal vets.' 'It's just not easy to do' On Monday, Wonderlich knelt on the ground. After a long, messy struggle, the calf finally emerged from its mother. 'I enjoy delivering newborns. There's an excitement about that,' he said on the way to the call. 'It's just fulfilling. It's exciting to bring a newborn into the world, watch them take that first break and start bawling.' The calf did just that, but the exhausted youngster was far too weak after the delivery and died minutes later. Wonderlich's face, lined and wrinkled from long afternoons and big smiles, was etched with sadness. There are good days and bad days, but Wonderlich said work goes on, shortage or not. 'You know you have to do it, Wonderlich said. 'It's just not easy to do.'
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Cool wash reduces egg pathogen levels 06/22/2007 WorldPoultry.net		Return to Top
This story cites research done by AU and by the USDA. US researchers have discovered that egg producers can reduce the levels of Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria on eggs by using cool water instead of warm during a second commercial wash. Using cool water helps the eggs to cool down more quickly, which reduces the risk of pathogen growth both inside and outside the shell, according to research published in the Journal of Food Safety in December. The research findings may provide a simple method for reducing egg contamination. The researchers from the US Department of Agriculture and the Auburn University tested three water temperature schemes in dual washing commercial systems. The first test used water at 49 degrees Celsius for both washes of the eggs. The second used water at 49 degrees Celsius for the first wash and 24 degrees Celsius for the second. The third used water at 24 degrees Celsius for both washes. They found that using warm temperature water in a first wash and cooler water in a second wash could provide the greatest benefit by both reducing egg temperature and microbial levels. While Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria were all detected in shell emulsion and wash-water samples from cool-water washing treatments, none were detected in the eggs contents throughout the storage period of eight weeks.
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96 billion short 06/21/2007 Alexander City Outlook Miranda Matteis		Return to Top
Michel Smith, mathematics and statistics department chair at Auburn University, is a source for this story. The continuing drought is causing lake lovers to sit back and watch as the level gets lower each day, one inch at a time. Wednesday, Alabama Power Company reported Lake Martin's level at 483.2 feet, or 6.8 feet below a full pool of 490 feet. But, when the lake goes down one inch, how much water is lost? Michel Smith, mathematics and statistics department chair at Auburn University, did some calculating to determine how many gallons of water Lake Martin is losing with every inch. To figure this out, he had to gather all the numbers needed for the equation. Lake Martin is a 44,000-acre lake. An acre is 43,560 square feet. After multiplying those two numbers together to get the surface area in square feet, and then dividing that number by 12 (because there are 12 inches in a foot), Smith had the number of cubic feet lost. One cubic foot is 7.48 gallons of water. By taking the number of cubic feet lost and multiplying by 7.48, Smith determined the number of gallons of water lost when the lake goes down one inch. 1,194,705,600 gallons. More than one billion gallons of water is lost for every inch the lake goes down. The lake was 6.8 feet below normal, or 80 inches. That means so far this summer, 96,771,153,600 gallons of water have been lost from the lake. David Fuller at the Alexander City Water Department said the city has 11 million gallons of water in storage, distributed among six tanks of varying sizes. The water that has been lost from the lake could fill up the Alexander City water tanks approximately 8,797 times. Stacey Graham at Alabama Power said the overall volume needed to fill the lake back up to a full summer pool is 357,522 acre feet of water. Graham put that number into inches of rain. "We need 16 and a quarter inches over the entire basin to bring Martin up to 490," she said. As the lake goes down inch by inch, and loses more gallons each day, the marinas around town may be in danger of not being able to get boats on and off the water. Billy Johnson, general manager at Harbor Pointe Marina, said the marina can load power boats as long as the water stays at the 481 to 482 feet mark. It can load pontoon boats at 481 feet. "It just depends on what size boat it is," Johnson said. He said the marina probably would not be able to load any boats if the water level gets down to 479 feet. John Smith at Alexander Parks and Recreation said he was not sure how low the water could get before the Alexander City Boat Ramp could no longer load boats. "One of our guys says if it drops about another three feet it would be unusable," he said. However, Smith said that was a rough estimate. The water level can go down a few more feet before Wind Creek State Park will not be able to launch boats. "I know that at 10 feet down [from full pool], you can still launch boats at Wind Creek," said Jimmy Shivers, park superintendent. Shivers said he thinks that the water level has been down 12 feet below full pool in the past and boats were still launched then.
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From milk to meat, U.S. food prices spike upward 06/21/2007 Johnstown Breeze, The Christian Science Monitor		Return to Top
Boyd Brady, an extension agent at Auburn University, is a source for this story. The story continues to receive coverage in media outlets across the U.S. ATLANTA and BOSTON -- A gallon of milk in Birmingham, Ala., is expected to cost $4.50 this summer, perhaps more. At Wetzel’s Market in Glen Rock, Pa., the New York strip steaks that were on sale for $4.99 a pound last Fourth of July will be $6.99 this year. In Boston, some shoppers report checkout prices on certain items that are 30 percent higher now than last summer. “Prices are incredible,” says Suzanna Wyman, shopping Monday at Shaw’s Supermarket in Boston’s Back Bay. “Milk, I heard, is going up even more.... I love fresh peppers and vegetables, but they’re too much. Cereal is very expensive compared to what you used to be able to get it for.” The reason people are smarting: Inflation in grocery aisles is up by more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006. That means food costs are on track for the biggest annual percentage hike since 1980, according to the Labor Department. The anticipated 7.5 percent increase would readily outflank the 2.6 percent core inflation rate to date, which excludes food and energy. It’s across every grocery aisle, too, from burgers to bagels, from duck to dumpling. Added to sticker shock at the gas pump, high food prices, especially for meat, are forcing consumers to scrimp, coupon-clip, and ponder the possibilities of a deep freeze to take advantage of discounts, says Boyd Brady, an extension agent at Auburn University in Alabama. “There’s a ... combination of higher demand, natural disasters, higher energy prices – just a myriad of factors driving what price increases we’re seeing across the food sector,” says Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development in Ames, Iowa. The chief culprit is corn, namely No. 2 feed corn, the staple of the breadbasket. In answer to President Bush’s call for greater oil independence, the amount of feed corn distilled into ethanol is expected to double in the next five to six years. Distillation is already sucking up 18 percent of the total crop. The ethanol gambit, in turn, is sending corn prices to historic levels – topping $4 per bushel earlier this year, and remaining high. All of this trickles down to the boards at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, affecting the price of everything from sirloin to eggs (which are up, by the way, 18.6 percent across the nation). In a welcome response, U.S. farmers told the government in April they plan a record-breaking 93-million-acre corn crop, though its true size won’t be known until the end of June. But corn alone does not explain the number of products that have become more expensive of late. Facing higher costs at the farm and shareholder pressure to maintain profits, companies such as Tyson Chicken and Coca-Cola are raising prices. The fact that fuel prices remain relatively high hasn’t helped either, allowing no break in the cost of transporting perishable goods. For fruit and vegetable growers, labor shortages are also a factor. A $2 cantaloupe sold for $3 at the South Carolina Farmer’s Market in Greenville recently, largely because of labor woes, says Thompson Smith of the South Carolina Farm Bureau. Winter cold snaps and hard freezes in California and the Southeast have made peaches, apples, and oranges pricier. In the heartland, low yields on winter wheat mean cookies and baguettes are more expensive. Meat costs are up by 15 percent in some regions, in part because of drought that, as in Alabama, caused a cattle sell-off. Milk prices are up in part because of a global shortage, with milk exporters such as New Zealand unable to add capacity and Australia enduring a debilitating drought, even as demand rises in Europe, China, and India. Because of the multiple causes, some prices may drop in coming months and as new crops come in, says Patrick Jackman, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks grocery store costs in population centers across the country. A few years ago, he says, iceberg lettuce spiked 113 percent after a freeze. Today, a head of iceberg is one of the few items to decrease in price – from $1.19 to 99 cents. Still, household budgets are taking a “double whammy” at the grocer’s and at the gas station, says Mr. Jackman. Barrels of sweet crude are expected to stay at about $60 per barrel. A family’s average grocery tab could leap from $300 a month last year to $400 a month this year, economists say. “People have to adjust by cutting back,” he says. For some consumers, it’s tough to hang on. In Savannah, Ga., the Salvation Army expects to serve 10,000 more meals this year because of high food prices. Americans are coping, too, simply by food shopping less often. Their average number of grocery store trips each week dipped below two for the first time since the Food Marketing Institute began its annual survey. “You could get culture shock coming into this place, and it’s not getting better,” says Richardson Daniel, a longtime resident of Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, swooping into Shaw’s. Most customers are content, for now, to grumble, says Mike Wetzel, manager of Wetzel’s Market in Glen Rock, Pa. What about? For one, ground beef at Wetzel’s is up from $1.49 a pound last year to $1.79. “Five-dollar milk by the end of the summer – that’s the big rumor,” Mr. Wetzel said in a phone interview. “It’s one of those things that nobody’s happy about, but when everybody’s prices go up, they’re pretty well stuck.” With gasoline prices high, he suggests, consumers are less likely to shop at different stores for bargains. But one standard is back in vogue: the supermarket flier. Newspaper coupons can take 30 percent off the top of the grocery tab, almost wiping out the recent price increases, economists say. Shoppers are also using websites such as TheGroceryGame.com and SupermarketGuru.com to search for sales and values across ZIP codes. Ms. Wyman, the Boston shopper, takes advantage of 2-for-1 deals, stocking up on essentials. For Mr. Brady, the Alabama extension agent, there’s a lot of meaning in a gallon of milk: a nutritious but perishable drink that's traveled thousands of miles, on refrigerated trucks across the Sonoran Desert, to get to places like Rick’s Market in Marion, Ala. “When I see the rising prices I realize we’ve actually been very fortunate to have cheap food,” he says. “I think that will continue, but we might not have the luxury of what we’ve had in the past.” The Johnstown Breeze is a member of the Christian Science Monitor News Service.
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Large-animal vets in short supply 06/21/2007 Louisville Courier-Journal Gregory A. Hall		Return to Top
AU's College of Veterinary Medicine is mentioned in this story. Statistics showing 25 Kentucky counties don't have a food-animal or large-animal veterinarian, reinforced what Debbie Reed already knew. "In fact, one of those zeros on here is my fault," Reed told a Kentucky Farm Bureau task force during its first meeting yesterday in Louisville. Reed started a practice in Jackson County in 1988 and closed it 18 years later, when she took her current job at Murray State University, because there was no other veterinarian to buy it. Despite Kentucky being the largest beef cattle state east of the Mississippi River, farmers in some areas of the state report trouble obtaining veterinary services. It's part of a larger national issue arising because many new veterinarians elect to treat smaller animals. Ideas discussed by the task force included mentoring students and recent graduates, funding the veterinary educations of more Kentuckians and developing incentives, such as loan forgiveness, for them to practice large animal medicine. "As far as I'm concerned, this committee meeting came 18 years too late," Reed said. "… I'm just a little bit jealous." Rather than pay for its own veterinary school, Kentucky has relied on supplementing the tuition of its residents at Alabama schools. Currently, 136 Kentuckians can pay in-state tuition at Auburn University's vet school -- with Kentucky paying the rest of the out-of-state fees of about $20,000 per student. Eight more are studying at Tuskegee University under the same arrangement. Auburn is planning to increase the size of its veterinary class by 10 and could make six of those slots open to Kentuckians, said Aaron Goodpaster, president of the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association. Goodpaster said it would be difficult to dedicate the six additional spots for large-animal veterinarians, in part because graduates' education debt can be so large that they choose the more lucrative small-animal medicine. A loan forgiveness program could get graduates to return to the state and practice large-animal medicine, Goodpaster said. Kelly Thurman, a dairy farmer in McLean County, said dairy farms in his four-county area face a shortage of veterinarians. The nearest dairy specialist is about 70 miles away in Russellville. "If we have an emergency on the farm, we're pretty well on our own," he said. Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, the chairman of the House budget committee, attended yesterday's meeting and said he believes the General Assembly will be asked to pay an additional $1.5 million to supplement more Kentuckians' enrollment in vet schools. Moberly said the legislature is interested in that, along with possible incentive programs. Reporter Gregory A. Hall can be reached at (502) 582-4087.
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East Alabama: "Vision 13" Helps Rural Counties Prepare For Growth 06/21/2007 WTVM-TV Brock Parker		Return to Top
Joe Sumners, director of AU's Economic and Community Development Institute, is quoted in this story. AU's Rural Initiative provided a grant for "Vision 13." Preparing to welcome more than 10,000 new people into the area is no easy task. "Vision 13" is a new project aimed at helping rural east Alabama counties deal with the future growth. Many families are moving here thanks to the Kia plant in West Point, the City of Atlanta and the BRAC expansion. Some counties in Alabama, such as Chambers and Randolph, have held a low population since the mid-20th Century. "A lot of rural places have been struggling over the last 50 years as we left small farming and our children went off to college and didn't come back," said Larry Lee, Vision 13 project director. But growth in west Georgia could push more people back into the area. "People in Smiths Station used to have a lot more peace and quiet than they've got now, but change is inevitable in a lot of places. It's how we manage that change," Lee said. That's where Vision 13 comes in. It became a reality thanks to a $19,700 grant from Auburn University's Rural Initiative. "We administered a program where we selected 48 different projects from all over the state. We gave priorities to those that dealt with leadership development and workforce development," said Dr. Joe Sumners, director of AU's Economic and Community Development Institute. Many community and local leaders in Alabama's 13th Senate district will be trained on how to prepare for a possible revitalization. The project will help blend life-long residents with new families and industry. "A lot of times there's different opinions and different viewpoints. Balancing those against the folks who have been there for a long time and the newcomers becomes kind of a delicate act," Lee said. Lee said the plan is to paint a picture for rural east Alabama counties. He wants to show residents how smaller communities can flourish when change occurs. The year-long Vision 13 project kicked off Thursday night at Southern Union State Community College in Wadley.
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Economic Growth in East Alabama 06/21/2007 WSFA-TV		Return to Top
AU's Rural Initiative Program provided a grant for this economic growth management program. East Alabama is getting ready for some pretty substantial economic growth thanks to military expansions and the new KIA plant in West Point, Georgia. A new program called "Vision 13" will help rural development agencies in Chambers and Randolph Counties learn how to better manage that new growth. Organizers say they're trying to prepare for the future, while protecting their traditional way of life. "Vision 13" is being made possible by a grant from Auburn University's Rural Initiative Program. It gives grants to programs that focus on leadership and workforce development in outlying areas.
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