November 2008: Thanksgiving Time!

The BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department came together to host its first reunion this past October. The reunion allowed alumni, faculty, and staff to come together and reunite with the BRAE Department. The Agricultural Engineering Society hosted a traditional BRAE barbeque and spent time with alumni discussing changes in the department as well as changes at Cal Poly.

Alumni got to relive the motto “learn by doing” with the help of the Cal Poly Agricultural Ambassadors and BRAE faculty. Alumni received tours of the Irrigation Training & Research Center, as well as tours of the livestock units, organic farm, and a tour of the new Animal Nutrition Center.

The Reunion kicked off with a wine social located at Cal Poly’s Leaning Pine Arboretum. Alumni, faculty, and staff had a chance to reconnect and take a walk down memory lane. Guests were offered Cal Poly wines and chocolates and had the opportunity to mingle with Dr. Dave Wehner, Dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. He discussed new additions, changes, and opportunities in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.

Reunions are milestones—occasions for alumni to commemorate their place in Cal Poly’s history, reflect on what Cal Poly has meant to them, and renew their ties to the BRAE department. As the years go by, I look forward to seeing you all again for another successful BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Reunion!

Kelly Orosco was this year's BRAE Reunion Coordinator

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Article by Kelly Orosco (AGSC '09), Photographs by JM Prescott (AGSC '09)

As the first month of school quickly came to an end, high school students interested in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences visited Cal Poly for Fall Preview Day. Prospective students were welcomed on October 17, 2008 as the College opened their doors for a day packed with activities. For many of the students, this visit would shape their perspective of their chosen major and more importantly, their view of Cal Poly.

After registration and breakfast, the students and their families headed to the Chumash Auditorium, where they were welcomed by Walter Harris, Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment and Lois Kelly, Director of Financial Aid, and learned more about the admissions process and the financial aspect of higher education.

Right before noon, students were provided with the opportunity to visit one of the nine departments in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences and faculty and current students were able to showcase all they had to offer.

Students interested in Ag Systems Management and Ag Engineering headed over to the BRAE building to find out more information about the curriculum, listen to faculty speak about the courses, and talk to current students about extracurricular opportunities. Visitors were able to tour the various facilities and see the current equipment used by the department. There was a demonstration on solidworks by Dr. Mark Zohns and Dr. Andy Holtz along with a trip with Dr. Ben Burgoa to the Water Delivery Facility.

At the end of the session, students and their families were treated to a delicious barbecue lunch, courtesy of the current BRAE students followed by even more events, including campus tours and housing information sessions. Fall Preview exemplifies Cal Poly's College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences motto, "Only the Best." The BRAE Department was given a great opportunity to shine!

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On Thursday, October 16, many people gathered downtown not just for Farmers’ Market, but for the Great Pumpkin Weigh Off contest as well. Hosted by the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau, everyone brought his or her pumpkins of all sizes. Many BioResource & Agricultural Engineering students were present as well, to watch the festivities and to lend a helping hand. The BRAE department was able to help out with the weighing of the pumpkins.

The pumpkins could be entered in handful of categories, ranging from Most Beautiful Pumpkin to Most Unique Pumpkin. Also included were Heaviest 4-H Pumpkin, Heaviest FFA Pumpkin, and of course, Heaviest Pumpkin.

According to Lindsey Tulloch, a BRAE student, the winner of the Most Unique Pumpkin was a Cal Poly student.

[Above: Blake Pollard, Dr. Mark Zohns, Alex Walker, Nick Darr, & Lindsey Tulloch]

 

The winner of the Heaviest Pumpkin won a $1,000 grand prize. The weight of this pumpkin? A whopping 790 pounds! There has never been a pumpkin as heavy as this in the history of the contest! According to KSBY, the winner told amazed onlookers that he had to cover the pumpkin with a cloth, put sand underneath to prevent rotting, fertilize the gigantic gourd, and not let bees attack. Overall, the enormous growth and maintenance of the pumpkin was attributed to pure luck.

The second place pumpkin trailed behind at 673 pounds and third place at 589 pounds.

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You can make this year’s holiday season more meaningful by making your celebration more healthful, environmentally friendly and authentic. If you plan ahead and keep things simple, this more sustainable type of holiday doesn’t have to involve more work or expense, so it can satisfy your appetite, your spirit and your conscience.

First, start with a local harvest. The first Thanksgiving featured a regional bounty of fruits, vegetables, grains and meats native to the 17th Century Plymouth, Massachusetts, landscape, such as deer, lobster, dried gooseberries, pumpkin (though probably not pumpkin pie as we know it) and rabbit. While that menu might not please the modern holiday crowd, you can celebrate your own area’s bounty by buying as many fixings – potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, apples, pumpkins, squash and more – at your local farmer’s market instead of at a chain grocery store, where much of the food is trucked from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Second, make the centerpiece of your dinner table a sustainably, humanely raised turkey. Check your local food co-ops or farmer’s markets, or search online for organic poultry farms in your area (be sure to start looking well ahead of time). And if you can find a heritage turkey producer (someone who raises historic American turkey sub-breeds, as opposed to the Large White variety that dominates industrial farms) in your area, all the better; people who choose these types of birds claim they are firmer, richer and more flavorful than standard turkeys.

Third, invest in a nice set of cloth dinner napkins. A set of four sateen-finish, organic cotton napkins might set you back $12 to $19 or more, but you won’t have to buy attractive paper napkins for the rest of the holidays … or the coming year. Even if you figure you spend only $2.50 every two months on ordinary paper napkins, that amounts to $15 for the year, and contributes a lot of waste to the environment as well.

Fourth, serve organic juices, milk, beer or wine with dinner, as opposed to standard beverages. Your local food co-op should offer a variety of organic beverages, and you can often find a few organic beers and wines at your larger grocery or liquor stores. Among the breweries and vineyards that produce organic beverages are Dogfish Head Brewing Co., Frey Vineyards, Silver Thread Vineyard and Sprecher Brewery, which also creates natural sodas.

Finally, if you usually cook with and serve bottled water, try tap water instead. In most metropolitan areas, the tap water is just as filtered – sometimes even more pure – than bottled water, and it tastes just as good, while producing much less waste and costing far less money. If you doubt that, check out Corporate Accountability International’s "Think Outside the Bottle” campaign, which – using blind taste-tests like those used in soft-drink marketing – has found that most people can’t distinguish tap water from bottled. In fact, about one-fourth of bottled water actually comes from municipal tap water sources. And, while tap water in the U.S. is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, bottled water transported in-state (as opposed to between states) is controlled primarily by state agencies, whose regulations might be more or less strict than the EPA’s.

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