Mark Powell is serving on a Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) working group to develop Guidelines for Risk Characterization of Microbiological Hazards in Food.
Completed USDA Cooperative Agreements
Food, Agriculture, Policy and Research Institute -USDA Cooperative Agreement
Project Leader: Verol Benson, Ph.D.
(573) 882-0689 or BensonV@missouri.edu
The Food, Agriculture, Policy and Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental effectiveness and risk reduction associated with implementation of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) enrollments. FAPRI will supply expert modeling of soil, nutrient and water movement from representative agricultural fields and CRP enrollments across the United States. This study will result in a summary report comparing off-field movement of soil, nutrients and water as well as measurement of soil carbon in production agriculture versus CRP enrollments, a database containing the model results, organized by the various scenarios used; estimates of the reduction in risk of off-site transport of nutrients and soil due to enrollment in CRP.
New Mexico State - USDA Cooperative Agreement Risk Analysis for Biological Control Agents FINAL REPORT
Project Leader: Dr. Mark Andersen
The project objective is to develop an analytical framework and empirical demonstration for considering ecological population dynamics to inform risk management decisions that must balance the risks and benefits of intentional introductions of biological control agents for the purposes of area-wide control of invasive weeds.
Mark Andersen (PI) presented the findings at “Science and Decision-Making in Biological Control of Weeds: A Conference on the Benefits and Risks of Biological Control,” Denver, CO, 27-29 January 2004. The conference proceedings will be published as a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Biological Control.
University of Maryland's Biological Resources Engineering Department- USDA Cooperative Agreement
Project Leaders: Adel Shirmohammadi, Ph.D. and Hubert Montas, Ph.D.
ORACBA has entered into a cooperative agreement with Drs. Adel Shirmohammadi and Hubert Montas of the University of Maryland’s Biological Resources Engineering Department to investigate the reduction in risk of water quality degradation following implementation of various agricultural natural resource practices. A small watershed in northern Maryland – Warner Creek - will be used as the basis for a series of simulation experiments investigating the change in sediment and nutrients in a stream resulting from implementation of various NRCS conservation practices. A set of simulation models of the Warner Creek, MD watershed will be constructed using the Soil Water Air Transport Model (SWAT). Latin Hypercube Monte Carlo simulation will be combined with SWAT allowing the researchers to conduct uncertainty analysis. Warner Creek is selected because 9 years of monitoring has resulted in a validated implementation of SWAT for that watershed. Output from the simulation model will be presented as distributions of the predicted water concentrations of nutrients and sediment. Results from this project are directly relevant to ongoing agricultural monitoring and evaluation programs as well as to advancing the use of probabilistic methods in hydrologic and water quality modeling. This study will result in a report comparing concentrations of nutrients and sediment in Warner Creek, MD resulting from implementing conservation practices in various patterns throughout the watershed.
