Commodity Teams

Consumers hold high standards for fresh food, which farmers aim to meet, but hot summer temperatures and long-haul deliveries can degrade quality even before produce makes it into stores. In a collaborative study, Angelos Deltsidis, assistant professor of horticulture in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, teamed up with UGA Cooperative Extension agents to improve upon a decades-old method of precooling to increase efficiency and reduce postharvest losses along the value chain.

Of all the elements that make a stream community, there is one, besides the water, that is particularly crucial to the health of the ecosystem. It’s the bugs. Tiny but mighty, aquatic insects are responsible for many vital ecosystem processes that support fish, birds and humans.

University of Georgia researchers in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the College of Engineering are wrapping up the final year of a study to develop improved, cost-effective treatment systems with advanced technologies for removing polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances from water, wastewater and biosolids. The team was awarded nearly $1.6 million through a congressionally mandated grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to mitigate PFAS.