Dietary factors are important predictors of long term health and the incidence of chronic disease. Laboratory methods will be employed, primarily in vitro models, such as in vitro digestion and tissue cultures, which will be used to evaluate the bioactivity of nutrients and other food bioactives to understand the mechanisms. The investigator will seek to advance the science of defining the role of bioactive dietary constituents for optimal human health. This will provide fertile grounds for ongoing collaborations and future collaborative research and grant proposal development.
Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station
The recent removal of fenamiphos from availability leaves golf course superintendents with no effective management for plant parasitic nematodes. Fenamiphos was the only effective nematicide registered for use on golf greens in the United States. However, the LD50 of fenamiphos is in the single digits and therefore difficult and risky to applicators and non-target organisms. There have been a number of commercially-available products and experimental products offered as fenamiphos-alternatives.
Preharvest drop of fruit can result in losses to a grower that may exceed 50% of the total crop. There is a need to find effective ways to keep fruit on the tree until it achieves an acceptable level of quality and maturity. Compounds that can potentially be used to influence preharvest drop are also known to affect ripening and fruit quality. Therefore, the effect of strategies that control preharvest drop must also be evaluated for their effects on fruit quality and storage potential.
Accumulating evidence suggests that, due to possible synergistic interactions, the intake of combined bioactive dietary components may provide enhanced cancer preventive effects relative to the intake of an isolated pure compound. Thus, utilization of combinations of bioactive dietary components is an attractive strategy for cancer prevention. However, there is currently only relatively limited understanding of the interactions among different bioactive dietary components and their collective manifestations on bioactivity.
A key aspect of food markets are their vertical structures: products move along supply chains from manufacturers (or farmers) to wholesalers to retailers or food service operators to consumers. Interactions among firms in these chains give rise to a variety of economic issues that are no less important than those studied in horizontal interaction (i.e. firms competing for the same end consumer), yet previous work has tended to focus on the latter.
To strengthen the rural economy, successful strategies are always needed to reduce farm production cost and increase product values. Organic waste is generally disposed of by being left on the field to decay and/or burned. These treatments yield low values and may cause environmental pollution. Production and use of bio-oil and biochar from organic wastes could improve soil and environmental quality, provide renewable energy and reduce fossil fuel dependency, and increase soil carbon sequestration and mitigate global warming.
A recent study has shown that the annual cost of foodborne illness in the Unites States is approximately $152 billion. This is a result of the estimated 76 million food-related illnesses which occur annually including approximately 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations. Coast-to-coast and international distribution by megaprocessing plants puts potential outbreaks on a national and international scale. Therefore, monitoring of pathogen counts on processing surfaces is critical in maintaining low or zero counts in food products.
Increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables in young children and reducing childhood obesity is a key national nutrition goal. This project will examine use of a sensory-affective, comprehensive approach to promote early childhood consumption of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. The direct correlation between fruit and vegetable consumption and lowering of obesity is yet to be established in this life-stage. However, the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled among children ages two to five (5.0% to 12.4%).
There is uncertainty about the effects of future climate on agricultural crop plants. Alfalfa is a crop that is used to provide feed for animals leading to meat production. This research will include experiments under controlled conditions that will allow prediction of how alfalfa plants will respond to future elevated CO2 (800ppm) and elevated ozone (O3) (80ppb). How these elevations affect plant growth and the nutritional value of the plants will be determined.
Food insecurity, or not having access at all times to enough food for an active and healthy lifestyle, has been linked to a number of poor health outcomes, including low micronutrient intake, poor academic scores in children and adolescents, and overweight and obesity in adults. The federally-funded Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) program provides nutrition education to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and eligibles and other low-income families.