But first, she told the stories of three members of the graduating class who, while they have their Vermonter roots and degrees in nutrition and food sciences in this College in common, their many differences show how richly different CALS students’ backgrounds can be and how divergent their future paths may be.

Then, Johnson delivered her concise, pragmatic, tips for future success, which left the audience of more than 1,000 family, friends, faculty, staff and graduates smiling.

Johnson, the Robert L. Bickford, Jr. Green and Gold Professor of Nutrition and Professor of Medicine, was chosen commencement speaker for CALS Class of 2013 because of her popularity with her students, her prestigious national stature in the field of nutrition and dietetics – especially in the topics of obesity, added sugar intake and cardiovascular disease – and her straightforward advice. She’s been a student herself, a faculty member, an administrator and the parent of a UVM student.

Johnson said that when she was an undergrad she was inspired by her professors, several of whom “were brilliant, articulate, independent, tough but caring women.” But today, “I think I’ve come full circle — now it’s my students who inspire me.” To demonstrate why, she shared brief stories about three graduates: Leah Conchieri, Aeden Albrecht and Kayla Gatos. Here are Rachel Johnson’s words:

Leah Conchieri

I’ve known Leah Conchieri since she was six months old. Her family and mine were next-door neighbors until Leah was seven. Leah’s mother Joanne, who is also a CALS Nutrition and Food Sciences graduate, home schooled Leah until the 11^th grade when Leah and her younger brother, Bryce, enrolled at Essex High School. Leah has been laser-focused on her academic work and is a stellar student. However, she’ll quickly tell you that her UVM experience wasn’t all studying; she’s had a great time the past four years. A hallmark of many UVM graduates is their commitment to service. Leah volunteered with the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and worked with children at the King Street Center helping them develop the skills needed for a healthy and productive future. She worked as a UVM resident hall assistant in her junior year and told me that having three younger brothers helped her “lay down the law with my dorm residents when I needed to.” Leah has been employed at Essex Physical Therapy since she was 16.

She is now pursuing her dream of becoming a physical therapist and is enrolled in UVM’s Doctorate in Physical Therapy program. Leah’s mother Joanne, father Brian and her three brothers Bryce, Tyler and Kevin are here today to celebrate her achievements. Leah’s keen intellect, solid work ethic, love for her family and commitment to achieving her goals inspire me.

Aedan Albrecht

Aedan Albrecht is far from a typical college student. To please his parents, in 2004, he enrolled right out of high school in County College of Morris in New Jersey. But, he quickly knew he wasn’t ready for college. At Thanksgiving dinner that year he broke the news to his family that he had enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

By February the next year Aedan was at Marine boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. After boot camp, Aedan was then stationed with the 3^rd Battalion, 3^rd Marines in Kaneohe Bay, Hawai’i. His unit was sent on combat deployment to Haditha, Iraq in 2006 where he engaged in combat patrols two to three times a day for eight months. Aeden returned to his home station in Hawai’i until his unit’s next rotation in 2008 when they returned to Iraq. During this deployment, he led a platoon of 28 Marines in combat patrols in the Zaidon region of Iraq. They worked to establish the change over for the Iraqi people to take control. Aedan had more responsibility as a 22-year-old Marine than many of us have in a lifetime. Aedan was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 2009.

His sisters are in the area so he was familiar with Burlington and decided to apply to UVM. He was accepted and accessed the post 911 GI bill to help pay for his education.  Aedan was also awarded a UVM yellow ribbon scholarship. This, along with the income he earned bartending, paid for his education.

Aedan is going to take some well deserved time off this summer and travel to visit a few of his Marine Corps buddies. He then plans to pursue a career in law enforcement. Aedan’s perseverance, courage, and commitment to serving our country with honor and distinction inspire me.

Kayla Gatos

Kayla Gatos took a gap year after high school and traveled to the Himalayan region India where she taught English and computer skills and helped build solar water heating systems.

Next Kayla went off to a small college in the Northwest but transferred to UVM after her first semester. She wanted a larger university with more research opportunities. Kayla also told me that she has an amazing family that is very important to her so she wanted to be closer to them.

Kayla embraced UVM; she lived in the Slade Environmental Cooperative where the residents practice a low consumption life style. They buy and cook their own food and aim to buy responsibly and locally. Kayla was an Outing Club Leader as well as their Head House Manager. She managed gear and leader support for the numerous trips the Outing Club sends out each weekend. Kayla said the Outing Club was the most important community she has been a part of at UVM.

In Kayla’s sophomore year she entered the UVM Honor’s College. She completed her honor’s research project under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Berlin. She explored Vermonters’ perceptions of raw milk consumption. Kayla was excited about learning the research process and beginning the exploration of why people make certain the health decisions. Kayla told me she learned so much from Dr. Berlin; how she thinks, how she talks, how she writes.

Kayla told me that she likes plans and certainty in her life but that right now it’s time for adventure. She plans to use some of the money she saved working at Fletcher Allen Health Care as a Nutrition Care Representative and head West. Kayla told me she was talking to Dean Vogelmann about this recently and he said, "You can either have a lot of money and not a lot of time or a lot of time and not a lot of money." Kayla thinks there a lot of truth to this. She feels confident she will return to academia to pursue graduate work in the near future. But, she wants some footloose perspective in this unique period of her life with time to reflect on the past four years and consider what she wants to pursue next.

Kayla’s mother Marianne, a UVM College of Arts and Sciences Sociology graduate, her father Cobey, her brother Harrison and lots of close family friends are with her today.  It’s been a busy day for the Gatos family; Harrison graduated earlier today from our College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in biochemistry. Kayla’s intellectual curiosity, confidence, and love of adventure inspire me. I have no doubt Kayla will make our world a better place.

Johnson concluded, “I hope you can see why my students inspire me. You are the future. And based on what I see every day at UVM, our future is in good and capable hands.”

Mother Johnson

But Rachel Johnson is not only a CALS faculty member, she is also the mother of a CALS graduate. “I am enormously grateful for the opportunity I’ve had as a UVM parent. I witnessed the inspirational teaching and caring advising my son received,” she said. “I also saw my son’s life improved in many ways by the daily work of our dedicated UVM staff.” Five years later, Ben Johnson is an Air Force Officer who is in flight school in Columbus, Mississippi training to be a pilot. He will graduate from flight school on June 28.

And as a mentor and a mother, Rachel Johnson delivered her words of wisdom:

Top 10 Tips for Successful Graduates

10. Be grateful for how privileged you are. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 30 percent of Americans over the age of 25 have earned a college degree. So become engaged. The well being of our nation and world depends on you.

9. Show up. You’ve heard that 90 percent of success in life is just showing up. So show up. Then do your best.

8. Knowledge is power. So know your stuff, always. Don’t “wing it.” There are no shortcuts to success.

7. Whatever you want to do in life, do it! There is nothing worse than being my age and wishing you’d pursued a dream and didn’t. If you want to join the Peace Corps, own your own small business or make a great scientific discovery, at least try to do it! If your parents want you to go to medical school, and you have another idea – well, tell them to go to medical school.

6. Once you decide what matters to you, work hard. I’ve had a Theodore Roosevelt quote that inspires me on the tack board above my desk for years. He said, “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

5. Don’t sell out your integrity. We all know people who do. They cheat on an exam, lie on their company expense reports or cheat on their tax forms. They think nothing of it. But what they actually gain usually turns out to be small. No matter what the gain, it’s just not worth it.

4. Give back. To whom much is given, much is expected. So when you get to the top, remember to send the elevator back down, and help others get to the top. Give your time or give financially to institutions and causes you care about. During the four years that your graduating class attended UVM, the University raised $22,229,411 for student scholarships from generous alumni and friends of UVM who give back.

3. As political humorist Stephen Colbert says, “Being pre-approved for a credit card does not mean you have to apply for it.”

2. Be happy. Happiness is a choice. As one of my favorite authors and humorists, Bill Bryson wrote, “It’s not that hard to be happy. You are bright, young and good looking and you have your whole life ahead of you. In fact, you’ll always have your whole life ahead of you.” Being happy sure beats the alternative.

1. This is a really important point so be sure you are listening.

No matter where you are, what you’re doing or who you are with, call your mother every Sunday.

~~~~~~

Brief Bio of Rachel Johnson

Rachel Johnson is the Robert L. Bickford, Jr. Green and Gold Professor of Nutrition and Professor of Medicine. She holds Ph.D. and Bachelor of Science degrees in nutrition from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Hawaii. She is a registered dietitian. She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association. Johnson served as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) from 2001-2008 and as associate provost for faculty affairs from 2009-2011.

She has held several national appointments including the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Surgeon General to advise on President Obama’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition Science Board and is Chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee.

CALS was also represented at the University-wide ceremony. Graduating senior Robert Rudy was the banner bearer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Rudy, a microbiology and molecular genetics major, also was called to the dais to receive the F.T. Kidder Medal, honoring the senior man ranking first in character, leadership and scholarship.

CALS Nutrition and Food Sciences Professor Robert Tyzbir was the University Herald, as is traditional, likely owing to his melodious authoritative voice.

UVM CALS Dean Thomas Vogelmann called out the customary proclamation beseeching the University of Vermont President Thomas Sullivan to confer degrees on the graduating class and commanding them to “please rise!” They complied with gusto.

Diplomas Granted in CALS Own Event

In afternoon commencement exercises at the UVM athletic complex, the University of Vermont College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Class of 2013 received diplomas, graduated and joined the ranks of the 11,000 CALS alumni across the nation.

Vogelmann led the ceremonies, Jonathan Leonard was College Marshal, Josie Davis was Faculty Marshal and Rachel Johnson delivered the commencement remarks.

Senior Lecturer in the department of community development and applied economics, Thomas Patterson became officially retired with the reading of a citation of his career achievements by Vogelmann.

Honors College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students graduating with degrees from UVM’s Honors College were Christopher Richard Alling of Upton, Massachusetts; Thomas J, Briggs of Saunderson, Rhode Island; Maria Rose Carabello of Dublin, New Hampshire; Erika Simone Colbertaldo of Basking Ridge, New Jersey; M1dori Jeanne Eckenstein of South Burlington, Vermont; Kayla Constantina Gatos of Charlotte, Vermont; Thomas Christopher Gebhard of Grand Island, New York; Daniel Keith Golschneider of Corinth, Vermont; Victoria Rose Kulwicki of Hudson, Ohio; Danielle Theresa Leahy of Middlebury, Vermont; Danielle Elizabeth Lozier of Madison, New Jersey; Samuel J. Patterson of Oak Park, Illinois; Robert Rudy of San Jose, California and Andrew Ian Tranmer of South Burlington, Vermont;

Graduating Summa Cum Laude

Rebecca McBride, Robert Rudy, Sarina Marlene Selleck, Gabrielle Rose Tetschner,

Graduating Magna Cum Laude

Christopher Richard Alling, Maria Rose Carabello, Leah C. Conchieri, Harley Dee Eriksen, Alison Claire Jones, Victoria Rose Kulwicki, Hannah Marie Lachance, Danielle Theresa Leahy, Adam Michael Paronto, Julia Leigh Prince, Sam Tal Resnicow and Andrew Ian Tranmar.

Graduating Cum Laude

Antoine Aube, Emily, Lord Caner, Jennifer Jocelyn Chamberlin, Sarah Katharine Cushman, Midori Jeanne Eckenstein, Lindsey Adona Fuller, Jared Scott Gagnon, Kailey Taylor Cochrane Gardner, Eliza Janette Goddard, Samuel Meyer Hughes, Lindsey Stafford Laird, Amy Rose Law, Kaitlin Elizabeth Lee, David Charles Manago, Alexandra Kate Miller, Jennifer Celia Mudarri, Samuel J. Patterson, Cody Robert Renaud, Megan Astrid Rosen, Heather Nicole Twible, Jordan Elizabeth Walsh, Rydell Swanson Welch.

All Receiving Bachelor’s Degrees

Thomas Bradley Abbott, Scarborough, ME; Luvian Laraux Abell, Washington, DC; Ashley Marie Ackert, Granville, NY; Ailynne Ann Adams, Montgomery Center, VT; Justin Ian Adelman, Melrose, MA; Samuel Julius Adler, Burlington, VT; Ajla Afizi, Stamford, CT; Aedan James Albrecht, Winooski, VT; Christopher Richard Alling, Upton, MA; Jamie Michelle Aloi, Baldwinsville, NY; Nicolas Jon Alonso-Harper, Keene, NH; Britny Morgan Alvarado, Weston, CT; Jackson Roy Applebaum, South Burlington, VT; Nikita Arias, Stamford, CT; Antoine Aube, White River Junction, VT; Brogan Catherine Austin, Plainfield, MA; Amer Avadagic, Middlebury, VT.

Abbi Brooke Bailey, Barre, VT; Jonathan Edward Ballam, Haverhill, NH; Anthony Paul Barnbara, Stowe, VT; Jonathan Edward Barone, Mendon, VT; Travis Michael Beauchamp, Rutland, VT; Tamara Lynn Beier, Chestnut Hill, MA; Paxton Cash Belcher-Timme, Guilford, VT; Jessica W. Belknap, Burlington, VT; Francesca Celestina Bennett, Waitsfield, VT; Kirk Edward Benson, Junction, VT; Kelsey Lynne Bentz, Suffield, CT; Danielle Marie Bilotta, Fair Haven, NJ; Gina Elizabeth Bouchard, Shrewsbury, MA; Ashley Simone Boucher, Rutland, VT;

David Bounsana, Burlington, VT; Michael J. Brennan, Cumberland, ME; Sandra E. Bridel, Hammonton, NJ; Thomas Briggs, Saunderstown, RI; Richard Leo Brisson, Shoreham VT: Frederick Charles Broda III, Dobbs Ferry, NY; Eric Robert Brown, West Springfield, MA; John Robert Bruce, Vergennes, VT; Aaron Dayton Brush, East Middlebury, VT; Caroline Hope Buckley, North Bennington, VT; Tenley Forrest Burlingame, Barrington, RI; Alysia Rose Bushey, Milton, VT; Kelley Anne Byron, Morristown, NJ.

Julian Ricardo Calleja, Watertown, MA; Emily Lard Caner, Barrington RI; Maria Rose Carabello, Dublin, NH; Hannah Elisabeth Carbonneau, Windham, NH; Elizabeth Anne Carrara, Rutland VT; Virginia Goodwin Carver, Ripton, VT; Matthew Bernt Castaldi, Wilton, CT; Kevin Joel Chalifoux, Spence, MA; Jennifer Jocelyn Chamberlin, Fairfax, VT; Annemarie Wangyee Chan, Summit, NJ; Kevin Michael Chernick. North Caldwell, NJ; Rachel Erin Chicoine, Essex Junction, VT; Brittany Marie Clark, Berlin, VT; Chelsea Marie Clark, Swanton, VT; Aimee Maitland Coburn, Weston, MA; Alexa Kauffman Cohen, Newton, MA; Erika Simone Colbertaldo, Basking Ridge, NJ; Alexandra G. Colkitt, Media, PA; Sarah Lemay Colliton, Burlington, VT; Leah C. Conchieri, Essex Junction, VT; Susan Elizabeth Consolati, Lee, MA; Hannah Rae Contois, Winooski, VT; Jessie-Ruth Ann Corkins, Albany, VT; Caroline Dylan Couch, New York, NY; Benjamin Lloyd Crosby, Fayston, VT; Sarah Katharine Cushman, Washington, DC.

Liza Worth Dardani, Valatie, NY; Stephen Alex Davidson, Burlington, VT; Dylan John Davis, Plymouth, MA; Kyle Davis, West Nyack, NY; Seth Delorme, Salisbury, VT; Danielle Mavis Desroche, Bedford, NH; Alysha A. Desrosiers, Vanvick, R1; Jacqueline Marie Devito, Bridgewater, CT; Daniel Martin Devlin, Poultney, VT; Jackson Matthew Diebold, Northfield, VT; Christopher William Dietze, Seaford, NY; Morgen Sabine Doane, New Haven, VT: Natalie Michaelis Donnelly, Norwich, VT; Samantha Donnelly, New Hampton, NY; Evan Domenico Doubleday, Woodstock, VT; Jenna Suzanne Dufford, South Glastonbury, CT; Emmalene Ann Duffy, Weymouth, MA; Christopher Lawrence Duncan, Burlington, VT; Shannon E. Dychton, Huntington VT.

Connor Michael Eaton, Sbelton, CT; Midori Jeanne Eckenstein, South Burlington, VT; Shannon Mary Emmons, South Berwick, ME; Zachary John Engler, Jay, VT; Harley Dee Eriksen, Vergennes, VT; Dylan Michael Estabrooks, Guildhall, VT; Amanda Nicole Estevez, Queens, NY; Jennifer Marie Fahy, Brooklyn, NY; Lily Annabelle Feldman, Pittsburgh, PA; Rose Fienman, Kingston, PA; Marielle Lauren Fisher, Berwyn, PA; Kenly Mueller Flanigan, Nevada City, CA; Anna Elizabeth Foley, East Burke, VT; Wyatt Nelson Fowler, Fishers Island, NY; Katherine Laura Fox, Cbappaqua, NY; Cassidy Foster Francik, Cockeysville, MD; Tyler Day Frandsen, Strafford, PA; Laura Julienne Friedland, West Granby, CT; Danika G. Frisbie, Williston, VT; Rebecca Lynne Frye, Chelsea, VT; Lindsey Adona Fuller, Lancaster, MA.

Jared Scott Gagnon, Charlston, MA; Kailey Taylor Cochrane Gardner, Ithaca, NY; Kayla Constantino, Gatos, Charlotte, VT; Thomas Christopher Gebhard, Grand Island, NY; Cynthia C. Gentry, Rutherford, NJ’ Sara D. Geoghegan, Wilmington, DE; Haleigh Jo Gill, South Burlington, VT; Eliza Janette Goddard, Freeport, ME; Allyson E. Goida, Nashua NH; Kay Anne Gaile, South Burlington, VT; Matthew Robert Goldman, Natick MA; Daniel Keith Golschneider, Corinth, VT; Andrew Scott Gordon, Carmel NY; Levi Wolf Gordon, Warwick, NY; Lindsay Claire Gordon, Burlington, VT; Jenna Marie Gorham, Hopkinton, MA; Alicia Mychal Gorman, Gray, ME; Matthew Steven Grasso, St. Johnsbury, VT; Clare Beth Harris Greenberg, Washington, DC; Allison A, Grenier, Waterbury Center; VT; Judah David Griffin, Greensboro Bend, VT; Philip T. Griffin Jr., Northfield, VT; Joseph Winston Grossman, Wilmot, NH; Susannah Leigh Gruner, Kingston, NY; Avalon C. Guarino, Plainville, CT: Sierra Fawn Guay, Lisbon Falls, ME. 

Taylor Rose Hadcock, Londonderry, NY; Alexander J. Haller, Patchogue, NY; Nicoleta Elyssa Hardesty, Dobbs Ferry, NY; Mackenzie Laura Harrington, North Pomfret, VT; Grace Bentley Hawkins, Fairfield, CT; Lyndsey Rose Hayden, Wallingford, CT; Nicholas Steele Hayes, Tuckahoe, NY; Marie-Elizabeth Gabrielle Hebert, Essex Junction, VT; Peter Griffith Hegman, Huntington, VT; Erin Marie Henry, Pennington, NJ; Gillian Amanda Henson, Norwalk, CT; Anna Lillian Herbert, Auburn, ME; April Christine Hillman, Shelburne, VT; John-Michael Hodge, Fort Myers, FL; Ayano Olivia Honda, New York, NY; Daniel Steven Hopkins, Williston, VT; Jake Emerson Hostnik, Londonderry, VT: Peter Owen Howard, Arlington, MA’ Tzu-Min Hsu, Taipei, China; Maura Cioffe Huddleston, Weybridge, VT; Alicia Joi Hudock, Winooski, VT; Samuel Meyer Hughes, Shelburne, VT; Alyssa Marie Humphrey, Saint Albans, VT.

Deborah Sarah Isen, Bethesda, MD; Mallory Logan James, Weybridge, VT; Samantha R. Jean-Baptiste, Pittsford, NY; Evan Macfarland Johnson, Wilton, CT; Olivia Katherine Johnson, Derry, NH; Tyler Morgan Johnson, Manchester, VT; Alison Claire Jones, Waterville, VT; Danielle Lee Judson, Concord, MA; Nicole Marie Jumper, Falmouth, ME; Emily Jordan Kalen, Avon, CT; Leanne D. Kane, Williams Bay, WI; Bethany Jean Karstens, Williston, VT; Anna Rose Kaufman, East Hardwick, VT; Amanda Marion Kava, Rockport, ME; Julia Margaret Keeler, Englewood, CO; Seth Noah Keighley, Foster, RI; Samuel Bogen Kellner, South Burlington, VT; Elizabeth Rae Kennedy, Natick, MA; Laila L. Khayami, Groton, MA; Justin Francis King, Colorado Springs, CO; Madeline Eaton Kinzly, York, ME; Douglas Alexander Klein, Weatogue, CT; Jennie Rose Kogan, Hartsdale, NY; Lauren Mary Kolarik, Franklin Square, NY; Rachel Koletsky, Shaker Heights, OH; Sarah Michelle Kresock, Randolph Center, VT; Sayoko Lisa Kubotera, Delmar, NY; Victoria Rose Kulwicki, Hudson, OH.

Hannah Marie Lachance, West Point, NY; Lindsay Stafford Laird, Mount Kisco, NY; Max Richard Landerman, Washington, DC; Benjamin Vincent Lane, Medway, MA; Michelle Olivia Langmaid, Hyde Park, VT; Kaili Marie LaRochelle, Waitsfield, VT; Amy Rose Law, Arlington, VA; Taylor Ryall Lawrence, Kennebunk, ME; Danielle Theresa Leahy, Middlebury, VT; Emily Elizabeth LeBlanc; Richmond, VT; Kaitlin Elizabeth Lee, West Hyannisport, MA; Ryan Tyler Leithead, South Burlington, VT; Krystal A. Lemire, Glover, VT; Samantha Elizabeth Leonardo, Brooklyn, NY; Demelza Sarah Levick, Troy, NH; Elise Backup Levin, Elkins Park, PA; Amber Liljeholm, Jeffersonville, VT; Amy Elizabeth Lipsitz, North Kingstown, RI; Kathryn McIntyre Long, Harvard, MA; Nicholas Areni Lorenz, Corvallis, OR; Joy LoSchiavo, West Newbury, VT; Nicole Laurin Loughrey, Agawam, MA; Meredith Ashley Louko, North Easton, MA; Jeffrey James Lyons, Groton, VT.

Morgan Elizabeth Macleod, Portsmouth, NH: David Charles Manago, Williston, VT; Katrina C. Manker, Milton, MA; Andrew James Marcotte, Essex Junction, VT; Christopher Carpenter Marsh, Huntington, VT; Andrew Jason Masson, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada; Matthew Robert McAvoy, Essex Junction, VT; Rebecca McBride, Wantagh, NY; Brooke Kiernan McCallion, Palo Alto, CA; Jane Farley McClelland, Keene Valley, NY; Sean Arthur McDonald, Wayzata, MN; Catherine M. McDougal, Mahopac, NY; Erin Elizabeth McElwain, Scarborougb, ME; Robert Thomas McGarry, Enosburg Falls, VT; Kali Denise McPeters, Underhill, VT; Cody Michael Mears, Bennington, VT; Robin D. Megill, Lexington, MA; Kelly M. Melancon, Saratoga Springs, NY; Marissa Ashley Menard, Burlington, VT; Sophie Anne Mench, South Burlington, VT; Steven Edward Menken, Meadowbrook, PA; Alexandra Kate Miller, Bethel, VT; Melanie Marie Milliard, Londonderry, NH; Molly Catherine Mills, Maynard, MA; Daniel Robert Moeck, Stowe, VT; Zulefika J. Mofokeng, Plainfield, VT; Nora Elizabeth Monico, Laconia, NH; John Codington Moses, Charlotte, VT; Jennifer Celia Mudarri, Natick, MA; Samuel John Murphy, Newport, VT; Kathleen Elizabeth Murray, Norwalk, CT.

John Louis Neri, Voorheesville, NY; Timothy R. Novine, Kinderhook, NY; Danielle Caitlin O’Dwyer, Braintree, MA; Sean Kerin O’Neill, Kingston, RI; Marina Alexandra Oriel, Burlington, VT; Kerry Anne Oster, Mercer Island, WA; Cody John Paiva, Montpelier, VT; Sean Michael Parker Wilder, VT; Ridhdhi Raj Parmar, Burlington, VT; Adam Michael Paronto, Barre, VT: Samuel J. Patterson, Oak Park, IL; Mark Daniel Paulsen, Essex Junction VT; Dylan Ettinger Pelz, Chestnut Hill, MA; Megan Elizabeth Perley, Jackson, NH; Hayley Colette Perrone, Syosset, NY; Maya Maxine Perry, Wayland, MA; Lucy Diana Perutz, Evanston, IL;

Kelly C. Phillips, Auburn, ME; Tashia Joanne Phillips, Framingham, MA; Keyan Pishdadian, North Easton, MA; Richard Matthews Plonski, Waterford, VT; Meredith Fleming Porter, Midlolthian, VA; Beck Powers, Danvers, MA; Christa Ann Pratko, Newfoundland, NJ; Eric D. Pratt, Fairfield, ME; Julia Leigh Prince, Framingham, MA; Alexander Hays Prolman, Litchfield, NH; Natalie Anne Pulido, Ventura, CA.

Joshua Samuel Reagan, South Burlington, VT; Ellen McDermott Reidy, Saratoga Springs, NY; Lorna Mary Reimers, Mamaroneck, NY; Cody Robert Renaud, St. Johnsbury, VT; Sam Tal Resnicow, Newton, MA; Dania E, Reyes, Bronx, NY; Kathleen Florence Reynolds, Voorheesville, NY; Megan Marie Rheaume, Middlebury, VT; Hannah Marie Ricard, Newport, VT; Carson James Richards, Williamstown, VT; Cori J. Ridgley, Bradford, MA; Megan Marie Rigoni, Rochester, MA; Abigail Jane Rings, Cedar Rapids, IA; Celeste Phillips Rodman, Wakefield, MA; Rachel Morgan Rogoff, Uncasville, CT;  Abigail Elizabeth Roleau, Lincoln, VT; William Patrick Ronci, Morrisville, VT; Megan Astrid Rosen Ascutney, VT;

Melissa Lynne Rose, Bellmore, NY; Samantha Nicole Rosenstock, Ellenville, NY; Samantha Anne Rothberg Denver, CO; Robert Rudy, San Jose, CA; Alexander Sean Runnels, Sharon, VT; Andrea I.ynn Rusilowicz, Killingsworth, CT; Kristy Anne Ryan, Burlington, VT.

Molly Patricia Sanborn, Sidney, ME; Michael L. Scaturo Fayettesville, NY; Noelle Schariest, Hawley, PA; Amanda Kaitlynn Schnitzlein, Skillman, NJ; Amelia Marie Schumacher, Ripton, VT; Emily Starr Schwartz, Southport, CT; Sarina Marlene Selleck, Portland, ME; Emily Hannah Selwyn, Andover, MA; Evan Devost Semiao, St. Johnsbury, VT; James Edward Seymour, Darien, CT; Jessica Lauren Shapiro, Williston, VT; Timothy Gillis Sheble-Hall, Dover, MA; John Lautz Sikes, Londonderry, VT; Elizabeth Sipple, Waitsfield, VT; Ellen Rebecca Slade, Montpelier, VT; Andrea Taylor Smith, Waitsfield, VT; Eryn Elizabeth Smith, Middlebury, VT; Holly W. Smith, Grantham, PA; Heather Marie Snow, Arlington, VT; Samantha Danielle Soltau, Shelton, CT; Nathan R. Somerville, Barre, VT; Pavina Darany Soukamneuth, East Greenwich, RI; Aaron Joseph Spiritos, Bahama, NC; Jordan Luther Stephney, Peru, NY; Tessera Eleanor Sheperd Strand, Sherborn, MA; Julia Christine Stratton, Silver Spring, MD; Michele Leslie Sukov, Scarsdale, NY; Brent Theodore Summers, Barrington, RI.

Nigar Sultana Tanya, New York, NY; Maranda Lynn Taylor, South Burlington, VT; Michael W. Tchen, Melrose MA; Gabrielle Rose Tetschner, Ashland, MA; Olivia Nicole Thompson, Manchester Center, VT; Stephanie Anne Thresher, Manchester Center, CT; Pia Antonia Tomasello, Ridgefield, CT; Andrew Ian Tranmer, South Burlington, VT; Gabrielle Victoria Tuite, Washington, DC; Heather Nicole Twible, South Hero, VT; Victoria Loren Vande Vegte, San Marcos, CA; Brian John VanDeWeert, Bristol, VT; Anthony Mathew Vattaso, Wales, ME; John Orlando Vazzano, Trumbull, CT; Regina M. Vitiello, Eastchester, NY; Katja Alma Vogel, Enosburg Falls, VT.

Kierstin Marie Wall, Guilford, CT; Jordan Elizabeth Walsh, Falmouth, MA; Tyler A. Wansley, Ellenton, FL; Luke Disert Warren, Hopkinton, MA; Martha Steingard Waterman, Charlotte, VT; Jacob Alexander Watkins, Newmarket, NH; Brandon Watson, Hamburg, NY; Kara Elizabeth Weir, Rutland, VT; Rydell Swanson Welch, Brewster, MA; Paige E. Wener, Starksboro, VT; Erin Patricia Wente, Scottsdale, AZ; Samuel Zachary Wesley, Roswell, GA; David Christian White, Yardley, PA;

Peter John White, Waterford, NY; Sara Kinsel Whitney, Sudbury, MA; Anna Elizabeth Wiens, Minnetonka, MN; Sean Michael Wilcox, Milton, MA; Moriah Lenell Winch, Gansevoort, NY; Devon Alexandra Winter, Wyndmoor, PA; Renee J. Wolf, Winooski, VT; Kelsey Pauline Wooley, South Burlington, VT; Melissa Elizabeth Woolpert, Carmel Valley, CA and Tucker Wright, Enosburg Falls, VT.

Bob Sinclair eulogized him with the words, “imaginative writer, public speaker, photographer, agronomist, gardener.”

Tom Vogelmann called him “one of the greats from the era of the UVM Extension agents.”

Sid Bosworth described Win Way as “a true Renaissance agriculturist.

Enid Wonnacott wrote, he’s no less than “one of the pioneers of the organic farming and gardening movement.”

More than 150 people gathered on May 11 at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ alumni and friends awards ceremony. And one of the people they paid tribute to was the late Win Way, long-time UVM Extension agronomist, who died January 26 at age 89. Way was awarded a Robert O. Sinclair Cup for career achievement posthumously. Also receiving a Sinclair Cup was Emeriti Professor Lyndon Carew. Bonnie Sologoff and Gilman Dedrick received Outstanding Alumni Awards. Danielle Leahy took home this year’s Larry K. Forcier Outstanding Senior Award. Emma Wall was named New Achiever.

Influenced Vermont Agriculture

Introducing the award presenters at the 20^th annual alumni and friends dinner, Vogelmann, dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), quipped that it took two men to deliver the Win Way’s award: Lerner, UVM Extension associate dean and director, and Bosworth, agronomy specialist in CALS plant and soil science department. It was poetic justice because “Win used to joke that it took two of us to replace him (and I wouldn't deny that!)” Bosworth said later. “I guess I replaced him, but so did Bill Jokela.”

Way made significant contributions to plant and soil science. “Win’s grasp of soil fertility resulted in immense savings to farmers and a significant reduction of fertilizers, at a time when chemicals were overused,” explained Bosworth. He was instrumental in getting Vermont’s home garden and agricultural soil testing program under way. He wrote the logic for the first computerized soil testing program. And he even created a folksy looking, now famous “Win Way Wheel” – a device he made to generate fertilizer recommendations.

He promoted the use of the plant birdsfoot trefoil on roadsides and medians, often sowing it himself as he drove down highways. The yellow blossoms can still be seen along some Vermont roads.

With a strong academic background in plants and soils, unprecedented experience and knowledge of Vermont agriculture, Win Way was a true broad thinker and educator. He freely gave advice on all aspects of soils, plant nutrition, manure fertility, crop production, harvest and storage, forages, corn, small grains, root crops, oil seeds, vegetables, turf and forests. He had a “working knowledge of conservation, energy and resource use, appropriate technology, self reliance, alternative agriculture, local food production for local consumption, small and part-time farming,” according to his resume.

Familiar Face of UVM Extension for 32 Years

That resume reads something like this: Win Way grew up in North Hero, where his father and grandfather ran the Irving House (now called the North Hero House) and operated a small diversified farm. It was on that farm where Way gained his early interest in agriculture, plants and soils.

During World War II, he was stationed in Asia for three years. Friends have said that witnessing poverty, hunger and disregard for natural resources in Burma, India and China, he found his calling in soil science, sustainable agriculture and environmental protection.

He received a bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1950 from State University of New York-Syracuse and master’s degree in agronomy in 1951 from UVM. He was an instructor and assistant research agronomist at UVM until 1954, when he became the Extension agronomist – a position he held for 32 years. He retired in 1986.

He often told young people looking for vocations: “I believe that success depends on a complete immersion in one’s job, blending personal and professional life.” He lived by his own advice. During his career, he gave 3,000 presentations to farmers, gardeners and Extension agents – that’s almost 100 a year. He did 500 Across the Fence local television shows (60 shows in one year!), 1,200 radio programs and produced over 70,000 photo slides for various programs. He never turned down a speaking engagement. (He thought it was bad PR!)

For many Vermonters, Win Way was the familiar face of UVM Extension. 

Contrarian to Some, Dangerous to Others

His fans allowed that Win Way was an “independent thinker.” He spurned memberships in organizations, saying, “I would rather be independent so as not to offend others of my Vermont audience.”

UVM Research Associate Professor Don Ross was a grad. student in the late 1970s with a lab near Way’s office. “Win was always seeking better answers to the questions he was asked,” Ross remembers. “I often encountered him in the hall picking the brains of other faculty or he’d pop out and ask you his question of the day. He was a good listener and, of course, he was a great talker.”

He readily spoke up about the high costs of “labor efficiencies (that) come about because of economies of scale,” those costs being greater use and waste of energy, air pollution and wildlife destruction.

Bosworth says that because Way asked tough questions, “he was considered a contrarian by some, dangerous by others.“

He advocated for small farms and locally produced food long before it was popular.

In fact, he promoted agricultural practices that, as Bosworth said, “most universities considered a cult – organic. “Win persisted by inviting organic farmers to give talks at UVM. He helped in the early efforts of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. In 1976, NOFA-VT invited him to give the keynote address at its conference, and presented him with their first honorary award to the person who had done the most to promote organic agriculture in New England.

Enid Wonnacott NOFA-VT Executive Director, agrees. “At a time when the Extension Service was not talking much about organic agriculture, Win was a strong and steady voice teaching about organic agriculture in his classes, presenting the merits of organic gardening on Across the Fence, and gardening by example.”

Robert Sinclair, former dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the first winner of the award that bears his name, was a life-long friend of Way. He knew the paradoxes that were Win Way. In his eulogy he wrote:

• “His impatience with the college bureaucracy is legendary, and he was often the burr under the saddle of administrators. But it was this trait that allowed him to work so effectively outside the confines of academia.
• He loved to talk and had a phenomenal memory of details, but the key to the combination lock on his barn was 000.
• He was exacting in many endeavors but forgiving of those with fewer talents.

“Win Way was a complex individual.”

Bosworth concluded, “if Win were here today I think he would offer an argument against bigger is better, and modern beats old.”

But during the reception, Win’s son, Kim Way ’78, remarked with a grin that if Win Way were here today, he wouldn’t attend this award ceremony. “He would never attend an event like this,” he was just that contrary about recognition and administration.”

That is just one more reason why now was the perfect time to honor Win Way’s accomplishments.

Kim Way of Dublin, Ohio accepted the award on behalf of the family. Also attending were: Win’s wife, Jane Way of North Hero; son and daughter-in-law Tom and Aldona Way of Winooski; and Kim Way’s wife Karen Way.

And humor.

He’s the kind of guy, who, once he’s got your attention, he just won’t let go.

When he stood before an audience of fellow faculty, staff, alumni and friends of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at its annual award ceremony and alumni dinner on May 11, Carew was the second of two winners this year of the Robert O. Sinclair Cup for career achievement. The family of the late Win Way had just received its silver julep cup. (Sinclair, a former CALS dean also attended the event.)

Before that, Danielle Leahy had won the College’s Outstanding Senior Award.

While the audience members were eating salads they had heard UVM President Tom Sullivan say that "CALS’ is central to University and its Land-Grant mission" due to its "teaching and research in agriculture and biological sciences, its work to advance teaching and science to the State of Vermont and in its research that stewards the enviromnment in Vermont and well beyond."

Two alumni – Bonnie Sogoloff and Gilman Dedrick would receive awards right after this one.

Folks were finishing their desserts when Carew held up his two-minute acceptance speech on what looked like a slim stack of 5x7-inch cards.

 “Since my last class (Carew retired from teaching in 2010), I’ve been waiting for a moment such as this, where I have 200 people in a room so I can talk…,” he quipped.

The audience laughed.

Then he let the speech cards unfold, accordion-style and cascade to the floor.

The audience laughed again.

“But I have so much to talk about,” he said in earnest.

Turns out, he wasn’t kidding.

After 15 minutes event organizer Robin Smith, who times the event down to the minute and aims for it to end at 8 p.m., waved her hands with two fingers pointing.

“Robin, did you say I have 75 minutes?” he grinned peering to the back of the room through his oversized spectacles.

“Every year, I was teaching young students, 20-21 years old," he continued. They were the same age every year. I assumed I was the same age every year,” Carew observed. “Now that I’ve retired, I’ve grown old.”

At about 20 minutes, Betsy Greene, sitting at a front table, tried to get his attention.

Meanwhile, Carew went on to other topics: teaching, students nowadays, travels….

At about 30 minutes award presenter Dean Tom Vogelmann, standing at the side of the stage, edged deliberately closer to the center.

On his own time, Carew did wrap up his remarks eventually and left everyone in laughter. He had just demonstrated exactly the kind of character and classroom lecturer he had been for nearly 40 years: one of comic timing, but one who runs on a different internal clock.

“I’m programmed to talk for 75 minutes,” he said later.

Lyn Carew by the Numbers

• A native Massachusettsian, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1955 and Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1961. He worked in research at Cornell, for Hess and Clark, a veterinary pharmaceutical company in Ohio and internationally until he joined CALS faculty in 1969 as an associate professor of animal science. In 1973 he became professor of both animal science and nutrition and food sciences. In 1983 he added to his UVM duties, teaching at the William H. Miner Institute in Chazy, NY.
• As a research scientist he has garnered more than $3 million in federal Hatch funds to support his studies. His research is well known on the effects of adding oils and fatty acids to poultry feed to improve chick health. This led to Carew’s international reputation for his work with velvet beans as a poultry feed ingredient for farmers in the tropics.
• He not only published 136 journal articles, he has been editor and reviewer for publications as varied as “Comparative Biochemistry Research” and “Journal of Applied Poultry Research.”
• He taught 26 different courses in nutrition and food sciences and animal science.

“The list goes on and on. Every academic has numbers,” said Vogelmann. “However, this award speaks to what really makes Lyn Carew distinctive from every other high achiever.”

The Three Things About Lyn Carew

First, Carew was an early adopter of computers in nutrition education, and got grants to fund his computerized diet analysis programs, test generators and other interactive elements unheard of at the time. By 1983, he was the first in the country to develop a computerized undergraduate nutrition education program – on large-format floppy disks, and then revised repeatedly as technology advanced over the years. People from Bolivia, Iran, Australia and Peru contacted him about this Internet-accessible program, and he became a world traveler. As his UVM colleague Deborah Paradis, said of Carew, “He brought teaching into the technological age. His dream was that he could someday reach people beyond the walls of this university.”

‘Clearly a man ahead of his time.

Secondly, Lyn Carew is legendary for his unfailing teaching of the popular Fundamentals of Nutrition course. It’s a course whose popularity went viral via the students themselves, it introduced nonmajors to nutrition and inspired change in many young people’s majors and careers. His classes sometimes topped 300 students per semester, every fall and spring from 1971 through 2011. He also taught this course evenings for 25 years and summers for 13 years. His colleagues tallied that, during his career, Lyn Carew reached more than 10,000 students.

Carew worked long after traditional retirement age, becoming an emeriti professor in 2010, the same year he published a memoir.

Although Professor Carew's longevity in the classroom is amazing, this award is based on the quality of his teaching and the broad range of individuals he has touched during his outstanding career.

Because his 35-year career at UVM has brought great honor and recognition to the University of Vermont, Carew has already received the University’s top accolades: the Kidder, Kroepsch-Maurice, University Scholar, NAFTA and Carrigan Awards (He received the Carrigan twice.)

And yet, the essence of Lyn Carew – the third thing that distinguishes him – is that he is a champion of his peers, colleagues and his students – attending all of the department, college and UVM events. Colleagues say Carew takes more pleasure in others’ accomplishments than his own, citing that it was always he who nominated others for awards, wrote letters of support, met award deadlines. So it is with great symmetry that five of his dearest colleagues submitted a 53-page nomination of him for this award.

Rachel Johnson who now teaches the famous Fundamentals of Nutrition said it best, “He was incredible to observe. In the classroom; engaging, brilliant, funny, energetic. Our students loved him. I wish you were there on Lyn's last day of teaching. A large group of his animal science and nutrition and food science colleagues entered the back of the room near the end of his final lecture. We rose and cheered as Lyn ended the lecture. Rather than rushing out of the room at the end of class as students typically do, they stayed en masse taking photos and shaking Lyn's hand. As I said…He is beloved.”

Likewise on this evening, May 11, the audience rose and cheered as Carew ended the lecture, er, acceptance speech. Carew’s long and colorful record of service to the University of Vermont is matched perfectly by his penchant for long and colorful remarks. And he is beloved.

And that leads to stories such as this one, 1,281 words long.

This was the message that Tom Vogelmann, Dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) delivered to a crowd of more than 150 alumni, faculty, staff and friends at its annual dinner on May 11 at the Davis Center on campus. Gil Dedrick of Burnsville, Minnesota, stood beside Vogelmann to receive the College’s 2013 Outstanding Alumnus Award.

Dedrick graduated from UVM in 1956 with a degree in agricultural economics and the nickname "Chick Dedrick." He worked for decades in sales and marketing for chemical and feed companies nationwide. In the 1970s, he landed a job in Minnesota and has been headquartered there ever since. He has achieved considerable success and acclaim over his 55-year career in the poultry business. He served many professional organizations, including president of one of the country's largest poultry producer associations.

Second Retirement? Really?

Now in his “second retirement” from the poultry business, Dedrick is still consulting worldwide, serving on boards, working as building and grounds director for a residential development and managing a USDA grant to combat invasive plants in a Minnesota suburban woodland.

“The friendly generous way Gil Dedrick shares his limitless knowledge is the epitome of the land-grant ethic in practice,” said Vogelmann referring to the mission of land-grant institutions, such as UVM, to bring their teaching and research to the public for the benefit of the citizens of the state.

Organic farmer Nick Levendoski wrote a letter recommending Dedrick for this award. In it he said, “whether I run into Gillie at an Amish farm open house in Iowa or during the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta, he always has a few minutes to catch up. He has the good old-fashioned personal touch to business that is disappearing all too quickly.”

Dozens of Dedrick’s friends like Nick wrote with examples of how he solved their problems, organized workshops, shared new ideas and transformed the chicken and the egg industry. Interestingly, they prefaced their remarks with statements that their families have been in the poultry business for 30, 50, even 70 years. Their letters were a testimony not only to Gil Dedrick, but to a different era of American poultry – one not of a few international producers, rather of flocks and flocks of small- to mid-sized businesses run by poultrymen and women.

The Chicken and the Egg

Dedrick led the industry through this change and back again. And today he’s here as a resource during the incredible revival of the backyard flock.

About a decade ago, Dedrick led the shift in the poultry industry to more human treatment of birds when he began focusing on cage-free, free-range, organic and brown egg production. And, the practices he promotes are not only more sustainable and humane, they bring the price of eggs from somewhere around 89 cents a dozen to on average $4 a dozen.

A Wisconsin poultryman with the apt name of Tom Peck told how Dedrick helped him convert his 600,000-bird operation to 75,000 cage-free birds certified by American Humane and Humane Farm Animal programs. More importantly, he said, Dedrick “has a genuine care for the people he does business with,” and as a result, “the dinner place always available to him at tables in homes in Spring Green, Wisconsin or Colona, Iowa or countless other homes in other states.”

Gil Dedrick has also been generous to his alma mater for 30 years, participating in events and reunions and cheering on the men’s hockey team. In fact, he has advised former Coach Mike Gilligan about Minnesota-based player prospects. Dedrick donates to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Center for Sustainable Agriculture, UVM Morgan Horse Farm, ROTC, men's hockey, animal science department and related funds. His good friend and a CALS award winner himself, Bob Willey, said of Dedrick, “While I'm impressed with his success in the agricultural field, I'm even more impressed with his effort over these many years to maintain contact with college friends and with UVM.”

Says CALS’ development director Howard Lincoln, “Our college and university are highly regarded for a number of reasons, and one of them is Gil Dedrick.

To even further mark the occasion, Dedrick's family and friends launched the Gilman T. Dedrick Award fund. Founding donors are Larry and Delayne Dedrick Gold with Tracey Dedrick and Alastair Merrick making the first donation. Longtime friend of the College Oletha "Lee" Bickford '41 stepped forward with a $20,000 challenge gift. Attending the event in celebration of Gil were his wife Pat Dedrick of Burnsville, Minnesota; son Gil Dedrick IV; daughter Tracey Dedrick; and college friends Bruce Hausser '56 and Olga Hausser; and Mark Schroeder '58 and Suzannah Schroeder.

Dedrick was one of two Outstanding Alumni this year. Bonnie Sogoloff ’66, of Charlotte, also received the honor. Also on the program, Emeriti Professor Lyndon Carew and the late Winston Way G ’51 a UVM Extension agronomist, received the Robert O. Sinclair Cup lifetime achievement awards. Danielle Leahy ’12 received the College’s Outstanding Senior Award and Emma Wall, ’01, G ’04, Ph.D. ’08, was named CALS New Achiever.

Danielle Leahy of Burlington graduated from UVM Honors College in December with a one of the top GPAs and a degree in nutrition and food sciences, also completing the pre-med. requirements. She has been accepted by the University of Vermont College of Medicine to begin studies in fall.

On May 11 at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) 20^th annual alumni and friends dinner she received the Lawrence K. Forcier Outstanding Senior Award, honors a student who significantly helps fellow students and the community while excelling in a demanding academic program, and one who will likely make a significant difference in the world. CALS Dean Tom Vogelmann presented the award, along with Outstanding Alumni Awards to Bonnie Sogoloff ’66 and Gilman Dedrick ’56 and Robert O. Sinclair Cup Awards for career achievement to Emeriti Professor Lyndon Carew and the late Professor Winston Way. Emma Wall '01, G'04, 'Ph.D 08 was named CALS New Achiever.

During Honors Day ceremonies in April, Leahy took home her department’s faculty and research awards and the Distinguished Undergraduate Research Award.

The latter, was for her work as on the effectiveness of a branched chain amino acid drink supplement on muscle soreness following exercise. As principle investigator, she initiated funding from two student grants, designed and conducted the entire study herself, analyzed data and prepared the manuscript. She delivered the results at the Experimental Biology meeting in Boston just weeks ago. Even better: her work will be published in the journal, “ISRN Nutrition.” Her advisors along the way were Professors Bob Tyzbir and Stephen Pintauro. Previously she did research in the Fletcher Allen labs of Drs. Naomi Fukugawa and Kaley Freeman.

That’s just the tip of the academics and research side of Danielle Leahy.

The rest of the picture reveals how she fills the other 18 hours of every day.

Danie Leahy came to UVM from her hometown of Middlebury via Wesleyan University where she spent her first semester.  While at UVM, she was head coach of a local high school girls’ varsity ice hockey team, volunteered to rebuild houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina, was an office holder and member of Alpha Chi Omega, mentored Honors College peers and played starting goaltender for UVM field hockey club, to name a few.

Dean Tom Vogelmann, in presenting the Outstanding Senior Award to Leahy drew laughter from the audience of about 150 when he said, “she seamlessly blends her professional and social interests. For example, she gave presentations to her sorority sisters on healthy eating, the dangers of alcohol use in the college setting and how to improve their academic records.”

At UVM she became a certified EMT, volunteering for UVM Rescue and then becoming crew chief and crew chief trainer – that’s the highest level of certification. She did it in only a year and a half. That’s because she has logged in more than 5,200 hours since 2010.

Her Professor Bob Tyzbir said, “Danie is the kind of student all professors crave; intellectually driven, brilliant, genuinely engaged in the material, original, thorough – and humble.” She asked to sit in on his nutritional biochem. course just to better understand the biochemical aspects of her other coursework and research.

Her research advisor Professor Stephen Pintauro summed it up, “Danie is mature, outgoing, articulate, friendly and very highly motivated. Despite her incredibly busy schedule, she is upbeat and enthusiastic.” He said, “I believe that Danie has managed to find a healthy balance between her academic goals and responsibilities, her volunteer and community service and her friends and social life.”

Accepting the award, Leahy remarked, "All the things I've done at UVM are really great, but the most important thing I've taken awary from UVM are the people – you can't do it alone – the people I've met along the way are the best." Leahy says that before med. school she’s taking time to enjoy things she had long set aside – playing hockey, traveling with college and high school friends and working, working, working. She’s employed by Charlotte Rescue Squad, Shelburne Rescue Squad and Fletcher Allen inpatient psychiatry.

Sogoloff, a professional horse trainer and farm owner, can indeed control large animals and has made great strides as a leader in the world of the Morgan horse, Owner, with her husband Hayes Sogoloff, of Cedar Spring Farm in Charlotte, Bonnie has bred and trained countless Morgans, taken many a youngster under her tutelage, been an internship site for UVM equine students and served generously in organizations promoting the Morgan breed.

Sogoloff was one of two recipients of the 2013 UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Outstanding Alumni Awards at a dinner at the Davis Center on campus on May 11.

“Bonnie Sogoloff stands before you because she is a champion of the Morgan Horse breed, its community of people and UVM’s equine program,” said CALS Dean Tom Vogelmann in presenting the award.

That’s a role that may be more important than ever as numbers of horse populations drop with the U.S. economy, he noted.

The University of Vermont Morgan Horse Farm along with others are preserving this breed whose number of births dropped in the past dozen years from 3,500 to just 599 last year. The American Morgan Horse Registry reports the population of registered Morgans to be 1,500 today. UVM became the caretaker of the ‘Government Line’ of Morgans when the USDA transferred the breed and the Morgan Horse Farm to the care of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at UVM. The Morgan horse is Vermont’s state animal owing to the fact that the Vermonter Justin Morgan was the owner of the stallion from which the breed is traced.

As dedicated as she is to Morgans, Bonnie Sogoloff also is true to her alma mater.

“If there’s a doctor in the house, perhaps we should check to see if Bonnie Sogoloff has green and gold blood running in her veins,” quipped Vogelmann, referring to the school colors.

Something about her undergraduate years at UVM made her an immediate and lifetime member of the CALS family. She attended UVM on scholarships, attained the dean’s list, majored in animal science and worked at the Morgan Horse Farm. After graduating in 1966, Bonnie Herschede married Hayes Sogoloff in Ira Allen Chapel. The couple moved to Massachusetts while Hayes, who also graduated in ’66 (zoology), completed his degree work in optometry. She worked at MIT. The couple returned to Vermont in 1970. He set up an optometry practices in Brandon in 1970 and Shelburne in 1971 and they both started Cedar Spring Farm in Essex Junction in 1976. Hayes is farm manager. Bonnie became a professional horse trainer in 1976. Prior to that she also trained Doberman Pinschers to AKC obedience titles. (Note that Dobermans are nearly the size of horses.) She became a U.S. Equestrian Federation recorded judge in 1984. Their daughters Keely Sogoloff '92, (zoology) and Wendy Sogoloff Gossage ‘94, (animal science), also have been involved in all aspects of the business. Wendy is now a trainer in Kentucky.

The farm outgrew its space so they moved it to Charlotte in 2005. Bonnie is a member of many professional horse and dog associations and has served several community organizations on boards as clinician and speaker; among them she is treasurer of the Chittenden County Farm Bureau. The couple was instrumental in establishing the Horse Farm of Distinction Award in 2011. Not surprising Cedar Spring Farm won that award in 2012. The Farm actively participates in local and state events like the Champlain Valley Fair, Farm Days Exposition and Shelburne parades.

Bonnie herself has received numerous awards in her field, but another measure of professional horse training success is the number of horses and rider/drivers who attain the highest level – champion or reserve champion. Bonnie’s list is more than 50 and counting.

The Sogoloffs have also demonstrated support of and service to UVM by repeatedly embracing and taking students and graduates under their tutelage.

One story particularly reveals Bonnie’s determination, hard work and collaboration. It’s a story told by Kathy Sheppard-Jones, summa cum laude, Class of 1991. Sheppard-Jones, was one of several people nominating Sogoloff for the award.

She wrote, “I grew up a typical horse-crazy kid, wanting a horse of my own in the worst way as early as I could remember. What was a little less usual was that I use a wheelchair to get around – that's not always seen as a formula for success when working with large animals.

“When I was 13, Bonnie found me my first perfect match of a horse. To assess the horse's response to my wheelchair, she had someone push her in a wheelbarrow while she led the horse around. This is the kind of problem solver that is Bonnie Sogoloff. She always had an idea, a plan, or an approach to make anything work.”

Sheppard-Jones went on to say, “Cedar Spring Farm was like being in the best sort of classroom – one of warmth and fun, but also of a strong work ethic.” Sheppard-Jones went on to win Youth ofthe Year contest at the Morgan Grand Nationals in 1991.

“The world will surely be a better place, when Bonnie Sogoloff rules it,” Vogelmann concluded.

But Bonnie Sogoloff got to have the last word – as should any world ruler.  “When I was in college – all the hijinks I pulled – I never would have thought I’d be standing here today,” Sogoloff said. She recognized the UVM leadership of Donald Balch, who was director of UVM Morgan Horse Farm when she worked there, and its “legendary horse trainer Bob Baker." She was the only woman to train with Baker.

Sogoloff was clearly a woman in a man’s world when she entered the field. She also acknowledged the obstacles that set her even more firmly on her path. “I thank Cornell University for not accepting me into their pre-vet. program because, as the director of admissions at that time said, 'I don't care who you are or what kind of grades you have, you are a girl and you like horses. We won't take you.'"

She was was also thankful she turned down a Ph.D. program at MIT and did not pursue a Ph.D. in genetics at UVM. And she was thankful she didn’t listen to her mother, whom she quoted as saying, “when are you going to forget about horses and do something with your life. It’s such a waste of a brain.”

Today Sogoloff is philosophical and grateful to UVM for what she called her “two educations – one at UVM that was academic and one in the horse barn that taught me who I am.”

In a universe of just one standard petri dish she can grow at least 40 plants of Arabidopsis thaliana, so from its tiny seeds emerge a quick-growing, efficient model system for studying cell wall structure. Once they sprout roots, stems and leaves, she compares them to investigate, as she puts it, “proteins involved in vesicular trafficking pathways that are sensitive to changes in extracellular matrix organization, and how endocytosis as well as secretion may be involved in matrix metabolism.” She adds, “I investigate how these pathways function in the polarized root hair cells in the plant.”

Okay, distilled way down, Larson studies whether cell wall structure affects cell function, and how certain proteins in root hairs, for example, may serve different functions.

Her projects ask basic biological questions about how cells maintain their shape – which is really important for their function. These questions contribute to the overall dialogue about cellular responses and what's required for cell growth.

“And we are gaining a better understanding of how cells make and maintain particular cell wall structures that help the cell interface with its surroundings, which is important because plants have to respond to adverse changes in their environment even though they're stuck where they are. They must overcome potential environmental stress through cell growth, which means the cell must have ways to manipulate the cell wall architecture to allow for cell expansion,” Larson explains.

Wrapping Up Her UVM Work

Larson has worked in Professor Mary Tierney’s lab in Jeffords Hall on the University of Vermont campus since 2007. She is enrolled in UVM’s Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical (CMB) Sciences Graduate Program. Tierney’s lab is in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ plant biology department and Tierney happens to be the current director of CMB – a cross-disciplinary program.

Larson finished her courses, and like all Ph.D. candidates, the next stages were to complete research, write and present her thesis and apply for post-doctoral positions before graduation in May. Normally, that would be a considerable juggling act. But Larson is the inaugural recipient of the Louise Raynor scholarship award.

“This provided Emily a semester of pure research,” observes Tierney. “Having the ability to focus on just her experiments and working on writing her thesis during the spring was invaluable.”

 “At this level I don’t supervise Emily’s work, we are colleagues,” says Tierney with admiration. Tierney points out that Larson has already presented aspects of her research at three international conferences in the past three years and was an invited speaker at State University of New York-Potsdam biology lecture series in 2011.

Larson received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Bennington College. She worked in research labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Washington until she was accepted into UVM’s CMB Graduate Program.

“I chose to pursue my graduate degree at UVM because of the strong collaborative relationships among the faculty across the departments associated with the CMB Program, and the focus on fostering academic rigor and intellectual creativity in its students,” says Larson.

This summer, she'll continue in the Tierney lab, readying manuscripts for publication. And she'll design some curricula for undergraduate courses with UVM plant biology lecturers Laura Hill Birmingham and Laura Almstead.

In September she will join Professor Mike Blatt's lab at the University of Glasgow in Scotland to study vesicle and membrane transport in plants. Larson says she is confident that the cell biology and molecular biology approaches that she used at UVM are applicable in many fields. “I think the work I've done at UVM has helped me become a better scientist, I'm looking forward to using what I've learned here to be a strong and thoughtful member of my academic and social communities,” Larson says.

A charitable bequest from Louise Raynor’s estate established an endowed scholarship fund for graduate students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ department of plant biology. Raynor specialized in plant diversity and plant micro-technique courses in the University of Vermont botany department from 1946-1968. Her exquisitely prepared paraffin sections of a remarkable array of plants showing the beauty of plant interiors are still part of the department’s teaching collection. She retired as an associate professor. Raynor, 98, died in 2010.

“These scholarship funds have a special meaning for our College,” said Tom Vogelmann, dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “I knew Dr. Raynor and feel very fortunate that they will continue to have a presence in the life of our students, even though they are no longer with us. They were superb teachers; the kind that brought out the best in their students. It is an honor to make scholarship awards in their names each year.” ~Howard Lincoln contributed to this story.

“Service-learning” is a buzz phrase that describes a current trend nationwide in higher education. It refers to hands-on experience for students, organized between a university and a community organization that needs volunteers. UVM builds service-learning into much of its curriculum and proudly advertises these opportunities widely in its admissions materials and the like.

But Baker has taken service-learning to another level.

And then another level.

Before explaining how that works, it must be said that Dan Baker breaks the college-teacher mold in other ways. He blazed his own educational path as a student. He didn’t follow the most direct route through academia. And as a result, he is a new kind of teacher, mentor, leader, researcher and harbinger of change.

In the 1980s Baker attended Antioch College in Ohio and earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Burlington College. He has traveled widely and worked as a sailboat captain, river guide and a maple sugarmaker, to name a few. In 1995, he earned his master’s degree in agricultural economics at the University of Vermont. And in 2007, Baker earned both a certificate in ecological economics and his Ph.D. in UVM’s School of Natural Resources.

He taught in UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) for a full decade as a lecturer before being promoted to assistant professor in 2007 in the department of community development and applied economics (CDAE) where he teaches three courses. Since then he has earned three top teaching awards from the University and the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, and on April 21 received CALS Joseph E. Carrigan Award for Undergraduate Teaching.

Advanced Service-Learning Starts Here

Baker created a closed loop teaching system in which he involves students in his research and field courses and then links the results back to both the classroom and student jobs to amazing results. Here’s how.

First, he seeks research projects that meet rural community needs across issues, cultures, technologies and systems. Since 2003, he has conducted more than two dozen projects, partnering with farmers, non-profits and government institutions – ranging from investigating Latino farm workers’ health issues to increasing mobile home parks’ resilience to disasters like tropical storm Irene or transferring the methods he uses a maple sugarmaker to help Hondurans make cane sugar on a small scale.

“I start with the question of what is limiting a community’s development and then use applied research skills and an action orientation to assemble and organize the resources needed to help partners move forward,” Baker says.

Then he adds students.

“One of my greatest accomplishments has been to involve my students directly in my research,” because, Baker says, it “enables students to clarify their interests, develop skills and find employment quickly after graduation. I continue to work with former students as project partners in their professional careers, providing a network of experienced community development leaders in Vermont, the U.S. and abroad.”

That is the elegance of what Dan Baker has accomplished. That is the next level of service-learning.

As Baker’s colleague Josh Farley observed, “I believe that Dan is a campus leader in applied, problem-based education – the highest level of service-learning. Dan builds lasting relationships with communities…then prepares students to work with these communities. Dan puts his reputation on the line each time he does this. But his ability to prepare and motivate students for problem-based research allows his reputation to remain untarnished.”

Next is the third level Dan Baker takes service-learning.

Making the Most of Mega-Classes

While he only is able to work directly with a few dozen students in his field research, and a few dozen more in his two other courses that lead to a trip to Honduras, the stories that naturally emerge from this field work provide context for the thousands of students he has taught in his most well known class – World Food Population and Development – affectionately called CDAE 002.

This class is one of UVM’s largest – packed with an average of 232 students every single semester, twice a year.

As class counts quadrupled in the last decade, rather than be dismayed, Baker adjusted his teaching style. Little things make a big difference, like asking students to say their names when they speak up, developing a large music catalog and playing tunes in each class that reflects course themes.

But the biggest thing that keeps students on the edges of their seats is the stories. Baker’s own research and other courses provide gripping stories of UVM students shoveling out mobile homes destroyed by Irene (and then recycling them) and of Hondurans who no longer burn tires to stoke sugar cane evaporators, to name two examples.

“I share these practical experiences with my students to help them see how the theory they learn in the classroom can be applied in the field and vice versa – how practical experience can inform and advance theory,” Baker says. “This works well with students and serves as a guide when I emphasize the importance of clarifying personal goals, setting objectives and developing the skills they need to achieve their own standards of success.”

A Man with a Plan; Lesson Plan that is

Baker could not lead his students to setting and carrying out goals if he was not himself a man with a plan. In his own description of how he sees his teaching. Baker wrote:

• “One of the most important things I want to do … is encourage students to believe that they can each contribute to creating a positive and hopeful future.

• “I want them to know that it takes hard work, dedication, discipline – and that the effort is worth it.

• “I believe strongly that as teachers we need to encourage our students to embrace complexity and the uncertainty that it implies. I try to share both the tough stories that highlight our challenges, as well as the good ideas and efforts being made around the world to innovate and advance development, even in the most difficult circumstances.”

Baker’s student evaluations are practically off the charts, especially when measuring enthusiasm and sensitivity. Former student, Kelly Hamshaw, who was a CDAE 002 teaching assistant, notes that this is all the more impressive because CDAE 002 deals with controversial issues of hunger, environmental degradation, population growth and genocide, diversity, poverty, privilege justice and human rights. Yet, she says, Baker, “infuses into his lectures a combination of urgency and cautious optimism. And he empowers students to focus on solutions and affect change.”

Sara Fletcher’s testimony speaks for many students when she said, “Dr. Baker challenged me when I felt that I was not accomplishing everything I had hoped for. When I felt that I couldn’t tackle a project I might not be qualified for, he encouraged me to keep going and to do a better job than someone more qualified could have managed.”

Sara Fletcher changed her major from engineering to community and international development (CID). Hamshaw added a CID minor to environmental science major, then earned a master’s degree in CDAE with Baker as her advisor and is now his research assistant. These are not unusual reactions to Baker’s teaching.

Baker said, “In all my interactions with students, I encourage them to believe in and seek opportunities to create change for the better.... Ultimately, I want to cultivate durable hope, so that our students have the ability to engage in challenging issues and thoughtfully apply the skills they learn here at UVM to benefit themselves and the world.”

“Because he incorporates these concepts into his research program, students are transformed into global citizens with the drive, maturity and ability to tackle what might seem to be insurmountable problems of the human race with cultural sensitivity and a toolbox full of skills,” says his boss, Jane Kolodinsky, chair of CDAE. “In this way his influence is spreading through the U.S. and globe, as former students gain employment at non-profits or government organizations with the goal of making the world a better place.”

“Does Professor Pellett still work here?”

“What room is my class in?”

“Is this a perceived deadline or a drop-dead deadline?”

“Why would I need a performance evaluation when I’ve already gone through the promotion process?”

“Help, I’ve locked myself out of my office!”

“Can you tell me what kind is tick this is?”

“I’m looking for the hospital!”

Questions like these are all in a day’s work for Anne Marie Resnik.

Job Requirement

Humor and More Humor

But her real job is called “office program support generalist” for plant and soil science. “Generalist” might be the operative word here. Her list of duties serving faculty, staff and students is endless. No one knows better than department chair Deb Neher who said that Resnik’s job “obviously requires a friendly nudge, another prod, a firm resolve, last-minute document exchanges, judgment over confidential information, humor and more humor.”

The superlatives used to commend Resnik have been used to describe many CALS front-line administrative staff: “the glue that holds the department together,” “the go-to person,” “the person who works through lunch and stays late,” the one who “goes beyond her job requirements,” the person who “makes others look good whether they deserve to or not.” Resnik continues to challenge herself:  She plans workshops and events of all sizes. She initiated a plant and soil science newsletter and Facebook page. She learned Adobe Acrobat and Dreamweaver and puts them to good use for plant and soil science communications. She initiated a College-wide plan of annual activities that led to holding CALS staff meetings.

Beyond her job she has served on the UVM staff council, UVM campus master planning committee and UVM Continuing Education’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute advisory board. She is active as a mentor for troubled youth and fundraiser for Home Share Vermont. Meanwhile, she is co-owner of a medical imaging business. She was honored this year by UVM for completing a decade with the same job and title.

MVP on the Move

But it was during the building of Jeffords Hall from 2008-2010 that Anne Marie Resnik was particularly invaluable. Planning and moving from Hills Building to Jeffords involved complex strategy and a massive purge of stuff. Organizing and executing a complex move of 20 faculty, 11 staff, and  23 graduate students into the department’s offices, two labs and five conference rooms was no small feat. She choreographed the move of every box, piece of furniture, laboratory equipment and person so gracefully that faculty held a reception for her afterwards. It is impossible to overstate her contribution.

So it’s ironic that her office, is in one of the two reception areas just beyond the main entrances. Resnik is many people’s introduction not only to plant and soil science, but to Jeffords Hall. And somehow, she is still the point person for any issues concerning the building.

Her value to Plant & Soil Science and CALS has been even more evident this year while the department chair is on sabbatical leave. Interim chair Ernesto Mendez says, “I don’t think I could have done it without her. Anne Marie helps develop a tighter plant and soil science community. She takes the initiative to organize events with faculty, students and staff – essential for an academic department.”

As colleague Colleen Armstrong, UVM Greenhouses manager remarked, “Since 2003, plant and soil science has made some significant changes. The faculty is younger, and the mission of the department has embraced a sustainable future in agriculture, horticulture and soil restoration. As the department evolves, Anne Marie evolves. Can a science department ask for anything more?” 

Sixteen colleagues nominated Anne Marie Resnik for the University of Vermont College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Staff Award this year. CALS Dean Tom Vogelmann presented her with the College’s top (and only) staff award during Honors Day ceremonies on April 20.

CALS’ enrollment and achievements are at an all-time high, said Tom Vogelmann, Dean of the College in his opening remarks.

UVM leaders will present selected students additional awards at banquets and ceremonies in the weeks leading up to commencement on May 19. 

University Awards

Five graduating seniors from the College received top university-wide recognition.

John R. Bruce, Sam Resnicow and Rachel Rogoff took home the Mortar Board Award for outstanding service, scholarship service, scholarship, and leadership.

Sophie Quest and Robert Rudy were inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Awards

Thomas Hilzinger received the Alexander Kende Academic Merit Award. This award honors the memory of the late Alex Kende and achievements of a second‑semester junior CALS student for academic excellence and interest in medicine or bio‑medical research.

Alumna Emma Wall, ’01, G’04 PhD ’08 was presented the College’s New Achiever Award at this event, because she is unable to attend the Alumni and Friends Dinner on May 11.  At that event Danielle Leahy will receive CALS Outstanding Senior Award.

CALS Undergraduate Research Leaders

Eleven students received certificates from their mentors for their distinguished undergraduate research that was performed in addition to pursuing their regular course of study. They are:

Maria Carabello, “Starting with a Clean Plate: Re-envisioning the Dietary Guidelines through an Ethnographic Review of Domestic Cooking Practices” under the direction of Amy Trubek.

Midori Eckenstein, “Threonly tRNA Synthetase (TARS) Promotes Angiogenesis Through Effects on Cancer Cells and Vascular Endothelial Cells” in Douglas Johnson’s lab.

Kayla Gatos, “Exploring Perceptions of Health, Risk and Trust Pertaining to Raw Milk Consumption in Vermont” mentored by Linda Berlin.

Lyndsey Hayden, “The Link between Innate and Acquired Immune Responses to Intramammary Staphlococcus Aureus Infections” in the David Kerr lab.

Hannah Lachance, “Bacterial Diversity in the Rumen of Impala from Pongola South Africa” in the Andre-Denis Wright laboratory.

Benjamin Lane, “The Role of Glutaredoxin-1 in IKKa and IKKb-Induced NF-kB Activation” under Yvonne Janssen-Heininger and Stephanie Phelps.

Danielle T. Leahy, “Branched Chain Amino Acid Plus Glucose Supplement Results in Slight Reduction of Exercise-Induced Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness in Young Adults” in the Stephen Pintauro lab.

Sean O’Neill, “Examining the Gut Microbiota of the American Black Bear (Ursus americanas) in the lab of Andre-Denis Wright.

Cody Paiva, “The Role of c-FLIP Cleavage during Innate Immune Response to Viral Infection” under the guidance of Iwona Buskiewicz and Stephanie Phelps.

Robert Rudy, “Suppression of Voltage-Gated Potassium Channels in Brain Parenchymal Arterioles: A Potential Role for Protein Kinase C Activation” in Douglas Johnson’s lab.

Andrew Tranmer, “Targeting Ryanadine Receptors for Relief from Increased Myogenic Tone Following Subarachnoid Hemorrhage” also mentored Douglas Johnson.

Department Awards                      

Chairs from CALS’ nine departments and programs presented scholarships and honors in their areas.

Animal Science

Melissa Woolpert received the Elmer Towne Award, presented by the Vermont Dairy Industry Association.

The faculty chose Noelle Schariest for this year’s George H. Walker Award for dairy science.

Marking the greatest contribution to equine or companion animal activities, Donald J. Balch Awards went to Shannon Emmons and Kirsten Weberg.

Twenty-three students were tagged as future leaders in the field, with the American Society of Animal Science Award. They are:

• Seniors: Ashley Ackert, Christopher Alling, Kalii LaRochelle, Kaitlin Lee, Rebecca McBride, Noelle Schariest, Gabrielle Tetschner and Kirsten Weberg.           
• Juniors: Kaitlin Benoit, Evelyn Bulkeley, Brittany Colbath, Shannon Heath, Roberta Hemmer, Jillian Minuto, Samuel Scheu and Sarina Selleck.
• Sophomores: Sarah Colando, Benjamin Daggett, Mandy Erdei, Ashley McCoy, Samantha Monck, Lillian Rogers and Laurel Saldinger.

Every year CREAM herd advisors receive Brett Klein Memorial Scholarships. CREAM stands for Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management. Fall advisors were Rebecca McBride, Eric Pratt and Andrea Rusilowicz. Spring advisors were Dylan Devino and Danielle Semick.

This year’s Animal Science Faculty Awards went to Christopher Alling and Rebecca McBride.

And Kelsey Bentz received the Triona Wilder Marno-Ferree Memorial Award for her enthusiasm for UVM Horse Barn activities.

Biochemistry

Brittany Carroll received the John Thanassi Award for superior academic performance by a senior biochemistry major.

Biological Sciences

Scholastic Achievement Awards for outstanding academic records are senior Andrew Tranmer, junior Kirsten Meisterling and sophomores Kyle Edwards and Collin Kwasnik.

Community Development and Applied Economics

Graduating seniors with the highest scholastic grade-point average each major are:

• Eliza Goddard and Cody Renaud in Community Entrepreneurship
• Grace Hawkins and Sam Resnicow in Community And International Development
• Justin Adelman and Sarah Cushman in Public Communication

Seniors with the top 10 percent cumulative grade point average are: Justin Adelman, Nicolas Alonso-Harper, Antoine Aube, Travis Beauchamp, Alexandra Colkitt, Sarah Cushman, Lindsey Fuller, Eliza Goddard, Seth Keighley, Deborah Isen, Brooke McCallion, Julia Prince, Sam Resnicow, Megan Rosen and Alexander Runnels.

Aimee Coburn and Judah Griffin won the department’s Teaching Assistant Awards.

Amanda Neubelt earned the Community Service Scholar Award.

Environmental Program

David Manago was honored the top graduating senior in the Environmental Program, who demonstrated academic excellence, environmental leadership, and campus and community activism and service.

Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Evan Semiao received the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award.

Thomas Hilzinger received the Nicole J Ferland Award.

Midori Eckenstein was awarded the Lucille P. Markey Outstanding Senior in Molecular Genetics Award. And at the ALANA banquet later that day Eckenstein received an Outstanding Academic Achievement Award.

Robert Rudy took home the Warren R. Steinbring Outstanding Senior in Microbiology Award.

Nutrition and Food Sciences

Adam Paronto and Heather Twible earned the Agnes T. Powell Award.

Harley Eriksen received the Bertha Terrill Award.

Maria Carabello took home the Blair Williams Award.

Leah Conchieri and Danielle Leahy received the Nutrition And Food Sciences Faculty Award.

Maria Carabello and Danielle Leahy received Nutrition And Food Sciences Research Awards.

Meri Louko was named Outstanding Dietetics Student.

This year’s Cornelia Wheeler Irish Memorial Scholarship Awards went to Adam Paronto and Heather Twible.

Plant Biology

Brendan Lyons received the Sproston Award for undergraduate research projects of high academic

Alexandra Miller and Beck Powers received the department’s Superior Performance Award for research and teaching activities of the department.

Plant and Soil Science

In an unprecedented quirk of academia, John R. Bruce and Zachary Noel took home all of the department awards.

Bruce and Noel shared the American Society for Horticultural Science Collegiate Scholars Awards for the top 15 percent in their class,

Bruce was named the American Society for Horticultural Science Outstanding Horticulture Student, benefits from the James E. Ludlow Endowed Scholarship Fund and recognized with the department’s Teaching Assistant Award.

Noel earned the W. H. Darrow Horticulture Prize and the Seymour Horticultural Prize.

Alpha Zeta Society Members                                                             

Several new students were recognized for their recent induction into the Green Mountain Chapter of Alpha Zeta Society. They join others in this professional, service and honorary agricultural organization listed below. Newly initiated are: Brittney Beigel, Elise Bettendorf, Dana Bielinski, Devon Brownlee, Erick Crockenberg, Emma Crowley, Samantha D’Amico, Shelby Doggett, Hagan Dooley, Mandy Erdi, Tara Fisher, Benjamin Gelb, Chantal Girard, Danielle Goglia, Emily Goldberg, Nicole Gruszcynski, Phoebe Hanson, Grace Hawkins, Stephanie Haynes, William Hersey, Shoshana Hitchcock, Robert Howe, Chelsea Howland, Hannah Lees, Nicholas Loeb, Stephanie Maulding, Ashley McCoy, Robert McGarry, Devon Meadowcroft, Tracey B. Miller, Jillian Minuto, Megan N. Morris, Pauline P. Morris, Sean K. O’Neill, Zachary Noel, Jack O’Day, Kerry Oster, Jessica Pearlman, Olivia Powell, Theresa Rooney, Sarah E. Ross, Samantha Russo, Kelsey Scarborough, Samuel Scheu, Allison Schrenzel, Shannon A. Smith, Brittany Spezzano, Erin Treseler and Matthew S. White.

Previously initiated current members: Ashley Ackert, Nicolas Alonso-Harper, Frederick Broda III, Maria Carabello, Alexandra Cerretani, Heidi Considine, Christina Economou, Dylan Estabrooks, Katherine Ettman, Laura Friedland, Lindsey Fuller, Danielle Geller, Jonathan Gonzalez, Lyndsey Hayden, Sean Hennessy, Erin Henry, Zoe Herwitz, Anne Kaufman, Douglas Klein, Victoria Kulwicki, Hannah Lachance, Aliya Lapp, Anna Lidofsky, Meri Louko, Jennifer Moltz, Sean O’Neill, Marina Oriel, Mark Paulsen, Emily Piche, Alexander Prolman, Janine Provenzano, Sam Resnicow, Abigail Rings, Megan Rosen, Joseph Romano, Melissa Rosen, Molly Sanborn, Michaella Scott, Andrea Smith, Julia Stratton, Brent Summers, Gabrielle Tetschner, Victoria Wellington, Natalie Wilson and Melissa Woolpert.

Also, Anne Marie Resnik was named 2013 Outstanding Staff, and Daniel Baker received the Joseph E. Carrigan Teaching Award For Excellence In Undergraduate Teaching. Related stories to be posted soon.

Josie Davis, associate dean for academic programs, Rose Laba and Ja Yung Lee of student services organized this event. Flowers were on loan from UVM Greenhouses.

The immense ears of the desert-dwelling jack rabbit are big for a reason; they house a vast network of blood vessels that regulate its temperature during scorching days and frigid nights. Tuna, penguins, and seals, from three different animal classes, all have tapered “fusiform” shapes -- the better to rocket through the watery deep. Villi in the small intestines of animals use plant-like branched and folded shapes to increase their surface area and better absorb nutrients.

The thematic single-mindedness might seem obsessive, but it's actually the product of an innovative pedagogical style -- called "Just in Time Teaching" -- championed at UVM by Hill Bermingham, a lecturer in the Plant Biology Department who team teaches several courses in the integrated biological science major.

As part of the homework assignment for today’s class, students completed a short assignment on their reading that asked them to identify the four types of animal tissue and to elaborate on one. While most students got the tissue types right, their longer answers demonstrated -- via the course’s Blackboard site, which Hill Bermingham checked before class -- their shaky appreciation of the link between structure and function in animal biology.

Voila, Hill Bermingham had a theme she would modify her lecture notes to stress -- just in time for today’s class.  

Flipped out

It looks normal enough, but Hill Bermingham is actually presiding over a “flipped classroom,” where both in- and out-of-class learning take on a new complexion. Students absorb information outside of class that’s traditionally delivered in a lecture, often via multi-media content designed to keep them engaged and with graded assignments to keep them on track. Class time is used to promote just-in-time interactive learning, with lectures interrupted by frequent concept tests students answer with i-clickers, breaks for student-to-student peer instruction, and desk-side visits by professors to help struggling students, even in large classes.

“There are a number of studies, including ones funded by National Science Foundation and other federal agencies, that have tested specific models and techniques and demonstrated the effectiveness of these methods,” says  J. Dickinson, anthropology professor and director of UVM’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), which has embraced the pedagogy. 

The hard way

Hill Bermingham learned about the shortcomings of the traditional lecture the hard way. After she was hired as a full-time lecturer in the fall of 2009, she spent four semesters teaching the way she had been taught, loading her lectures with details she assumed students would absorb. But something was missing. “It didn’t seem like students were engaged,” Hill Bermingham says. “I quickly realized that it was an unfulfilling experience for everyone involved.” 

She made incremental improvements after her especially difficult first semester and achieved a modicum of comfort in the classroom. Then good luck struck. Plant Biology Chair Dave Barrington tapped Hill Bermingham to reinvent the department’s 150-student-plus genetics class, a failing enterprise that historically had received dismal student evaluations. 

In researching how the class could be reconceived, Hill Bermingham discovered the work of Eric Mazur, a Harvard physics professor who pioneered many of the flipped classroom pedagogies, notably peer learning, and had produced an interactive DVD Hill Bermingham found inspiring. Using Mazur’s principles, she spent the summer developing flipped lesson plans not only for the genetics class, but also her intro biology classes.

“It was a revelation,” she says of teaching the revamped classes that fall. “Students really responded well. The classes wouldn’t have gone nearly as well without these methods.”

Agony to ecstasy

Barrington was ecstatic. Dickinson became aware of Hill Bermingham’s work though a resource group for faculty teaching first year students co-organized by the CTL and the Writing in the Disciplines program. She was intrigued enough to ask her to present on her experiences during a multi-day workshop for faculty teaching large-enrollment courses in the summer of 2012. The faculty response was enthusiastic, and to follow up, the CTL has already offered a half-day workshop twice this year. Nearly 65 faculty have participated in these workshops and others sponsored by the CTL that conveyed elements of the flipped approach. 

“The traditional way of lecturing is that you have an assigned reading you expect your students to have read and synthesized and to come in with stimulating questions,” Hill Bermingham says. “But often students simply don’t do the reading, so you have to give them some sort of incentive to do it and think critically about what they read.” Hill Bermingham does that by assigning a weekly graded test, which often includes interactive animation, on the homework reading. The aggregate score of all the tests is equal to one exam grade.

That’s a big part of the flipped technique, “just getting students prepared for the lecture,” she says. “But the other, I think bigger, part is the opportunity you have in the classroom to create a feedback loop, so you’re not just there to deliver information but to both deliver information and gauge whether students are actually understanding it and conceptualizing it and, if not, backing up and doing it again in a different way.”

Dickinson stresses that, to be effective, the pedogy must be well implemented. In addition to the workshops, the CTL makes available numerous resources on the technique, including the Mazur DVD that hooked Hill Bermingham. “Flipped classroom should not be seen as simply a case of students learning from videos or online materials,” she says. “It is really about using technology to support effective use of face-to-face class time by faculty. For a flipped classroom to work, faculty really need to be present, dynamic, and responsive to the information they are getting about students' understanding of the course materials."

It was the down — tiny goose feathers — in his sleeping bag that prevented him from suffering a fate similar to the beer. Amazing feathers.

On that cold night (one of many in Bernd Heinrich’s famed winter ecology course), Thor Hanson wondered about another feathered creature also sleeping nearby: the golden-crowned kinglet. This bird weighs five grams, “about the same as a nickel or teaspoon of salt,” Hanson writes in his book, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle.

High over his head, in the crook of a fir branch, the kinglet kept its body about 120 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the surrounding air. Without the uncanny microstructure of feathers — the most insulating material in the world — the bird would have died in a few breaths. Amazing feathers.

This is just one of dozens of feather-fascinated, perspective-altering stories that led Hanson’s book to be selected as this year’s winner of the John Burroughs Medal. Given in the past to such luminaries as Rachel Carson and Barry Lopez, it is considered the highest award for American nature writing.

Hanson traveled to the American Museum of Natural History in New York to receive the medal on April 1.

Bird feathers, people feathers

Hanson credits UVM’s Field Naturalist Program, and teachers like Heinrich, for helping to shape this book. “This could have easily been a narrow ornithological textbook,” Hanson says, “and yet it’s the broad perspective that is encouraged in the FN program that allows this book to be something that touches on everything from fashion to golf history.”

As well as flying dinosaurs, quill pens, outrageous ostrich-plume hats, the myth of Icarus (who donned feathers and flew too close to the sun), the feather money of Santa Cruz Island, pillows at the Pacific Coast Feather Company, and electron microscope images of water droplets on the barbs of a pigeon — Hanson’s book travels gleefully on a headlong pursuit of the origin, meaning and uses of feathers for birds and people. It even tells why flamingos are pink. Go read it to find out.

Field naturalist

Hanson completed his UVM degree in 2000, studying under Heinrich and other professors, including David Barrington, then went on to get his doctorate in conservation biology. He’s studied Central American songbirds, nest predation in Tanzania, and, as he writes, “the grisly feeding habits of African vultures.” He now lives on the San Juan Islands as an independent biologist and writer.

“This book is a curiosity-driven enterprise, rather than doctrinal,” he says. Which may be why it has attracted a substantial popular audience, and glowing reviews from the New York Times, Economist, Science and many other outlets.

And Hanson is not alone as a publishing success from the Field Naturalist Program. “The book publishing output from graduates of our small program — we graduate only four field naturalists per year — is in a league of its own,” notes plant biologist Jeffrey Hughes, who directs the program. Over the last ten years, graduates of the program have published at least fifteen books, Hughes wrote, one of which won the 2010 National Outdoor Book Award — and now the John Burroughs Medal.

Broad views

Glued together intellectually by a fascination with the intricacies of evolution, the narrative in Feathers caroms back and forth over what Hanson described to me as “the imaginary but very significant boundary we put between the natural world and the human world.” We can’t make feathers, which may be why we love them, collect them.

“Every culture and every home has feathers in it somewhere,” says Hanson, “and we use these for so many purposes. You start asking: why? And then you realize that the answers are the very same answers for why these things are so successful in nature,” — like supreme aerodynamics, unbeatable insulation, glittering beauty, perfect camouflage, the freedom of flight.

In asking many questions, Feathers offers an unabashed defense of natural history, with its tradition of generous observation of plants and animals in their habitats. Partly under the eye-popping insights of molecular biology, natural history storytelling has taken some hard knocks for too-little rigor and quantitative force — and too much teleological sentimentality. Hanson understands these criticisms, but pushes back.

“Natural history is where you frame your questions,” he says, and shape your experiments; it’s the broad view that lets the careful observer see the real connections in the world. “In the Field Naturalist Program we studied about connectivity between all the layers of a landscape, from bedrock to the soil to the plants to the creatures,” Hanson says, and this hunt for connections pulses through Feathers.

Feathered rainbow

For this book, Hanson reports from a dusty plain in Kenya where he watches vultures, with their featherless heads, dipping into the rotting carcass of a zebra; from sober shrines to natural history, including Yale’s Peabody Museum — but also from Las Vegas.

A low cinderblock building, just a few blocks off the city’s glitzy strip, might not seem the most promising field site for a conservation biologist. But Hanson followed many paths toward the meanings and uses of feathers, including the supply house of showgirls: the Rainbow Feather Company.

“When you need ten thousand plumes died hot pink,” Hanson writes, this is the only place in the world to go. Rainbow Feather “takes orders from clients as varied as Jubilee!, Cirque de Soleil, and Victoria’s Secret,” Hanson writes, while its retail shop, “must be the only place in the world where burlesque dancers regularly rub elbows with fly-fisherman and bow hunters.” Thor Hanson’s book lets readers rub elbows with an equally diverse cast of feathered characters.

A web article about Mosco caught our attention at Vermont Quarterly, leading to hiring her to create “A Catamount Chronology” for the back page Extra Credit feature in this issue (extracreditcatcartoon). The piece is typical of her work, marked by a quirky, quiet humor and considerable scientific knowledge packed into five panels of comic. “I get so excited about all of these facts that I learn that I try to squeeze in as many as possible,” Mosco says. By the end of this particular project, she says, there were many field guides and “tons and tons of pieces of paper with little bits of cougar drawn on them” scattered across the floor of her Cambridge, Massachussetts apartment.

A native of Canada, Mosco has long possessed the dual sensibility of artist and scientist, and says she’s always been attracted to cartoons as a way to share what she’s learned. She grew up reading strips like Bloom County and The Far Side, kindred spirit Gary Larson’s off-beat single-panels that were as likely to feature spiders, or polar bears, or amoeba, as humans. After earning her bachelor’s in anthropology at McGill University, Mosco came south to Vermont drawn by the opportunity the Field Naturalist Program gave her “to be creative and learn really solid science.” Some of those lessons appear in “A Catamount Chronology,” Mosco notes. “We were taught that history is incredibly important. You can’t show up at a landscape and not think about what has happened to it before.”

Post-UVM, Mosco completed an internship at the National Park Service’s Center for Urban Ecology in Washington, D.C., where her focus was on supervising a team of interns as they created climate change outreach/public education products—videos, podcasts, fact sheets, and web pages. She’s also brought her cartoonist’s perspective to the Big Issue of climate change. “It is so heart-breaking,” she says. “Those cartoons are really difficult because I really want to just yell and raise my arms… and that is not a good tactic. What I try to do whenever I feel like I’m making something that would be alienating to people, I kind of relax and think about what I’m truly feeling. If I just put really solid emotions in there, I find it works.”

Fighting the good fight for the natural world with cartoons includes taking on those large battles and celebrating the small victories. Case in point: a cartoon Mosco created about pigeons for the Torontoist website. True, pigeons are an invasive species. True, they are not just invasive but pervasive in cities, where some view them as rats with wings. But Mosco came out of her research process believing in the bird and created a strip that celebrated some of the species’ more charming and little-known characteristics, such as that they mate for life.

Triumph came with a reader’s comment, Mosco recalls: “He let me know, ‘Hey, I used to chase after pigeons, and now I don’t.”

Rosemarymosco.com

This article originally appeared as an online extra for the spring 2013 issue of Vermont Quarterly magazine

Now, a huge study in Science shows that these wild pollinators—including flies, beetles, and butterflies—are more important than domesticated honeybees for boosting crop yields.

"Our surprising result is that native pollinators enhance production of crops, regardless of whether farmers use managed honeybees to augment pollination," notes University of Vermont biologist Taylor Ricketts, one of the study’s co-authors.

Setting fruit

The new study, published online on Feb. 28,  synthesized more than forty experiments from 600 farm fields in twenty countries — including one conducted by Ricketts, director of UVM’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. The key result: in every crop system studied, wild pollinators increased the number of flowers that set fruit, while honeybees did so in only fourteen percent of the crop systems.

"This suggests that honeybees do not — as popularly thought — replace the pollination services that native pollinators provide to crops around the world," Ricketts writes. Instead, pollination work by wild insects increased "fruit set" twice as much as visits from honeybees.

Also, pollination visits by wild insects and honeybees "promoted fruit set independently," the scientists write, so honeybees can supplement, but can’t replace, pollination by wild insects. The study, with fifty authors, looked at major crops — fruits, nuts, and grains — grown on every continent.

"Conserving pollinators and their habitats is therefore an important part of ensuring an adequate crop," Ricketts notes — underlining the limitations on finding domesticated substitutes for the wild species that provide benefits to people.

Wild farms

"Our study shows that losses of wild insects from agricultural landscapes impact not only our natural heritage but also our agricultural harvests," noted the study’s lead author, Lucas A. Garibaldi, from Argentina’s Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. "Long term, productive agricultural systems should include habitat for both honeybees and diverse wild insects."

One of the practices underlying these new findings is the separation of intensive agricultural landscapes from landscapes with greater biodiversity. "Our study shows that this separation can have negative consequences for pollination services," notes Alexandra-Maria Klein, a co-author from Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany—a problem that is "not buffered by honeybee management."

"We urgently need more research that informs but also involves the global and wider society," she says, “to explore novel management designs for agricultural landscapes." For example, farmers may find that restoring patches of more natural and wildlife-friendly land on their farms will increase yields.

John C. Finley Award

Named in honor of the late John Finley, an educator and former Vermont deputy commissioner of agriculture, the honor recognizes distinguished service to Vermont Agriculture and the outstanding character and mental vigor Finley exemplified. 

“Bob is man I’m sure my dad would have been proud to have as a colleague and a friend,” said Kate Finley Woodruff, daughter of John Finley, who is a lecturer in UVM's master of public administration program. As Woodruff began to describe the winner as someone who, like her dad, studied agricultural economics at Pennsylvania State University, Parsons began to look confused. (He later said he was trying to figure out who else in Vermont farming went to Penn. State.) Finley continued to say that also like her dad, the award recipient received Ph.D. in agricultural economics, and dedicated years to Vermont's dairy industry, farm management and farm profitability.  

At that point the light of recognition began to show in Parsons' face. And it didn't help that colleagues around him at the banquet table could no longer control their glee.

Parsons’ contributions to Vermont agriculture include securing $8.4 million in grants, conducting agricultural research on turning cow manure into electricity, and evaluating Vermont grass-based livestock farm policy, educating farmers about crop insurance and risk management, developing a community based bio-security plan and teaching farm owners how to transition their farms to the next generation. 

Known For International Work Too

However, Parsons’ agricultural economics work spans international boundaries, including Albania, Kenya and Zambia. In Africa, he and his wife and fellow agricultural economist Grace Matiru, worked with farmers on dairy management, increased profitability and financial training.

As one colleague said, “He talks to farmers in their own language.  He has a great way of simplifying complex issues with a wonderful sense of humor.” 

Parsons came to UVM's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2000. He is an Extension associate professor who teaches agricultural policy and ethics in the community development and applied economics department of UVM's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“I love my work because it ties together so many different aspects of the dairy sector, from technology and business to community planning,” Parsons said. “It keeps what I do very refreshing.”

Sean Michael Wilcox contributed to this story.

But unlike nuclear weapons, the climate problem doesn’t sleep. It grows.

What to do? Asim Zia’s list of ways to reduce our accelerating output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide includes: respecting tropical forests, “dematerializing” consumption, re-directing waste streams into productive uses, and, “shifting to local, organic food systems,” he writes.

But, mostly, it will require getting off our fix to fossil fuels. Replacing energy and transportation systems that run on oil, gas and coal — with renewable sources — is an astoundingly complex task. And yet it’s the only way to avoid global climate catastrophe, he argues.

To get there will require more than voluntary targets and technocratic input, Zia believes. He has written a new book, Post-Kyoto Climate Governance, that calls for a deep re-thinking of our politics and economic assumptions, a clearer understanding of the cleavage between the developed and developing nations, and a shift away from expert-based international organizations, like the World Trade Organization, to “democratically anchored governance networks.”

In his book, Zia, an assistant professor in Community Development and Applied Economics and fellow in the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, ranges over several disciplines, looking for the causes of failure in international climate policy. And he’s looking for solutions. These may require dramatic new approaches, like global taxes, new forms of organized confrontation, and a willingness to reconsider reflexive attachments, he argues, like a belief in the benefits of free trade.

UVM Today spoke with Asim Zia about his new book, published on Jan. 28, by Routledge. We wanted him to lay out his map for developing new global climate governance, a post-Kyoto approach that, as he writes, “ confronts the politics of scale, ideology, and knowledge.”

UVM TODAY: We’ve known about the threats from climate change for several decades, but have made little progress. Why?

Asim Zia: We have made some small attempts at fixing this problem, but, so far, the efforts have been at the margins. There are institutions and practices that need to be fundamentally reformed for us to be able really tackle this problem.

My new book is about understanding those institutional and governance challenges. And it also looks into the last twenty years of the United Nations climate treaty negotiation process to understand what needs to happen next.

My fundamental conclusions are that we need to put up an international trade tax, and, secondly, we need to have an international carbon tax, at a global scale, and, thirdly — this is still questionable — that we need to reform the U.N. system.

How much time do we have to do this work?

In my recent NPR blog, we present the carbon budget that is available to us if we want to stop global warming below two-degrees centigrade. And that leaves us maybe seven years, maybe ten years. We are probably running neck-to-neck with the time we have left.

There’s a lot of new science and concern about blowing far past the two-degree target. Now I see reports about a “four-degree world.” Has four degrees becomes the new benchmark?

Maybe. At the beginning of the Doha round of negotiations, for example, the World Bank released a report on a four-degree centigrade world.

And then there have been a bunch of other papers saying that even if we take action now, it’s becoming unlikely that we’ll hold to a two-degree centigrade world unless we do some kind of reverse engineering or geo-engineering — which in itself is highly questionable.

Part of the problem is that the 1992 climate negotiations in Rio left the goal vague: that we, as a community of nations, should not cross dangerous thresholds in the atmospheric limits.

Those dangerous limits have typically been interpreted as two degrees centigrade. Some, like Bill McKibben or the groups doing planetary boundaries work, are focused on 350-parts-per-million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Some people talk about 550-parts-per-million — but it’s not necessary that 350 or 550 would translate into two degrees.

What I am trying to communicate in this book is that instead of fighting about these goals and targets, we need to reform institutions.

 For example?

For example, free trade. International free trade is an institution that has not been touched upon in any climate negotiations! International free trade is mandated under the World Trade Organization — which is, in itself, a big multilateral negotiation process at the global scale.

But, essentially, when you promote free trade of goods and services, it’s the “externalities” from the production of those goods and services that leads to the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Our global institutions since the end of World War II have been designed to perpetuate a production and consumption process that is leading to perpetual and increasing growth of fossil fuel-induced greenhouse-gas emissions. So, till the time that we reform these international institutions that are leading to the greenhouse gas emissions, we cannot deal with this problem adequately.

Challenge free trade? But that’s the quasi-religion of countries around the world. How does advocating for limits on free trade fit into real politics?

That’s really the problem here. I call it, in my book, the politics of ideology. There’s a free-market, free-trade ideology that is dominating the discourse in an institutional setting.

Or take the carbon tax. In the EU, the carbon tax has been aligned with certain green parties or some left-wing parties, so there is a radicalization of the discourse.

But if you look at it rationally, if you look at all the analysis, these coupled human/natural system computer simulation models will tell you that the carbon tax and trade tax have low transaction costs, and they would stimulate local markets.

This approach could revitalize local communities that are losing their vitality to grow, for example, local organic food. And this kind of food production is an important piece in this picture for reducing methane emissions and reducing carbon emissions from agro-industrial systems. Then there are energy implications. Decentralized energy systems could be promoted, like solar and wind and community-based energy systems, through taxes and institutional reforms. But that is not being talked about.

Whenever somebody mentions international carbon taxes someone else says, “Oh, that’s not politically feasible.” Well, why is that? It’s not really feasible because those lobbies have been able to hijack the discourse.

Taxes are sticks. For example, tobacco taxes have been successful in reducing tobacco use in this country. Similarly, gasoline taxes have been successful in Europe in improving the fuel economy of cars. These taxes are proven.

What’s wrong with carbon markets and “cap and trade?” Can’t those work within existing free trade arrangements?

Let’s look at deforestation. Twenty percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation. I’ve studied tropical forests for the last nine years in many countries including Peru, Tanzania, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia.

These loose market mechanisms, like carbon markets and cap-and-trade and REDD+ have not been able to adequately deal with or stand against the free market mechanisms, which are causing the problem in the first place.

International free trade rules result in lifting a lot of environmental regulations that were put in place inside these countries to protect tropical forests. They’re now being deforested because of globalization of their markets. It’s not just the local timber mafias. The major drivers are the international agro-industries. You have all kinds of companies — mining, coal, Chinese companies, Canadian companies —  cutting down tropical forests, releasing greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

These cap-and-trade mechanisms, like REDD+, are still just starting to be negotiated and piloted in a few countries. But I am very skeptical about their effectiveness. It is just creating a new artificial market for carbon with the same problems as the European carbon market, which tanked after the global recession.

Cap-and-trade has only been successful in few isolated conditions, like the sulfur dioxide market in the U.S. — and that was successful because the market was clearly defined. We knew exactly which coal-fired power plants to tackle so you can do effective monitoring of those plants.

Global carbon markets, and cap-and-trade mechanisms like REDD+ and the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism were designed as experiments under Kyoto. We should acknowledge that that experiment has failed.

How much do your proposed governance reforms require a kind of human rationality, an enlightened self-interest, that seems in rather short supply when it comes to climate change?

There is this game theoretical perspective — that leads to this “prisoner’s dilemma” situation, which we are observing right now, where each actor tries to protect their own interests and the institutions are also designed in a way to protect individual interests — like the market economy, for example.

But the result is the tragedy of the commons: when everyone protects their own interests, at the collective level we are not able to protect anyone’s interest. The atmosphere is called the pure tragedy of the commons because it’s such perfect application of that idea.

Noboby owns it, and so we all dump our trash in it?

Exactly. That view is deterministic and tragic — and leads to a point where we are looking at not a four-degree-centigrade world but maybe an eight-degree-centigrade world by 2200, and we’re toast. It’s that sad.

Even if you look at some of the more advanced modeling applications, they suggest or recommend that high-greenhouse gas emitters, like the United States, not take any action but wait until the last minute, because then they’ll get a “better deal.” They are so cynical about that.

That model has limitations: it is probably good at describing one situation, but this kind of modeling is not good at setting norms, the value-based discussion that we need to have.

We should look to international cooperation practices and international norms that have been built over thousands of years of negotiations and wars. Climate change is a global-scale crisis that we cannot just keep under the carpet and say that this is going to happen sometime in the future. It’s happening now. It’s not going to be one country’s problem. If we have climate refugees, they are going to migrate. It will create security challenges like terrorism and economic destabilization.

What is it going to take for governments to change and adopt new approaches to climate?

This is a democracy. So there are always checks and balances, and that is one of the challenges in climate change. Historically, policy changes are incremental unless you look at revolutions like the Stalinistic revolution or the Iranian revolution. And the climate change challenge is that we need fast change, radical change, within existing institutions. A carbon tax, an international trade tax: these are radical changes.

The hope and need is to seek for quick change that doesn’t result in toppled governments and bloodshed?

Exactly. There will be some adverse impacts of carbon taxes and international trade taxes, but there are established compensation mechanisms that could be used to compensate people in vulnerable populations who are affected adversely.

But I don’t think that cost will be higher than the cost of not taking action. The cost of not taking action will be enormous in terms of mass migrations, extreme weather events, and just the sheer chaos that can be expected under an eight degree centigrade warmer world.

What are your personal hopes and fears about climate change?

I, myself, come from a developing country. Pakistan is very vulnerable. Both Pakistan and India are very vulnerable to climate change — and they have done the least to cause it, but they would suffer the most in the first fifty years or so.

I have been working there — and some of work is reported in this book — in setting up early warning systems, dealing with climate-refugee problems. If you look at the map, Pakistan is on both sides of the Indus River. The massive flooding in 2010 was part of the trend of more and more flooding during the monsoon season. If you look at the last sixty years of data, you can see that this is caused by climate change. So we are trying to understand the planning regime in Pakistan so that we don’t have more development in those regions which would be affected by floods or droughts.

That is very personal to me. I have been in the refugee camps. I have seen people who have been displaced for years. After 2010 floods, 20 million people were displaced and two million are still displaced today, after three years. I was there two months ago and visited a couple of camps. It’s very personal to me, because those are the people seeing climate change up front.

We need to tackle and reform those global institutions that are causing local problems. It’s not going to happen by just creating new markets — that’s my main message.

Then Berlin — a professor in UVM’s Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and director of UVM's Center for Sustainable Agriculture — and Limoges — UVM class of 2012 and now a graduate student in dietetics — move on to collect data about the skim milk. Next up: frozen broccoli.

At the other end of the small store, Bill McMaster, a UVM Extension professor, gathers information about bread. Whole-wheat and white? Lowest prices? Brand? Two or three shoppers move through the aisles with blue hand-baskets, looking quizzically at these researchers with clipboards.

“We’re interested in figuring out how to get more healthy, affordable, and regionally produced foods into markets like this one,” says Berlin.

As a first step, they want to know more about the price and supply of eight foods that are for sale here — a “market basket,” they call it, that includes ground beef (lean or not), broccoli (with or without cheese sauce), and peaches (canned with sugar or not). And they want to talk with local people who come to the store — to learn how they get (or fail to get) food now.

Into the desert

Outside, fine snow sweeps out of the spruce-fir woods and down Cross Street, the wide road through town. It’s cold and quiet; just a few people are out, readjusting snowmobiles on their trailer. It doesn’t look like a desert.

Yet, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Island Pond is a kind of desert. A food desert.

Defining a food desert is an inexact science at best, but the basic point is clear: these are communities with many low-income people — and few or no places to buy affordable, healthy food.

In the Ted’s Market parking lot, Island Pond resident Melanie Yasharian holds a small bag of groceries. “I just came in to pick up a couple of items,” she says — and patiently answers questions being asked by Kristyn Achilich — a graduate student in UVM’s new food systems master’s program — about her food buying habits and challenges.

Done with the survey, Yasharian volunteers to tell me her story: how she works hard to feed her two children, ages 2 and 3, now waiting in the car.

“I feel very lucky, “ she says with a broad smile as the wind whips snow and grit over our heads, “we have a large garden, we do a lot of canning, we started a root cellar this year, we freeze a lot, and we raise all our own meat; we don’t buy any meat at the store. We raise chickens, turkeys, and pigs, and my husband is a hunter and so we have venison,” she says.

But it’s not easy. “I do find it hard in town to get a variety of vegetables or fruits,” she says, and, “it’s extremely expensive to eat healthy and to provide your kids with healthy and with a variety.”

Where to shop?

And many of her neighbors probably have a harder time than she does. According to USDA statistics, all of the people who live in and around Island Pond, 1,260 people, have “low access” to food — meaning that a large grocery store is not within easy driving distance. Melanie Yasharian says she drives to St. Johnsbury, 20 miles away, to do some grocery shopping.

Of these 1,260 people, 241 of them, about 20 percent, are low-income. Many have limited transportation to get to the store, which means if they’re going grocery shopping at all, it’s likely to be at Ted’s Market or the other small food store two blocks down, at the other end of the commercial district. Here, Kingdom Market has a large “Welcome Ice Fishermen” sign inside the front entrance.

Kingdom Market sells many of the same foods and brands as Ted’s. And this is not surprising. Both stores are supplied by the same out-of-Vermont distributor.

Heading the other way on Route 114/105 out of Island Pond, it’s not too many miles to Interstate 91, and, from there, south to Boston and global markets beyond. And that’s the route, except in reverse, that much of the food that fills these stores’ shelves traveled.

“We have these two independently owned stores in Island Pond that are a component of our research,” Berlin says, noting that the owners of both stores have been willing partners and supporters of the project. These are the only two grocery stores in all of Essex County, the least populous county in New England, deep in the heart of Vermont’s famed Northeast Kingdom.

Food security

Unlike a spate of recent efforts to simply improve what is available at stores — so-called “healthy retailer” projects — Berlin’s research is far broader and more complex.

Island Pond is one of nine sites, three rural and six urban, throughout the Northeast that are being studied under the leadership of Stephan Goetz, a professor at Penn State. Drawing experts from the USDA and several universities, including UVM’s Linda Berlin and her students, the team’s goal is to enhance what they call “food security” in “underserved” places — often poor, urban neighborhoods — in a new way.

The researchers want to link what have often been seen as separate problems. On the one hand, 12 percent of the population in the Northeast, more than seven million people, are food insecure, according to the USDA. This means they face a challenge getting healthy, affordable food — and all the health problems, like obesity, hunger, and diabetes that are associated with this challenge.

On the other hand, regional farmers are struggling to stay in business, the land base for agriculture in the Northeast continues to decline, and a large percentage of fruits and vegetables eaten here — that can be grown in the Delaware-to-Maine corridor — are transported from farms in the Midwest, California, Mexico, and other parts of the world, using large amounts of fuel.

The researchers want to show that both problems can — and maybe need to be — addressed together. They’re exploring the entire supply chain, from farmer to distributor to retailer to consumer. The plan: build a powerful model of how the whole system works. The hope: enhance the supply and availability of foods grown in the Northeast region.

“Why are there not more regionally produced foods in these stores?” Berlin wonders. “We’re looking for the pressure points,” she says.

“We’re taking a systems approach,” she says. “If your supplier is in Boston, let’s go to the supplier and find out how they decide what to carry.”

“We can tighten the scale of the food system,” says Achilich, to help both low-income consumers on one end and farmers on the other. In an era of climate change and water shortages, the research team is testing the idea that regionally produced food — in place of globally produced foods — can alleviate environmental problems while improving food access and affordability for struggling communities.

This is the end of the second year of a five-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and a key first step of building an insightful model of the food system, Berlin says, is listening carefully to the people who are buying the food.

Near the shopping carts at Kingdom Market, Kristyn Achilich is collecting more information with help from life-long Island Pond resident Bill Hawkins. He’s been working with the UVM team, reaching out to his friends and neighbors as they come in and out of the store, explaining the research project. They’ve been listening carefully to Sherman Allen, who came in “to get a few incidentals,” he tells me. He drove to the store from the settlement of West Charleston, eleven miles away.

“Here are some of our trees,” she says with a hint of a smile.

It’s conventional plastic tubing used in the maple syrup business. Each stretch is connected to a black spout sticking out of the side of a tree. Then the chest-high tubes run gently downhill, pulling sap, under vacuum pressure, to collecting tanks. Everything here looks like a modern maple sugarbush.

'Except the trees. They’re not maples. They’re birches. “It’s odd, isn’t it?” she says.

Up a long dirt driveway, off Route 7, in Leicester, Kevin New and his cousin have converted an old goat barn into a sugarhouse. “As you can see, we don’t win awards for the looks of our shack,” he says, laughing, “but we have won awards for our maple syrup.” A sweet steam rises off the evaporator pan and he runs a skimmer through boiling sap. Along one wall he’s tacked a pair of blue ribbons from the Addison County Fair. Against the back window, stand two neat rows of mason jars filled with rich reddish syrup.

Except the syrup isn’t maple syrup. It’s birch syrup.

These may be the only two places in Vermont where birch trees are tapped.

“I heard though Facebook that there is a guy up in Franklin County who was going to try it,” New says, looking out the window, “but as far I know I’m the first one.”

What’s in Birch?

If Abby van den Berg’s uncanny research project comes back with promising results, she expects to see more Vermont maple sugarmakers adding birch syrup production into their business.

Her two-year project proposal earned an $80,307 grant from the Northeastern States Research Cooperative because of its potential to offer integrated solutions to the social, economic and ecological challenges in the Northern Forest. In April 2012, van den Berg, her colleagues Tim Perkins and Mark Isselhardt and her work-study student Teague Henkle ’14, collected sap and data from 40 birch trees in five research plots. They didn’t actually boil much of the sap into syrup – just enough to make sure it tasted right. What they really want to learn is how much sap — and sugar — birch trees produce. Van den Berg interpreted the spring 2012 data during the rest of the year and will do another round of collection this spring, weather willing.

“We want to see whether there is enough sugar produced by birches here in Vermont, using modern tools and techniques — like vacuum and reverse osmosis — to make a profitable addition to an established maple operation,” she says.

“We don’t know a lot about birch here in the Northeast,” she says, “How long is the season? How much sap do different size trees make? How much sugar will they yield? How many trees and taps would you need to be profitable?”

What’s it Worth?

Kevin New is asking himself the same questions and he’s talked with van den Berg on the phone about what they’re both learning.

Birch sap is more watery than maple sap. Typically, 40 to 60 gallons of maple sap yield one gallon of syrup. For birch sap, it’s well over a hundred gallons to one. “I’m averaging 116 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup,” New says.

This adds a tremendous amount of fuel and time to the syrup-making equation — which is one of the reasons birch syrup is rare. There are four commercial producers in Alaska, a few in British Columbia and other parts of Canada and one established maker in New Hampshire.

But the other side of the scale is this: Alaskan birch syrup is now selling for $78 per quart. One major producer there sells gallons for $328. New is testing his prices at $50 per quart. 

“Is it worth it? Will people buy it?” he says. “That’s what I need to find out.”

He’s given samples to chefs at two restaurants, he’s telling his friends and he’s letting anyone who stops by take a taste for free.

If you take a spoonful of birch syrup expecting some taste cousin to maple syrup, think again.

“I wouldn’t ruin a pancake with it,” New says, with a broad grin as he opens three small jars (from his three boiling runs to date) for sampling.

“When you say syrup, for some reason, people think of maple. It’s not!” New says. “I think it’s fruity, myself. Some people call it tangy. Some call it spicy.”

A taste from the first jar seems overly sharp with a strange after-flavor, but the second is better, delicious: sharp and sweet, with a citrusy edge. The third is the sweetest but not as interesting.

New starts to list recipes he’s heard of for birch syrup:“you’ll find it in sauces and glazes. They use it on salmon, seared scallops, glaze on chickens. You can make a pecan pie out of it,” he says. “I have a friend down the street making birch bars instead of maple bars.”

Crazy weather

Abby van den Berg, a research assistant professor in UVM’s plant biology department, would like to know whether birch products can be produced just as the maple season is wrapping up, adding to producers’ bottom line. Maple sap runs when it’s freezing at night and warmer by day. Birch sap, driven by root pressure rather than stem pressure, only starts to run when it stays above freezing in the spring. For a typical year in Vermont, this means late March into April.

But 2012 was atypical, mid March registered a record-breaking 86 degrees at the Proctor Center followed by weeks of cold and a short sap run. “This year may be a dud, but I don’t expect this project to be a dud,” van den Berg says. “I expect the numbers for this will work out.” Part of the reason for her optimism is that birch syrup production could use a great deal of the equipment already in place in an existing maple operation, “your evaporator, your sap tanks, your pumps,” van den Berg says.

“Birch trees are already present in a lot of sugarbushes,” van den Berg says. Ambitious sugarmakers could follow up their six or eight weeks of maple syrup making with two or three weeks of birch. And that would have ecological benefits too. “If birch become a species of value,” she says, “producers are more likely to want to keep them and thus keep more diversity in our forests.”

Maple syrup production seems as established a part of northern New England as, well, maple syrup on pancakes. But it’s under threat. The cost of owning land is rising, as is fuel, and other production costs. Climate change too poses a threat as the sugaring season gets shorter and the long-term viability of maples comes into question.

“We’ve had calls and interest about birch from producers all over the place,” van den Berg says. “They’re very keen to find things that will extend the season, make a little extra money — and just experiment with something new. That’s the culture of maple producers.”

Like undergraduate Teague Henkle who is helping van den Berg on the experiment. “To be honest, I’m not a big fan of how birch syrup tastes,” he says, “but it’s really interesting to be part of adding a whole new business in Vermont.”

Between 2000 and 2010, Vermont’s Latino population grew 24 times faster than its overall population, and the two largest dairy producing counties, Addison and Franklin, tallied 73 and 111 percent increases respectively. That said, the actual numbers are small – an estimated 1,200-1,500 workers in a state of 626,000 people. Still, this represents a significant demographic shift for a state where Spanish is rarely spoken.

“Public concern about how migrant workers were being treated was raised in 2009 when a young Mexican worker was killed in an accident on a Vermont dairy farm. This accident highlighted the lack of objective data about how workers are faring in Vermont,” Dan Baker wrote in the “Journal of Agromedicine” in an article published in July 2012.

“Little is known about who these workers are, how they view dairy farm employment, or how they differ from dairy farm workers who from Vermont and what their health needs are,” says Baker a UVM assistant professor of community development and applied economics. That’s why he, research specialist David Chappelle are among the UVM faculty and staff who are conducting several studies and programs.

RESULTS MAY INFORM POLICY, CHANGE

Baker’s three-year, $60,000, USDA Hatch-funded project, which ended in 2010, tried to understand the broader issues faced by dairy farm labor in Vermont. Through surveys, analysis of secondary data and collaboration with partner organizations, he’s gathered statistics such as those below that build a picture of the state of Vermont’s work force. Most importantly, it includes the perspectives of both farm managers and farm workers and how they affect Vermont’s economy and communities. For example:

• 78 percent, of farmers surveyed believe that there is a shortage of domestic labor.
• Hispanic workers put in more hours than their domestic counterparts, 70 compared to 50 hours a week, and say they want to put in more hours.
• Although few farmers speak Spanish and few workers speak English, farmers report being pleased with their Hispanic workers and 90 percent of workers report they’re satisfied with their jobs and felt they were treated well.
• The main concern farmers expressed about hiring Hispanic workers was potential legal repercussions.
• The greatest challenge most workers report is isolation. And other studies point to workers suffering from a number of work-related injuries and diseases and high levels of depression and anxiety.

“The results of this study will contribute to a more detailed understanding of the situation faced by the state's farming sector and the policy alternatives available to address agricultural labor issues,” says Baker. “It is also of use to other states and regions facing similar changes in their farm labor work force.”

Baker has delivered survey findings at an annual roundtable discussion on the state of Vermont’s agricultural work force, testified before Vermont Senate and House committees, written articles and delivered remarks at conferences and meetings such as the Northeast Organic Farming Winter Conference, Vermont Farm Bureau annual meeting and to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.

The need for further research and discussion can only continue as does the increase in the Latino population and the need for solutions to make Vermont’s agricultural work force just and sustainable. In 2011, he led a one-year project investigating migrant health issues in Vermont. In 2012, Baker received a two-year, $30,000 USDA Hatch fund grant to study anxiety and depression among migrant farm workers.

Because omega-3 fatty acids and selenium have been recognized as nutrients of high biological value that impart health benefits, they represent promising functional food components enriched in milk and dairy products. Diets rich in these nutrients have been shown to be significant in lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart attacks.

“There is growing interest in the development of functional milk and dairy products to maximize their contribution to health promotion and disease prevention,” says Kraft.

Her two-year project began in October 2011, funded by $150,000 from UVM’s Dairy Center of Excellence. “For the current project, the plants for the oil to feed the cows were grown in Canada,” Kraft explains. “However, I’d like to see the plants grown in Vermont to encourage sustainable agriculture here.”  To incorporate the bonus of locally grown cattle feed part of the project, Kraft will ask grant funders to extend the project an additional year.

She’s supplemented her initial project with a $60,000 three-year Hatch Project ending in 2015 to test her hypothesis on an animal model and additionally “look at the cow level, that is, the objective is to improve the overall health of the cow through feeding omega-3 fatty acids,” she says.

NOT SO SIMPLE, BUT WORTH IT

Why not just add omega-3 fatty acids to milk and yogurt and skip running it through the cow altogether?

“The omega-3 fatty acids could be simply incorporated into the products,” Kraft concedes, “but one of our major goals is also to improve the cow's health, so with one strategy we will accomplish two goals: improving the healthfulness of milk and enhancing the health of the dairy cow.” Then there’s the suspended fat. “If you add fats to dairy products, you will need to emulsify it into the product,” she says. “A 'naturally enriched' product may be more appealing to or accepted by the consumer.”  Last but not least, there are a number of reasons having to do with milk chemistry. “Milk fats' composition is unique, for example, the milk fat globule membrane contains bioactive substances by itself. Milk fat is easy to digest and has a unique and desirable texture and flavor,” Kraft explains. “By simply adding the omega-3 fatty acids and/or removing milk fat, you may alter the typical and desirable flavor and texture of milk and the way it performs in recipes.”

Unfortunately, one can’t just feed cattle, say, fish oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, because the oil is toxic to the bacteria in the rumen that digest the feed in the cattle’s stomach, Kraft explains. Also, the rumen bacteria convert unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids – the opposite of our goal of adding healthful fatty acids to the diets of both cows and humans.

One “work-around” this obstacle is to add encapsulated rumen-protected oil to the feed. But ultimately, Kraft believes she will come up with a novel rumen-protected, feed source that is high in specific omega-3 fatty acids, will be good for cows that eat it and the beneficial acids will be present in their milk. To that end, she analyzes the milk for lipids and fatty acid analysis using gas chromatography to test variables such as what feed offers the highest levels of omega 3’s and what is the lowest dose cattle must receive for the benefits to show.

In related research, Kraft recently submitted a proposal to the New England Dairy Promotion Board/Vermont Dairy Promotion Council to collaborate with UVM College of Medicine to improve understanding of the role of milk fat from whole milk as an integral part of a balanced diet and its efficacy in modulating risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome. This study will be a human intervention trial.

Kraft feels that “milk fat is getting a bad rap. Milk fat contains a unique variety of bioactive fatty acids that may account for beneficial effects of milk fat. Whole-milk dairy products are an important part of a healthful diet. Balance is what is important,” she says.

“Many researchers focus on developing new products for the market, but overlook human nutrition as a component of those products,” says Kraft, who is an assistant professor of animal science. “My work is the interface between animal science and human nutrition.”

“Dr. Kraft’s research is innovative and timely with its focus on making dairy foods even more healthful in a natural way, and it fits with the multi-disciplinary expertise of the department in that it looks to improve both animal and human health,” says André-Denis Wright chair of animal science in UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

In 2003, when he was in the thick of writing American Farmstead Cheese: The Complete Guide to Making and Selling Artisan Cheeses, he knew he needed a little historical context to help new farmstead cheesemakers understand the big picture. But Kindstedt easily realized that the 9,000-year history of cheese was an important story to connect today’s traditional cheesemakers with their ancient roots. What Paul Kindstedt didn’t realize is that writing that history would change the direction of his research 180 degrees.

Nine years and more than 250 pages later, in 2012, his Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and its Place in Western Civilization was published. This big cheese bible is a textbook, a rich backgrounder for cheese connoisseurs, a handbook for cheesemakers, a lens through which to understand history and "worth your time," high praise from "The Atlantic" magazine.

“It highlights the unique stories of traditional cheeses and thereby adds to their specialness, which is crucial for cheeses to command high prices in the marketplace,” Kindstedt says. “Several high profile cheesemongers have told me that Cheese and Culture helps them to sell artisan cheeses, and that's good for Vermont artisan cheesemakers.”

Great timing: in December, an interdisciplinary team of scholars published in the prestigious journal, “Nature,” a major discovery dating the earliest definitive evidence of cheesemaking at 5,500 B.C. in what is now Poland. As a result, Kindstedt receives requests from journalists worldwide for his comments and expertise. Kindstedt even became an animated cartoon at the hand of famed Fast Draw “investigative Cartoonist” Mitch Butler for CBS Sunday Morning on January 20.

Kindstedt built that expertise, over 26 years at UVM specializing in the chemistry, biochemistry, structure and function of cheese. Most notably, by figuring out the science behind eradicating naturally occurring calcium crystals that form on cheese, he helped major industrial cheese manufacturers produce smooth, uniform products for mass markets.

But by 2005, with the publication of American Farmstead Cheese and as co-director of UVM's Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheese, Kindstedt was at the forefront of a burgeoning movement.  In 2011 he earned a Hatch Research Incentive grant to shift his research goals toward cheesemakers specializing in small-batch, farmstead cheeses, while building on the considerable body of research he had already accomplished.

The ‘Snowflake Bentley of Cheese’

And now, radically, he’s looking at cheese crystals in quite the opposite way.

“My previous work was all about eradicating crystals – the new work is to take that base of knowledge and look at crystals as the signature of traditional cheesemaking practices and their nature,” Kindstedt says. “The hypothesis is that traditional cheeses are much more prone to forming various types crystals because of the way they’re made and aged. ”

“In European cheeses, crystals are seen as a characteristic of proper aging, a cheese without crystals will tell you the cheese wasn’t aged for as long as it should have – it’s too young a cheese for the price,” chimes in Gil Tansman, Kindstedt’s graduate student working alongside him.

That’s what these researchers will need to demonstrate scientifically and then convince artisan cheesemakers and their customers.

And they’ve found the resources for this scientific inquiry in what, at a glance, may seem two unlikely places: UVM’s geology lab and UVM College of Medicine.

It is Tansman, says Kindstedt, who on his own initiative came up with some completely unexpected tools for studying cheese crystals – tools he found in Professor John Hughes’ geology laboratory.

“The tools and techniques John Hughes uses to study moon rocks, are useful to the study of cheese,” says Tansman. The pride of the Hughes lab is an x-ray diffractometer, which irradiates crystals causing beams to diffract in specific ways. By measuring the angles of the beams, a researcher can determine the identity and atomic and molecular structure of a crystal. Combining that information with various forms of microscopy, he can create a picture of the crystal. More on that picture later.

“The amount of probing power Professor Hughes uses hasn’t been used for food science before,” says Tansman. “While he is examining an extremely well crystallized piece from a mountain, we study a less well crystallized organic substrate and a more transient matrix, still we find that there’s an overlap. We may have to try harder, to find the right samples, press them properly and deal with instrumentation, but at the end of the day, the information is there if we use the techniques developed by other disciplines.” Tansman’s x-ray crystallography patterns suggest that each kind of cheese displays unique crystals.

Meanwhile, Kindstedt has asked the staff in UVM Medical College’s Microscopy Imaging Center to train Tansman this semester to use its electron microscopy instruments. ‘Some of the same equipment used to study cancer cells, such as dissecting microscopy platforms, are fantastic for cheese,” says Kindstedt.

Kindstedt is excited to see “food science research drawing bits and pieces from both geology and medicine,” in the same way that his books draw from the fields of archaeology and anthropology to bring new understanding and information to the very core characteristics that define artisan cheese.

What’s more, those cheese crystal images from the geology lab turn out to be, well, art, not unlike the famous snowflake images first photographed by Vermonter Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley in the early 1900s.

"Gil Tansman is the Snowflake Bentley of Cheese," says Kindstedt. "Gil is making it possible to see those crystals at the microscopic level – they’re really a thing of beauty – that’s what Snowflake Bentley was doing. Crystals show off some of the attributes that make these cheeses so desirable – their hand-craftedness – it’s a signature to be celebrated. And if you look at that at the microscopic level we show people that these are works of art.”


The 11 recommendations in the report of the advisory group, chaired by Nicholas Donofrio, former executive vice president for innovation at IBM, all advance the goals of creating a sustainable relationship between Vermont and UVM, while preparing students for the jobs of the future. Key among these is the concept of an innovation center, which would put UVM as a hub from which to reach across the state and beyond to public and private sectors in order to foster innovation, research, entrepreneurship and job creation. Work has been initiated to create a clearinghouse for resources already available at UVM, the state colleges, other institutions of higher education, state government and the private sector.  

John Evans, president of the Vermont Technology Council said the Technology Council was pleased to collaborate with UVM on the new center. “There are a tremendous number of resources already available, and we need to put them to work,” he said. 

Bramley served as UVM’s interim president from August 2011 to July 2012. Before that he was department chair of animal sciences, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and provost and senior vice president of the university. In 2006 he served as acting president during President Daniel Mark Fogel’s illness. From 2007 to 2011 he was president and CEO of the Windham Foundation, the largest private foundation registered in Vermont. 

The higher education advisory group’s report, titled “New Ideas for Changing Times: Strengthening the Partnership Between the State of Vermont and the University of Vermont,” was released in June.

As philosophers are wont to do, he made his points Socratically, by asking audience members how they would react to a series of progressively thorny ethical dilemmas.

“There's a girl drowning in a puddle outside the Davis Center,” he began, gazing innocently at the audience. "Should you save her?" Of course, a woman near the front replied. “What if the puddle was very deep?” he added. Still yes. “What if it was burning hot, like lava,” he elaborated impishly. A nodding affirmative. “If it paralyzed you from the waist down?” Yes, again. “Is there any cost you would not pay?” he asked the impressively altruistic audience member with a smile, after pausing for effect.

Doggett's drift, in part, was to unpack an unspoken assumption behind an Economist cover story that had caught his attention titled “Feeding the World.” Unexamined by the magazine, Doggett pointed out, was the question of whether we should feed the world, especially when the many and varied costs of such an endeavor were taken into account.

“Everyone thinks you should save the child if there’s no cost,” he said, returning to his example. “It becomes significantly less plausible if you jack the cost up.”

But his real point was about the need for transdisciplinarity in addressing problems, including those related to the food system.

“Philosophy has nothing to say about what the costs are, but a lot to say about whether or not you should pay them,” he said. “Philosophy is important, but it’s not enough.” For example, an agro-economist, like Doggett’s fellow faculty member Ernesto Mendez, might be a good partner in integrating the “should” and “how” elements of the Economist cover story.

Such transdisciplinary coalitions of the willing –  where to find them, how to build them, how to make them work – were the theme of the day at the symposium, titled “The Cultivation of Collaboration: Increasing Our Impact on the Food System.”

“That’s OK”

Partnerships can evolve almost serendipitously, said John Barlow, assistant professor of animal science, who spoke about a new transdisciplinary project he participates in that addresses artisanal cheesemakers’ ability to minimize food safety risks and understand consumer needs. The project's six-member team includes Catherine Donnelly in nutrition and food science, an expert in foodborne pathogens; Jane Hill in engineering, an environmental engineer who focuses on microbial activity; and David Conner, an agricultural economist in the department of community development and applied economics.

Barlow met Donnelly through normal channels – both are faculty members in animal, nutrition and food sciences graduate program and colleagues in UVM's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. But he met Conner at a new faculty oriention and Hill through the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases (COBRE).

“Some of it was dumb luck and random chance,” Barlow said. “That’s OK. Another way to look at that is you’re watching and thinking about what’s going on, and identifying potential opportunities for future use.”

Power of partnering

Another presentation given by Linda Berlin, director of UVM’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture, was all about the power of partnering. Her project addresses how better to serve so called “food deserts” – places where people, often of low-income, have limited access to grocery stores and limited transportation, and so are "food insecure" in a variety of ways. Her research is part of a large USDA grant involving several schools, including UVM. 

The goal of the grant is to improve access to healthy food for underserved populations by better understanding what a regional food system means and how it works. The project encompasses nine communities in the Northeast, including Essex County in Vermont where it focuses on two independent grocery stores.

Ultimate transdisciplinarity

In the last presentation of the day, Amy Trubek, associate professor of nutrition and food sciences, gave an overview on the new food systems masters degree program. It is one of the most transdisciplinary programs on campus. 

Thirty faculty members affiliated with the program are doing many kinds of food systems research, she said, from the work Jane Kolidinsky, chair of community development and applied economics, is doing on obesity; to work by Chris Koliba, director of the master's in public administration program, on food systems policy. Students can work with any faculty member in the program, which is both an opportunity and, given their large number, a challenge. Discussions are under way, she said, to improve ways for faculty and graduate students to find one another.

The symposium also included a panel of representatives from Green Mountain College, Vermont Technical College and Vermont Law School on opportunities for cross-institutional collaboration. The symposium's keynote speaker, Wouter Van Hoven, who was to speak about African food security, was stranded in Boston by Hurricane Sandy. Diane Imrie, director of food services at Fletcher Allen Health Care, took his place. 

Douglas Lantagne, dean of UVM Extension and interim director of the Food Systems Spire, said he was very happy with the symposium, which was attended by about 100 people, but he is eager to do more. “When you get people together to network, great things come out of it,” he said. “I have to figure out how to do that more frequently, not just at the Food Summit and the Food Symposium. That’s what I’m going to be working on – more frequency and less logistical planning.”

Driven by a lack of laborers on the state’s 1,007 dairy farms, Vermont’s Latino population has grown 24 times faster than the state's total population between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since 2007, more than 50 percent of the milk in the 12th-largest milk producing state in the nation was harvested by the hands of Latino migrant workers, according to the Agency of Agriculture, making Vermont one of America’s new Latino destinations.

With such a dramatic demographic change come a host of new issues related to health, education, language, law enforcement and immigration, especially in the state’s two largest agricultural counties, where Latino populations increased by 73 percent and 111 percent, respectively. Dan Baker, assistant professor in Community Development and Applied Economics, has produced some of the first survey data in the nation on the health of migrant workers on dairy farms based on interviews with 120 Latino workers on 59 dairy farms that included self-assessment health status information and perceived barriers to healthcare.

The results, published in the article, "Health Status and Needs of Latino Dairy Farm Workers in Vermont," in the July 2012 issue of the Journal of Agromedicine showed that migrant workers rarely seek medical attention despite experiencing back and neck pain, dental issues, allergies, flu, rashes or skin problems, eye and vision issues, gastrointestinal problems, and psychological issues such as anxiety, depression and isolation. The top reason for not seeking medical attention was “fear of immigration/law enforcement,” followed by language barriers, lack of transportation and cost of care.

Consequently, most Latino workers wait until they return to Mexico to access medical care, according to Baker, who cites community-based initiatives involving greater education and outreach to farmers about health resources for migrants, including partnerships with colleges and universities, and the adoption of “bias-free policing” that enables foreign-born workers to travel to clinics without concern about deportation, as strategies that may reduce barriers to care.

“There were a number of surprising findings,” says Baker. “Many of the workers reported feeling healthy, but workers have been in Vermont a relatively short time, so there hasn’t been time for chronic issues to develop. There were a high percentage of people who reported feeling depression and anxiety most likely because they are so isolated on Vermont farms and far from home.”

Conducting research with impact

Baker’s current study flows from 2007 research focusing on language barriers between Vermont farm owners and Hispanic dairy workers, resulting in the launching of the Vermont Dairy Spanish Program through the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. Farmers “made significant improvement in their ability to understand and adapt to a foreign labor force” after taking the course, writes Baker in an article in the June 2012 edition of the Journal of Extension,“ In Vermont, "Se Habal Espanol: Using Occupational Spanish to Help Dairy Farmers manage a Changing Workforce.” His recommendations for designing the course have been used by other governmental agencies. They include the prioritizing of phrase lists that farmers use most frequently; addressing cultural barriers to communication as well as language; emphasizing repetition and memorization; and being flexible in course design.

“It has been an evolving process of figuring out what type of useful research we can provide to help Vermont deal with an influx of Spanish workers in the state,” says Baker, who organized two statewide roundtable discussions at UVM in February on issues related to Latino immigrants. “We’re focused on sharing our research with policy makers, health clinics and groups focused on immigrant well-being like Migrant Justice because they can make a difference in the lives of the people who need it most.”

Putting a face on the statistics

Health and safety issues on farms came to the forefront in 2009 when José Obeth Santis Cruz was killed in a Vermont farming accident. The death of Cruz played a key role in the co-founding of Burlington-based immigrant advocacy group Migrant Justice by UVM alumnus Brendan O’Neill G’05 and with major support from founding member Natalia Fajardo ’06, both of whom have worked tirelessly on behalf of Latinos living in Vermont. They’ve found Baker’s research useful, especially when trying to humanize the data.

“We try to get people to think of immigrants as more than work machines and more in terms of a shared humanity – to value each other beyond what we can contribute to an industry,” says O’Neill. “Dan has sought to objectively identify problems. He does numbers, and we do the stories behind them. He provides helpful academic background and research data, and we’re mobilizing to change some of the outcomes. It works well together.” 

Danilo Lopez is one of the faces behind the numbers. After working on a farm in Charlotte in 2009 he started advocating on behalf of fellow migrant workers and is now in a leadership and advocacy role at Migrant Justice. Lopez, who is spearheading Migrant Justice’s driver's license campaign, says Vermont is a welcoming place that cares about its people and communities, but that because it’s very rural and white, migrant workers are often treated as outsiders and experience discrimination.

“Migrant workers are afraid to leave the farm or don’t have transportation,” says Lopez, who has been harassed by state and federal officials and had a customer at Wal-Mart call border patrol after hearing him speaking Spanish. “Migrant workers should be able to drive (legally) to the store, because right now they are working hard to produce milk that they can’t even buy at the store.”

Dairy industry would crash without migrant workers

The State of Vermont has relied on information and research from Migrant Justice and Baker, who testified before the Vermont Senate Agriculture Committee in February of 2012. In his report, “Public Policy Research: Implications for Foreign Labor Policy in Vermont,” Baker presented survey data from farmers, Latino workers, domestic workers and some of the first opinion-based information gathered from the general public.

If legislators, who are well aware that the dairy industry accounts for more than 65 percent of total state farm receipts in 2011, were concerned about passing laws that might not sit well with voters, Baker’s presentation may have put them at ease.

In short, he found that 49 percent of Vermonters view the impact of undocumented workers on Vermont communities as “generally positive” with another 32 another percent feeling “neither positive nor negative.” With just under 63 percent “strongly disagreeing” that undocumented farm workers take jobs away from Vermonters and 59 percent believing that undocumented farm workers are helping Vermont farms stay in business, it’s not surprising that 82.6 percent of Vermonters are in favor of a guest worker program that allows foreign laborers to work legally on Vermont dairy farms for up to three years.

“That’s the contradiction,” O’Neill says. “We have a community that our government is unwilling to recognize, yet the state’s economy is heavily dependent on migrant labor. Our dairy economy would completely crash if there was a sweep by border patrol or immigration.”