NSAC E-Bulletin

Please forward your submissions to the NSAC E-Bulletin to the newsdesk (news@nsac.ca) by Friday at 2:00 p.m. for inclusion in the next week's edition.

November 18th - The Future of Organic Agriculture Forum in Windsor

On behalf of the Hants Regional Development Authority and International Trade Canada, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the upcoming forum, The Future of Organic Agriculture in Hants County. This free forum was designed specifically for organic producers and distributors, government decision makers and agricultural entrepreneurs.

This forum will be held on Friday, November 18th from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at BioMedica Diagnostics, 94 Wentworth Road, Windsor.

Please click here for Driving Directions

To register: Please RSVP to Business Development Intern Jacqueline Hutton

Toll Free: 1-877-284-2687, please ask to be transferred to Jacqueline.

Direct: (902) 883-3023 Email: jhutton@enterprisecentre.info

For more details on this event, please visit www.hantscounty.com Festivals and Events.

McGill Alumni Association Event a Success

Last evening I attended the McGill Alumni Association of Nova Scotia event at the World Trade and Convention Center in Halifax to hear Chandra Madramootoo, P.hD., P.Eng. speak about the world's need for development, reclamation and protection of water sources and several water delivery issues throughout the world.

Dr. Madramootoo is the new Dean, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for Macdonald College of McGill University. He is also a James McGill Professor and the Founding Director of the Brace Center for Water Resources Management at Macdonald College. He also has served as vice-president of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).

Dr. Madramootoo is a classmate of mine from graduate school at Macdonald College and he currently works with Rob Gordon and Ali Madani in the areas of water sciences and water quality management.In his speech"Water, Water Everywhere", Dr. Madramootoo passionately made clear the global need for more research work, education and training in the areas of water sciences and water quality management. He stated that there are over 2 billion people throughout the world that do not have adequate water for drinking and sanitary purposes. And that there are in the order of 880 thousand people without enough food to meet daily nutritional requirements. His message was clear. It is our responsibility as international citizens of the world to take on these issues, in any ways that we can, to ensure enough clean, safe water and nutritional food for all people.

Also in attendance was former NSAC Principal Dr. Garth Coffin and his wife Trinkie, who are both McGill grads from the class of 1962.

Kevin Sibley

WHY BLOG? An instructor at UNB uses blogs as a teaching tool.

I blog. I think you should, too and I’ll tell you why.

Actually, I keep a weblog. A number of them in fact. They include my own weblog scribblingwoman, a blog for each course I teach, one of 18th century links and a few others. If that was not enough, I am also a contributor to The Valve, a group weblog of literary scholars. Participants hail from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. Readers, to the tune of 3,000 a day, come from even further.

First, a definition -- no matter what the subject matter, all weblogs share some formal aspects. They exist online; consist of a series of time-stamped online posts, presented in reverse chronological order; and there is usually a mechanism for leaving comments, or at least an e-mail address. Most blogs have accessible archives. They differ from journals or newsletters in their potential to be interactive.

For the complete article, please click here.

The Atlantic Agronomy Workshop

Rodd Charlottetown Hotel, Charlottetown, PEI
January 17-18, 2006

Organized by Canadian Society of Agronomy
http://www.agronomycanada.com

The Canadian Society of Agronomy (CSA) is organizing the 3rd biennial Workshop for agronomy people to meet to exchange ideas and research results. The meeting will be run as an "at cost" event covered by registration fees.

This meeting, aimed at researchers, graduate students, industry representatives and advisers, will provide a forum for presentation of new information and discussion on all aspects of agronomic crop production in the Atlantic Region.

Please click here for the complete article.

OH & S Audit

Within the next five weeks, NSDAF and NSAC will undergo an Occupational Health & Safety audit.

Personnel from the Public Service Commission may interview staff members regarding OH&S in our workplace.

If the audit team decides to interview you and/or your staff, please do not feel threatened or nervous. This is a process to ensure that we are all knowledgeable about OH&S in our workplace. If you do not understand the question being posed, please ask them to rephrase it so you can understand the content of the question.

Sample audit questions include:

• Have you had any OH&S training?
• Do you know where the Corporate policy is located?
• Do you know the components of the OH&S policy
• Do you know where the written work procedures and practices are located, and are they accessible?
• Do you know who your JOHSC representatives for your work area are?
• Can you explain how the communication flows up and down the chain of command and how it is communicated to staff?
• Are you aware that your employer has an OH&S policy?
  
  Please refer to the "OH&S Audit - Quick Reference" guide prepared by Tim Delaney, if you had difficulty answering any of the aforementioned sample questions accessible at the link below:

http://inside.nsac.ca/ohs/default.asp

Subscribing to the NSAC Noticeboard and Message Forum

By now you will know about the NSAC Noticeboard and Message Forum at http://nsac.ca/forums that has replaced the old Noticeboard. More people have signed up to post to it during the past week and many more are reading the message there.

Registered users have the option of “subscribing” to the forum and receiving an e-mail with a link whenever a new message is posted. That way they are sure not to miss any new notices or messages. It is possible to subscribe to the entire Board or just to an individual discussion. Just like registration, subscription is optional.

NSAC delegation investigates tree fruit research in Japan

A team of NSAC researchers has completed an investigative travel in Japan to study the current tree fruit research and development activities and also to investigate the possibility of developing collaborative research and academic programs between NSAC and the Japanese tree fruit research institutes.

The NSAC delegation comprises of the president Dr. P. Hicks, assistant professor V. Rupasinghe and adjunct professor C. Embree had a chance to meet and discuss the possible collaborations with Dr. E. Miwa, the president of the National Agricultural and Bio-oriented Research Organization (NARO), the core institute for federal agricultural research in Japan. Please click here for the complete article.

Atlantic Turfgrass Research Foundation (ATRF) forms Partnership

Caption: John and Vimy fill the the topdresser this past summer

The ATRF and Bio-Environmental Engineering Centre established a working partnership in February of this year. Vimy Glass, Research Coordinator of the ATRF hopes to jump start turf research in this region and also consider long-term goals and research endeavors.

Vimy is originally from Truro and has a B.Sc. from Acadia University, M.Sc. from Dalhousie University/ NSAC and is currently finishing her Ph.D. from the University of Guelph.

The Foundation was very fortunate to have an undergraduate student this past summer. John Langille entered the second year of his B.Sc. at the AC this fall. John received an Undergraduate Student Research Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to do his summer research. His study looked at thatch control and was conducted at the Atlantic Turfgrass Research Center located on campus. Specifically, hydrated lime and Thatch ‘X’ were utilized.

Parameters of interest were: soil nutrients, chlorophyll content, colour, thickness of thatch, and greenhouse gas emissions. For the complete article, please click here.

NSAC Celebrates International Education Week

Canada is one of 85 countries celebrating International Education Week, November 14-18. The purpose of International Education Week is to raise awareness and understanding of international education, its significant benefits to Canada, to Canadian educational institutions and to all Canadians. This year’s theme is International Education: Canada Partnering with the World.

NSAC partners with the world through its current project work with agricultural education partners in Ghana, The Gambia, and Ethiopia, as well as student based initiatives in Mexico, United States, China, Norway, Cuba, Slovakia, Hungary and Jamaica.

Recent student interns to The Gambia will present their experiences to the NSAC community on Wednesday evening at Cox Institute. All are welcome. On Friday morning, students are invited to drop by the display booth beside Cox Cupboard to discuss international opportunities; courses, internships, and study abroad. A full schedule can be found on the Notice board at: http://nsac.ca/forums/.

NSAC Students Awarded Study Abroad Bursaries

Three NSAC students: Jerome Gonsalves, David Brennan and James Uhlman, have been awarded travel bursaries for semester abroad programs. All three student participants in the student exchanges will attend partner institutions in Norway, Mexico and the United States. Funding is provided by Human Resources Development Canada for the North American Mobility Project, and by the University of Life Sciences in As, Norway.

United Way Campaign 2005

The DAF-Truro/NSAC 2005 United Way campaign is quickly coming to a close. Just a reminder that the deadline for donations to be eligible for the draw for one of three paid days off is Friday, Nov. 18. Donation
forms are available from myself and Marianne Clark.

Thank you for the tremendous support you have given the United Way this year. More information will follow on the results shortly.

Varsity Results

Caption: Billy McNutt blocks a MSVU shot in ACAA action Nov.9 . The 2005-2006 ACAA League Home Opener at NSAC was a 81-63 loss for the Rams.