The College of Agriculture Newsletter
Iowa State University
March 17, 1995 No. 14

C O N T E N T S

COLLEGE NEWS
- Higher ed forum at ISU
- Family farm ag ethics program
- Future soy oil uses
- CommLab welcomes queries
- Deadlines & reminders

COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK

- Just say it

INFOGRAZING

- Conflict resolution: I cut, you choose
- Changing diet by 2050

EXTERNAL VOICES

- Virtual neighbors
- Virtual institutions

MARGINALIA

- A straight answer
- Hot pink


C O L L E G E N E W S

HIGHER ED FORUM AT ISU
The Department of Agricultural Education and Studies and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation are sponsoring a forum on the future of higher education and graduate studies. The forum, March 27-31 at the Memorial Union, will examine trends and issues in higher education, diversity, communications, extension, adult education, agribusiness, the environment, distance learning, graduate studies, international programs, bioethics, technology and rural sociology. Speakers are from universities, businesses, governmental agencies and organizations. Speakers are available to meet with individual departments. Faculty, staff and the public are welcome to attend. Contact Alan Kahler, 294-0894, for a program.

FAMILY FARM AG ETHICS PROGRAM
The Experiment Station and the ISU Bioethics Program are sponsoring an agricultural ethics workshop on the family farm, 11:10 a.m.-1 p.m, Tuesday, March 28, 2050 Agronomy. The first hour is a video on ethics and farm structure, followed by discussion. Students, faculty, staff and the public are invited. Background reading material is available. Instructors who wish to bring classes to the workshop are encouraged to get the reading material in advance. Contact Sue Lamont, 294-3629, or Gary Comstock, 294-0054.

FUTURE SOY OIL USES
Faculty and staff are invited to attend sessions of a March 28-30 workshop on identifying future industrial uses for soybean oil. The meeting will include an announcement of a new ISU effort to study agriculture-related chemical products. National and international experts from industry and the public sector will speak. Workshop sponsors include the Experiment Station, Center for Crops Utilization Research and Institute for Physical Research and Technology. To find out more: Connie Hardy, 294-3394 or chardy@iastate.edu.

COMMLAB WELCOMES QUERIES
Last semester the college's Communications Laboratory offered 14 short lessons and two TA training sessions and scheduled 60 tutoring appointments. Nine departments or programs used the lab's services last fall. CommLab welcomes requests or inquiries. For more information: Lee-Ann Kastman, 294-7550 or lkastman@iastate.edu.

DEADLINES & REMINDERS
MARCH 24 -- Foreign travel grant applications due, 122 Curtiss.
MARCH 31 -- Proposals to College of Agriculture for computer-based instructional support due, 124 Curtiss.
APRIL 1 -- College curriculum improvement proposals due, 124 Curtiss.

C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K

JUST SAY IT
Try reading your prose out loud. Hearing your words can help you spot problems with the clarity of your sentences. Listen to your words to decide whether your ideas flow smoothly or get jumbled. And if you're striving to write in a conversational style, speaking your piece will help you hear if you're on the right track. A tip from Ag Information.

I N F O G R A Z I N G

CONFLICT RESOLUTION: I CUT, YOU CHOOSE
A mathematician and a political scientist have solved (to the satisfaction of the prestigious American Mathematical Monthly) the problem of fair, envy-free division of anything at all (cake, inheritance, divorce settlement, wage dispute, etc.). The idea is a generalization on the fair procedure for dividing a cake into two pieces: "I cut, you choose" -- the presumption being that I will cut the cake into two pieces I consider to be equal, and so I will have no problem accepting the piece that you leave for me. Generalizing the idea to three or more participants required two conceptual breakthroughs: do the division into a number of separate rounds rather than divide the whole "cake" (such as an inheritance) at once; and in each round divide the cake into more pieces than there are participants (and then simply do another round). The procedure and its applications are included in the forthcoming book, "Fair Division: From Cake Cutting To Dispute Resolution." (Discover, March)

CHANGING U.S. DIET BY 2050
At February's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, a panel of experts said environmental degradation coupled with a growing population will radically change the diet of the average American by the year 2050. With lands already pushed to the limit and crop yields unable to keep up, panelists said they believe there will be less meat, but more pasta, beans and potatoes on American tables in the future. "Modern agriculture is using land to convert petroleum to food," said Albert Allen Bartlett of the University of Chicago, adding that domestic oil wells will be depleted in 20 years. David Pimental of Cornell University said the U.S. will lose an additional 120 million acres of farmland to urban sprawl and erosion in the next 60 years while the population doubles. If those trends play themselves out, the U.S. will no longer be in a position to export food by the year 2025. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Feb. 18)

E X T E R N A L V O I C E S

VIRTUAL NEIGHBORS
"(Online) networks are based on choice. When they get uncomfortable, it's easy to opt out of them. Communities teach tolerance, co-existence and mutual respect. ... I fear that calling a network a community leads people to complacency and delusion, to accepting an inadequate substitute because they've never experienced the real thing and they don't know what they're missing." Eric Utne in the March-April issue of Utne Reader.

VIRTUAL INSTITUTIONS
"Intellectual work is social work -- notwithstanding the myth of the solitary genius -- and the university is a social institution. The Internet can enhance the society of the university and quicken its pace of discovery and invention, but the electronic environment cannot replace physical human society. We humans cannot thrive in a bodiless, frownless, smileless ecology, and our intellectual society cannot be complete without physical interaction," says the University of Pennsylvania's provost -- a point of view that author Lewis Perelman characterizes as "an expression of hope triumphing over logic." (Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 27)

M A R G I N A L I A

A STRAIGHT ANSWER
After a professor remarked in class that "straight lines on the landscape are put there by man," Gail Jensen Sanford composed a list entitled "Straight Lines in Nature." Originally published in the Visalia, CA, newspaper, items in her list were excerpted in February's Harper's Magazine. A few examples: "Distant edge of a prairie. Paths of hard rain and hail. Snow-covered fields. Surface of a calm lake. Bill of a duck. Angle of migrating birds. Trunks of young, fast-growing trees. Pine needles. Silk strands woven by spiders. Cracks in the surface of ice. Inside edge of a half-moon."

HOT PINK
One of the year's hottest trends: pink food and beverages, predicts the National Food Processors Association. Food processors will use more guava puree to add rosy color and a tropical flavor to juices and other beverages. (Investor's Business Daily, March 3)

AG ONLINE

Ag Online is a bimonthly electronic newsletter for ISU College of Agriculture faculty and staff. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag Online subscribe" to bmeyer@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe: Send "Ag Online unsubscribe" to same address. Comments? Call, write, e-mail or fax editors Brian Meyer (bmeyer@iastate.edu) and Ed Adcock (edadcock@iastate.edu), Agriculture Information Services, 304 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011. Phone: 515-294-5616. Fax: 515-294-8662.

Next issue: March 31. Deadline: March 27.
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