MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — An upcoming continuing education collaboration between four universities will bring awareness to agriculture-related topics and issues that educators and the general public can attend online.
Middle Tennessee State University, in partnership with Tennessee Tech University, the University of Tennessee-Martin and University of Kentucky, is hosting a Food Systems Hybrid Field Day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 15.
Topics will include crop production, food safety, fermented ag products, soil conservation, digital agriculture, agritourism, food sensory analysis, suicide prevention in agriculture, American ginseng and soil fertility.
The registration deadline is Monday, March 13. MTSU and Tennessee Tech students are among those who have registered in advance. Registered participants can attend any of the sessions.
The effort is being coordinated by Chaney Mosley, assistant professor in Agriculture Education in the MTSU School of Agriculture and associate director in the Tennessee STEM Education Center. He will lead the “Suicide Prevention in Agriculture” session.
“I’ve not seen anything like this done, where it’s in-person or hybrid,” Mosley said. “Usually, it’s held for two or three hours at a farm. Having individual sessions that are 30 to 45 minutes long, you do not have to leave work or get out of the house to participate.”
Other participating MTSU faculty will include Alanna Vaught (“Agritourism”), Seockmo Ku (“Fermentation, Agriculture and Human Health”), Samuel Haruna (“Conservation Practices and Soil Health Parameters”), Song Cui (“Digital Agriculture”), Keely O’Brien (“Sensory Analysis of Food and Beverages”) and Ethan Swiggart (“American Ginseng: Farming the Forest”).
MTSU alumna Kacey Troup with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture will team with Vaught in the agritourism discussion.
Edwin Ritchey, extension associate professor at the University of Kentucky, opens the event with “Cover Crops and Crop Production.” UT-Martin assistant professor Bethany Wolters will discuss “Food Safety Starts at the Farm” and Tennessee Tech assistant professor Michael Nattrass concludes things with “Soil Fertility.”
Continuing education/professional development certificates will be available for each session attended upon completion of the evaluation form, Mosley said.
