FFAR
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Year Awarded 2017
FFAR award amount $299,744
Total award amount $599,488
Location Urbana-Champaign, IL
Matching Funders The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
The microbiome in human guts and diet are linked to public health issues including obesity, liver disease and diabetes. While the microbiome is susceptible to changes in diet, there is a dearth of knowledge on how specific foods effect microbiome and how diet and the microbiome are related to disease treatment and prevention. University of Illinois researchers are furthering general understanding of how foods impacts health. The project is providing information that will help consumers to make healthful food choices.
FFAR award amount $1,000,000
Total award amount $2,402,000
Location Lincoln, NE
Matching Funders UNL Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Platte River-High Plains Aquifer
The availability of land for livestock foraging has decreased as farms move toward monocultures. University of Nebraska researchers are integrating livestock and crop production systems. Researchers are investigating various outputs including yields, soil health, greenhouse gas emissions and the economic feasibility of adopting these new practices to improving land use efficiency.
FFAR award amount $294,988
Total award amount $590,189
Location Berkeley, CA
Matching Funders The Regents of the University of California
Ensuring urban agriculture can sustainably feed urban populations in the future requires understanding current urban agriculture challenges from a policy and systems perspective. University of California, Berkeley researchers are improving the sustainability and resilience of urban farms by building soil health, conserving water and promoting beneficial insects. The project will also evaluate the effectiveness of existing food access and food distribution methods for meeting food needs of urban food insecure communities and develop policy recommendations in collaboration with community stakeholders.
FFAR award amount $431,999
Total award amount $431,999
Location Davis, CA
Matching Funders Open Philanthropy Project
Keel, or breastbone fractures are a prevalent concern when raising hens in cage-free housing systems. University of California, Davis researchers are exploring the impacts of poultry housing design, particularly vertical space, on the prevalence of keel bone injuries in egg-laying hens.
FFAR award amount $300,000
Total award amount $600,000
Location Ames, IA
Matching Funders Iowa Crop Improvement Association
Currently, about 70 percent of crop yield losses in the Midwest are related to inefficient water use. Crop models help optimize water use and quality; however, today’s models do not account for groundwater. This important source of water can reduce the need for irrigation in dry years and enhance nitrogen and yield loss in wet years. Iowa State University researchers are improving simulation models that help farmers manage water use and predict impacts and design mitigation strategies that improve water quality, soil health and productivity.
Location Kingston, RI
Matching Funders University of Rhode Island
Despite efforts, diet has proven resilient to change and new approaches are needed to prevent diet-related illness. University of Rhode Island researchers are exploring whether individually targeted incentives can increase the adoption of healthier food patterns to cost-effectively improve health. Researchers are using an individual’s past food choices to inform the targeted food incentives to improve food quality purchases.
Modern agriculture uses large amounts of fertilizer to maximize crop yield. However, up to 70 percent of applied Nitrogen is not absorbed by plants, resulting in extensive air and water pollution. The current understanding of the Nitrogen process in plants is limited by the lack of information at the molecular level. University of Illinois researchers are developing new approaches to understand the plant nitrogen uptake process.
FFAR award amount $546,511
Total award amount $1,093,084
Location Durham, NH
Program Pollinator Health Fund
Matching Funders Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, UNH and UNH, College of Life Sciences and Agriculture
The University of New Hampshire researchers are creating the first comprehensive guide to wild bees found in New England. The project is classifying wild New England bees and developing resources to further education, including information on regionally specific planting recommendations and a bee identification course applicable to researchers in multiple states.
FFAR award amount $50,000
Total award amount $120,623
Location Manhattan, KS
Matching Funders KS Wheat Commission
Although management methods for wheat streak mosaic (WSMV) are known, wheat farmers continue to experience yield and profit losses as a result of WSMV. Kansas State University researchers updating best management practices for wheat farmers threatened by the pathogen and identifying optimal disease resistant wheat varieties.
Total award amount $100,000
Location Washington, DC
Matching Funders Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Elizabeth Ainsworth, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service researcher and adjunct professor at the School of Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois, is the 2019 recipient of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences. Ainsworth’s pioneering research focuses on how the world will eat in the face of climate change and other threats.
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