CALS Faculty and Students connect Idaho to the World

By Mary Ann Reese

University of Idaho ag economics professor Joe Guenthner teaches students and business people from Africa and other developing countries the importance of bio-technology, including why accepting genetically modified foods is important.

Ronda Hirnyck, UI Extension pesticide coordinator in Boise, worked with United States and Canadian scientists and government officials in 2002 hammering out an agreement on pesticide regulations for peas and lentils to help growers in both countries end frustrations over contradictory regulatory philosophies.

Near press time, Greg Bohach, director of the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, and other UI leaders were poised to sign a licensing agreement with Korea's LG Life Sciences, Ltd., to develop and market a vaccine UI scientists patented to prevent mastitis in dairy cows. This infectious disease currently costs the U.S. dairy industry up to $245 per cow per year, or $2 billion a year industry-wide.

In a project funded by the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program, UI agricultural economists Larry Makus of Moscow and Paul Patterson of Idaho Falls teamed up to help farmers in Kazakhstan evaluate benefits of no-till agriculture. They share what they learned in their classrooms.

Recent UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences graduate Maggie Hopwood '02, Kimberly, now in the Peace Corps, is helping rural Guatemalan women plant more productive gardens and learn how to make a natural insecticide for pests. Her detailed e-mails home circulate among current students and faculty.

These are only some fruits of a renewed commitment by CALS to "increase international engagement," says Director of CALS International Programs Bob Haggerty. "Both faculty and their students learn a global perspective when faculty work abroad," says Haggerty. "We really want our students to be globally ready and competent to deal with a complex world when they graduate," adds John Foltz, the college's director of academic programs.

Stories on the following pages share experiences of CALS faculty, students, and even one alum who have traveled abroad to study, share agricultural or research ideas, or simply see how someone else lives. On pages 12 to 15, you'll track progress of some of 19 UI doctoral students cross-training with scientists from Idaho and Costa Rica in disciplines different from their own. Idaho's growing global interests.

MaryAnn- these are the links to other articles related to this one-

Creating 21st Century Scientists
Helping Growers in Developing Nations, Farmer to Farmer
Studying/Volunteering Abroad

Idaho's growing global interests

UI CALS' international emphasis parallels Idaho's growing understanding of the state's dependence on a global marketplace. One-fourth of Idaho's agricultural goods now are exported internationally-nearly $1 billion a year in sales, says Laura Johnson, Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) marketing bureau chief.

Idaho's six biggest clients for farm products sold abroad are Japan, 32 percent; Canada, 22 percent; China, 8 percent; Taiwan, 7 percent; Mexico, 6.2 percent; and Korea, 4.5 percent; with the remaining 20 percent shipped "elsewhere."

At national and state levels, the consensus is if U.S. agriculture is going to sell more farm goods, it is people in developing countries who will buy them. After all, people in the United States-home to just 4.6 percent of the world's population-already consume about as much as they can. Same for the Europeans. "Good reasons for assisting developing countries include the recognition that when we assist them, we increase their economic ability, which ultimately leads them to be our customers," says Larry Branen, former CALS dean and now UI food science research scientist in Post Falls.

In search of more buyers abroad, Idaho is a member of the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association. Idaho also funds four international trade offices-fully staffed in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Taipei, Taiwan, and part-time in China and Korea. Active since 1987, ISDA's international marketing division also hosts annual trade missions and offers workshops to Idahoans interested in learning how to export products.

"The more Idaho's students are aware of and exposed to other cultures and countries, that certainly will have a positive impact," says Johnson. Stephanie Camarillo, international business administrator for Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor agrees. "International trade is vital to the health of our state's economy. It's really important to form strategic partnerships. Some of the best ones come from carefully cultivated relationships."

Partnerships born in the classroom

The dairy mastitis vaccine agreement between UI and LG Corp. grew out of a 14-year relationship between Palouse scientists and Korea's Yong Ho Park that started when Park was a graduate student at Washington State University (WSU). Park spent a lot of research time with UI's microbiology faculty members Bohach and Ken Bayles on dairy and other health issues. After Park received his Ph.D. from WSU, he became a professor at Seoul National University. Scientific exchanges between the Idaho and Korean universities kept dialog going. When the UI was unable to find a U.S. corporation to continue testing the vaccine against the staph bacteria that cause mastitis in cows, Park found support in his country. The end of this story remains to be written.

But one point is understood. "Some excellent graduate students come from foreign countries," says Bohach. "When we have solid relationships with foreign universities, they are willing to send us their very best students."

"The United States is no longer the only country with a corner on science. Much good science comes from other countries, and we need to cooperate to take advantage of that," adds Branen.

Trish Hartzell, head of CALS Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, agrees. In 2004 Poland's University of Maria Curie Sklodowska in Lublin, a university the size of WSU, signed a memorandum of understanding with the UI, thanks to efforts of Poland-born Andrzej Paszczynski, UI associate professor of biochemistry. Last summer seven Polish graduate students came to spend four months, one working with each MMBB faculty member. For the students it was a chance to work with top faculty and the most sophisticated equipment, unavailable in their country. And for faculty, research progresses faster with savvy graduate help. "We love these Polish kids. They are so bright. They catch on so quickly. And so far one has promised to come back here to do his doctoral work," says Hartzell.

Meeting Idaho, face to face

International students can take credit for bringing much of the diversity to the UI campus.

UI's international student numbers have been growing at a rate of 10 to 18 percent a year since 1998. In fall 2004, the UI enrolled 642 internationals, about 5 percent of the total student population (12,894), counting both graduates and undergraduates. The top five countries sending students are India, 107; China, 71; Taiwan, 52; Japan, 49; South Korea, 42, and Canada, 39. In all, students registered from 90 countries.

The UI College of Engineering hosts the biggest number of international students, 179, followed by letters, arts and social sciences, 98, and agricultural and life sciences, 74.

UI also provides briefer ways for international leaders to see Idaho. A good example is the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship program. Each summer since 1998, UI extension educators Barbara Abo and Kevin Laughlin in Ada County have hosted 15 to 18 European leaders, aged 25 to 40, for five days in Idaho as part of five weeks in the United States. Idaho provides their "rural" exposure. They tour wineries, orchards, and fish hatcheries and meet with Idaho's governor, legislators, business leaders, and farmers. They eat Basque food, attend rodeos and barbecues in the park. They raft rivers, hike mountains, and live with Idaho families. "After we had been to four big U.S. cities, I so much enjoyed being in a more rural environment," summed up one Marshall Fellow in July 2004. "I particularly enjoyed the beautiful landscape."

More Idaho students go abroad

Total UI students going abroad to study this semester is 230, up from a dozen in 1992

. The payoff can be impressive for students who make the effort to learn a second language and gain international exposure. UI 2003 graduate Sarah Girdner, 23, used her triple major in Spanish, international business, and Latin American studies-plus a year studying in Ecuador and an internship with the Idaho trade office in Guadalajara-to win her current position as Latin American trade specialist for the Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor.

Her job is to link Idaho businesses with export opportunities in Latin America. Living abroad helped Girdner learn Latin American customs that she may not have picked up in an Idaho classroom. "For example, our main office hours are 8 to 5. But in Mexico, 2 to 4 p.m. is the family dinner hour-not a good time for me to make a telephone call there."

"It's important for students to understand things like real poverty in different parts of the world," believes Bob Neuenschwander, manager of the UI Study Abroad Program. "Students forget that America is not the center of the world, that there are a lot of different ways of thinking about and doing things." Three CALS students whose stories are on pages 16 to 18 agree. His office helps students plan brief to year-long studies with more than 200 universities in 70 countries. (See Web Contacts, below).

"It's VERY important to send students overseas," adds Nilsa Bosque Pérez, UI IGERT project director. "It increases their chances of succeeding professionally, and it infects them with a desire to work overseas in challenging places. The alternative may be to remain more provincial, with a narrower perspective."

Web Contacts

USAID Farmer-to-Farmer
www.usaid.gov/our_work/agriculture/farmer_to_farmer.htm

UI Study Abroad
/http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/ipo/abroad/

UI IGERT program
/http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/igert/

CATIE (UI's IGERT partner)
www.catie.ac.cr. Select the "English" button.

Idaho Exports
www.idahotrade.com/
www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/ID.htm

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