Site Archive
A Purdue tradition has returned to its roots, thanks to an Indiana creamery, while also gaining a new look.
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By Madison Hire If you ever want to get Mason Gordon talking, just start asking him about small towns. “You go through so many small…
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From 1935 to 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Farm Securities Administration purchased more than 30,000 acres of land in southern Indiana under a program seeking to find land under cultivation that was susceptible to erosion, purchase the land and return it to its proper forest coverage.
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In memory of Steven Smith, a distinguished alumnus and former senior director of agriculture for Red Gold, Red Gold and Purdue University College of Agriculture recently announced the creation of the Steven E. Smith Memorial Scholarship.
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The National FFA Organization and the National FFA Foundation has named Scott Stump the new chief executive officer of both organizations, effective Monday, June 21. Stump’s extensive background in agricultural education, career and technical education and FFA includes a bachelor’s in agricultural education from Purdue University.
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Ryan Howard, agricultural and biological engineering (ABE) alumnus, was ahead of the curve when he founded Chicago Vegan Foods in 2003.
READ MOREThirteen individuals will pitch their ideas at 2 p.m. Friday (Feb. 5) for agricultural businesses for cash prizes during Purdue Ag Alumni’s Gone Fishin’ Fish Tank event. They will present in front of Purdue agriculture alumni and other potential invest…
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Michelle Egger, co-founder and CEO of BIOMILQ, woke up on Dec. 1 to an inbox full of congratulatory emails that left her completely confused.
“I’d been so focused on the scientific milestones we were working toward that it took me a couple of hours to figure out what in the world the emails were referring to,” Egger recalled. “It was like the rest of 2020. Low lows and high highs, both coming out of nowhere.”
Forbes selected Egger for its 30 Under 30 list for 2021, an annual compilation of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs.
READ MORESince 1949, Purdue University agriculture alumni have gathered for an annual meeting and fish fry. The fish fry has become a major event held the first weekend in February at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, attracting major speakers, Purdue leadership, …
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“2020 was a year unlike any other, with numerous challenges, opportunities and accomplishments across our college,” said Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of the College of Agriculture. “Through it all we were proud to share Purdue Agriculture’s stories with the incredible community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and so many other supporters.”
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John Whittington, BS ’96, is always looking for the next big thing. An entrepreneur at heart, Whittington operated a large trucking company with his father, owned and operated an RV park in Florida, managed a fleet of hazardous waste trucks in Ohio and been a part of a successful NASCAR team.
In 2004, he bought an abandoned lumberyard in Morristown, Ind, and turned it into a successful biodiesel fuel-manufacturing site.
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Purdue Ag Alumni Swiss Cheese was first produced in 1969 when Dave Pfendler, an associate dean of agriculture, launched the program in the now closed Purdue Creamery to raise money for student support. The program has encountered twists and turns over the past 50 years, but the latest turn brings it back to an Indiana creamery and its original recipe.
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Each school day afternoon, the busses line up outside Woodbrook Elementary in Carmel, Ind. In bus #168, driver Van Betulius, BS’76, and passenger Brayden Krueger patiently wait to get to the front of the line by playing math games.
“There must be seven buses in front of us,” says Betulius, intentionally miscounting the number to challenge Krueger’s math skills.
The two became bus buddies earlier in the school year when Betulius told Krueger he had once been Purdue Pete.
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“There’s an element of gambling to lumber,” said Mark Smith. “Lumber is a commodity market so it’s up and down all the time.”
Purdue alumni Mark and Jenny Smith faced the fluctuations for 31 years as suppliers of lumber and plywood, but never experienced shifts as abrupt as those in 2020. Within a span of months, the owners of Great Lakes Forest Products, Inc. saw their expanding business reduced to a bare-bones crew before unexpectedly needing to hire a record number of employees.
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Jones’ family began dairy farming in Star City, Ind., in 1942. Four generations later, the family is still milking cows along with growing corn, soybeans and alfalfa, mainly used to feed back into the dairy herd. They were the first dairy farm in Indiana and the tenth in the nation to adopt robotic milking practices. Jones’ parents, Sammy and Pam, manage the day-to-day operations with her brother, Josh, who is a Purdue Agriculture and Biological Engineering graduate. Amy helps on the farm each month along with her sister, Christy, a Purdue Animal Sciences alumna, and her brother, a Purdue Liberal Arts alumnus.
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Eager to learn more about her field, Michaela Covington enrolled in Purdue’s Master of Science Biotechnology Innovation & Regulatory Science (BIRS) program six months after graduating from college, becoming the youngest person in the summer 2020 graduating class.
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“Several years ago, I organized a soybean field day at the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE),” recalled Marshall Martin, professor of agricultural economics, the senior associate director of agricultural research and graduate education and assistant dean in the College of Agriculture.
“There were funny-looking plants growing in one of the soybean plots that I didn’t recognize. It looked like some kind of weed or vine on the ground— something that you’d plant as a ground cover around the front of your house. The plants had small pods with only one or two flat, black seeds each. They were soybeans.”
READ MOREThe Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association is seeking nominations for the 2021 Certificate of Distinction award, the highest award of the association.
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