Carol Gostele Retiring from CAST

Carol Gostele has edited countless publications, blogs, newsletters, and other documents for CAST, but around the office, she is most known for her beaming smile and infectious laugh. From the beginning of her "Happy Monday" greeting to her "Happy Friday" end-of-the-week tone, she has approached work and play with a calm, dedicated, fun-loving spirit. CAST is losing its Managing Scientific Editor, and staff members are saying goodbye to a colleague who has added much to a positive, productive atmosphere in the office.

Carol began working with CAST in August 2010, and she immediately faced the challenge of editing a massive task force report called Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: Challenges and Opportunities for Agriculture. As she has often noted, "CAST publications might have long titles, but they are known for the solid, science-based information they contain."

A rough estimate shows that Carol played a key role in 20 issue papers, 10 commentaries, 2 task force reports, 2 special reports, 9 annual reports, and many Ag quickCASTs. She also worked on impact reports, summary of activities reports, the 40th anniversary booklet, and the minutes from numerous work group and board meetings. Add to this list the fact that almost anything that needed an editor's eye might turn up on her desk. Press releases, conference brochures, important email messages--the Friday Notes editor points out that Carol proofread approximately 412 editions of the weekly newsletter and more than 440 blogs. "We all learned to appreciate accuracy, consistency, and a reverence for The Chicago Manual of Style. Carol also saved us from embarrassment and who knows, maybe legal action. She kept the grammar hounds from our door."

Along with her editing skills, Carol has been an organizer. CAST publications go through a long, involved process--proposals, discussions, acceptance, task force organization, writing, research, more writing, editing, peer review, more writing, more editing. These stages take months, and Carol was at the center of the action--making calls, writing email messages, meeting writers, and most notably, turning a collection of writing drafts into a blended publication that could inform the public and policymakers about agriculture and science.

CAST EVP Kent Schescke explained the impact Carol has had. “During my four years with CAST, it has been a pleasure and privilege to work with Carol. I have been amazed by her ability to edit documents and her work to manage multiple projects involving vast numbers of volunteers serving as task force chairs, authors, and reviewers. Her dedication is reflected in the quality and professionalism of the CAST publications that have been produced during her time here."

Although Carol will still do a limited amount of freelance editing work online, she has exciting plans for the next stage. Along with her many hobbies, she plans to visit Arizona often. A certain new-born granddaughter is a key attraction in Phoenix, and Carol is even learning how to play guitar so little Isla will have "You Are My Sunshine" and "Go Cubs Go" on her sing-along-with-grandma playlist.

CAST staff members are sad to see Carol pack up her Chicago Cubs posters and Animal Crackers jar, but they appreciate all she did to make the office a professional, congenial place. They also know that no matter where she goes or whatever day it is, Carol will always make it a "Happy Friday."

by dan gogerty 

Meet CAST’s New Student Assistant: Delaney Ridgway

“Good morning, this is CAST.” 

From Monday through Thursday, Delaney Ridgway chirps a welcoming phrase into her handset from the reception desk. It’s only been a few weeks since Delaney began her student assistant role, but the Iowa State University senior takes to it with ease. 

While most of her duties are accounting related, her daily tasks touch on a bit of everything at the CAST office: she shuffles through newly delivered mail to collect and record bills and membership fees; sends and receives correspondence; packs letters and publications into envelopes to ship to task force members; and assists Kent Schescke, CAST EVP, with certain projects. 

“I wanted to find a job that had something to do with my major and what I want to do in the future,” Delaney says. 

The animal science major and aspiring CPA seeks experience that provides her with skills to set up shop as an accountant specializing in farm taxes in her southeast Iowa hometown. 

Her role at CAST, along with an accounting position at Howe’s Welding in Ames, fulfills her wishes to combine agriculture with accounting. And the two jobs will keep her summer busy.

“Right now my hobbies are school and work, but I envision future hobbies,” Delaney jokes.

Delaney with her boyfriend and his three children.

In her free time this summer, she plans to revive some avocations, specifically birdwatching.

“I have three or four bird books,” she says. “And I took a class on it this last semester. It was awesome.” 

Delaney is mesmerized by the various types of birds and enjoys recalling information about the ones she can identify. 

“It’s something I can catch on to easily, and so it is cool to test myself,” Delaney says. “It’s something unique…. I like the beauty of it. I think all birds are unique.” 

Birdwatching fulfills Delaney’s philosophy to “live life to the fullest”--a collection of wisdom passed on to her from the hometown friend who introduced her to the hobby as well as her grandmother and one of her first bosses.

“They inspire me to want to be [supportive],” Delaney says. “I want to do for others what they have done for me.”

She is certainly fulfilling that wish already at CAST, and we are excited to have her as part of our team.

By Kimberly Nelson

Meet the New CAST Scientific Editor: Megan Wickham

Megan and her husband Kevin
have three dogs and two cats.

When Megan Wickham uses a recipe calling for a can of cream of mushroom soup, she prefers homemade over store-bought. The same can be said for other pre-packaged items like noodles, sauces, and gravies.

“I take a lot of pride in my cooking and making healthy delicious meals from scratch,” she says. “It’s a way for me to relax and have some fun in the kitchen and use creativity. I show my love with food by feeding others”

For her friends with food allergies, Megan meticulously tests non-traditional ingredients so allergy-friendly bakes mimic the familiar textures of the original. Right now, she is reinventing her “red, white, and blue” cookie recipe to contain a blend of gluten-free flours.

“It might end up being an almond-coconut flour base,” Megan says. “Eventually, I will get to the point where I will have a vegan gluten-free cookie that is safe for all.”

Megan’s ability to transform traditional foods into allergy-friendly eats mirrors the editing process at CAST--a role she began mid-May. Editing scientific publications requires a keen eye and critical mind, not only to spot grammatical errors but also adjust the publication’s readability for non-scientific audiences. 

The self-proclaimed “science nerd” and “jack-of-all-trades” certainly has the background to perform in this critical role. The 2015 Iowa State University graduate combined her interests in the arts and sciences by obtaining two bachelor’s degrees--one in journalism and another in geology. 

Megan went to Wyoming to
participate in the Iowa State
geology program's field camp.

“I’ve always been interested in the Earth, its processes, and the natural world,” she says.

But the realization that she could study a scientific field with her journalism major came from an interview with Bill Nye: 

“Bill Nye came to campus for engineering week and I was working for the Iowa State Daily at the time,” Megan recalls. “We were interviewing him one-on-one and as we were talking to him, I thought, ‘this is so amazing.’ Then he gave his lecture about inspirational science and how science changes the world. And I was sitting in the lecture thinking, ‘If I don’t study a science here, I will never forgive myself.”

The experience resonated with Megan years later, which led her to apply for the position at CAST. After working for the Iowa State Daily and Ames Tribune, Megan will now contribute to the field of science communication--a vocation built from the marriage of arts and science.

The CAST staff welcomes Megan to the team!

By Kimberly Nelson

To Gain Various Agricultural Perspectives, One Must Travel

Caryn Dawson is going places.

Caryn Dawson

Seriously, she is 5,000 miles away in Rome, Italy, and that's just her first stop this summer.

For the next four weeks, she and her peers are partnering with the FAO on projects meant to untangle misleading information from facts. This annual trip is known as the Iowa State University Dean’s Global Foods and Agriculture Leadership Program.

“The purpose of the program is to examine and analyze the issues in agriculture as undergrad students, and that gives you practice on solving real-world problems by working with one of the most important organizations internationally,” Caryn says.

Specifically, Caryn will be working on the FAO’s internal response to the EAT-Lancet report published earlier this year.

Dr. Frank Mitloehner (UC-Davis) visited Iowa State
to speak about feeding the world by 2050 without exhausting
natural resources. Photo courtesy of Dr. Frank Mitloehner.

“The response is from a neutral standpoint; it’s not a push-back,” Caryn says. “We’re just looking at the facts and the science of some of the claims they have made and correcting that.”

Preparations for this trip involved more than packing a suitcase, boarding a plane flight, and arriving in Italy. In order to churn out the communication pieces she'll be working on, Caryn had to undergo a semester-long course. (The course even included a visit from CAST’s 2019 BCCA recipient Dr. Frank Mitloehner of UC-Davis, an expert and outstanding science communicator on the impact animal agriculture has on our climate.)

The preparation for the trip is extensive, but that is what Caryn likes about participating in the program.

“I think it’s going to challenge me professionally, academically, mentally, physically--all of the above,” Caryn says with a chuckle.

She isn’t kidding. This one project will require 30-40 hours of work per week, including regular meetings with FAO staff to ensure the students are on track.

Her summer plans don’t end in mid-June either.

The day after returning to the United States, she leaves for an internship out West with the Henry’s Fork Foundation. In Idaho, she will be a farm and irrigation intern and learn how to analyze data from center-pivot irrigation systems.

Going from coliseums to farm fields (i.e., a world-renowned organization to a local nonprofit) carries a common theme for Caryn--each experience builds onto her next, heightening her perspective of global agricultural challenges and solutions. As Caryn moves another year closer to graduation, she gives herself more reasons to build on her previous experiences.

“I look at things as next steps,” she says. “I don’t want to do the same thing because if I am already comfortable with that then I won’t continue to grow.”

When she isn't traveling, Caryn still gains experience from her work at CAST.

“Knowing the names of the important people in agriculture [from our publications] and having those connections--and also having the access to the publications--helps me be more aware of the issues going on in agriculture," she says.

By Kimberly Nelson

Borlaug's Vision and Impact

Norman Borlaug

Note:  Each week on The Borlaug Blog, the World Food Prize organization posts a blog featuring stories, research, and expert opinions about Norman Borlaug, the amazing agriculturalist who worked to alleviate world hunger. In the entry below, Dr. Marty Matlock looks at Dr. Borlaug’s vision and accomplishments—and he starts with a basic premise. 

 Borlaug’s Vision and Impact by Marty Matlock

 

Marty Matlock

 In order to know where we are going, we must know where we came from and how we got where we are.

Dr. Norman Borlaug said in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, “There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort.” Less than three generations ago there were 2.5 billion people on Earth. Today we have nearly three times that population, at 7.4 billion.

In 1950, an estimated 30 percent of humanity was chronically malnourished, and half of us were food insecure. Today, only 11 percent of humanity is chronically malnourished. Today’s farmers are meeting the nutritional needs of almost 6.6 billion people - two and a half times the total population when Norm started his work. In 1950, global child mortality, death before 5 years of life, was greater than 22 percent. Today it is less than 4 percent.

Norm told me in 1984 that he had “watched the population monster devour his life’s work.” He lived to see that assessment demonstrated to be incorrect. The global average fertility rate, or number of children a woman has in her lifetime, was just over five in 1950. Today it is less than half that rate at 2.45, and is expected to fall to 2.2 by 2050. This generation may be the first in human history to see ZERO POPULATION GROWTH! Freeing humanity from the tyranny of hunger has almost slain the population monster!

To Norm and his colleagues, ending hunger was just the first step in providing humanity with better choices. Prosperity from the land created opportunities for people to improve their lives, and the lives of their children. In 1950, more than 44 percent of the world was illiterate. Today more than 86 percent of us can read and write!

In the United States in 1950, food costs were 20 percent of disposable income; today it is less than 10 percent. A mere 70 years ago less than 10 percent of food was produced with synthetic nitrogen. Today more than 3.5 billion people are fed by synthetic nitrogen – almost half the population.

How did we get here?

Norman Borlaug

Norm, together with M.S. Swaminathan, Jerry Grant, Orville Vogel, and an army of dedicated scientists, educators, and political leaders, advanced the science of modern agricultural production. They worked with local farmers to integrate local knowledge with modern production practices and with local leaders to create finance and market policies that supported local growers. We are continuing that process today. Using science-based indicators, we have advanced sustainable agriculture in the United States with a continuous improvement process across all agricultural sectors.
Field to Market: the Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, reports that since 1980 US farmers have made dramatic improvements in yields while reducing inputs and impacts on the environment. Corn and soybean production has more than doubled since 1980, and yield (tons per acre) have increased by more than 60 percent, with only a 33 and 20 percent increase in planted acres, respectively. Cotton production increased by 35 percent with a yield increase of 42 percent, on essentially the same footprint of farmland. We have increased by more than 50 percent the yields of peanuts, potatoes, and rice in the US as well. Our farmers, in partnership with our statewide extension services, Land Grant University and USDA-ARS researchers, are showing the world how to produce safe, nutritious, and sustainable food. They are producing more crops with fewer inputs and less environmental impacts than ever before.

So where are we going?

In spite of these incredible improvements in human conditions, we still have much work to do. The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a clear path forward. These 17 goals are our generation’s collective challenges. Ending poverty and hunger and ensuring clean water and sanitation are critical for ensuring good health and well-being. The remaining goals are central to ensuring civil society’s progression towards just, peaceful, and vibrant communities.

Hunger and malnutrition still stalks us, but as Paul Collier reminds us, they are trapped in the bottom billion on the prosperity path. Global poverty is largely responsible for the chronic malnutrition experienced by over 890 million of our brothers and sisters around the world. In the US, more than one in 10 of us are food insecure. Most are children. We must expand opportunities for our poorest, and support the nutritional needs of our children if we are to realize our common potential.

In just three generations we have reduced the number of people who die from waterborne diseases due to poor sanitation by 75 percent. Yet today, 29 percent of us lack safe drinking water supplies, and 61 percent live without sanitation services. More than 2.3 million people will die this year due to preventable waterborne disease. Most of them will be children. 6,000 children die every day from preventable diseases.

   Marty Matlock

Norm taught us that the first freedom is freedom from hunger. The tyranny of hunger creates desperation that feeds despotism. Only 31 percent of humanity lived under democratic rule when Norm and his colleagues began their work. Today, more than half of humanity, 4.1 billion of us, live under some form of democratic rule. Food, water, security, and education are predicates to civil society. These advances in human well-being have not come without costs. Land use transformation, climate change, and environmental pollution threaten Earth with the Sixth Great Extinction. Loss of biodiversity is a global indicator of ecosystem failure, which is an existential threat to humanity. Aldo Leopold, the father of the modern conservation movement, said in the introduction of A Sand County Almanac “These wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast, and until science disclosed the drama of where they come from and how they live. “

The Land Grant Universities across the US deserve a great deal of credit in both driving changes to improve the human condition and expanding our understanding of the costs of those changes. These institutions produced the scientists, knowledge, and technologies that have lifted humanity to today’s level of prosperity. The Sustainable Development Goals highlight the importance of our Land Grant Institutions and their partners across the academy, industry, government, and civil society, in bringing to life this vision for the future.

We are on the threshold of the greatest advancements in agricultural and life sciences in human history! The combined advances in biotechnology, sub-field-scale monitoring, big data science, automation across the food supply chain, plant-scale robotics, and integrated systems communications will transform global food systems within this generation. If we learn the lessons of the successes and failures from the Green Revolution, we can reach the aspirational heights of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Because…

Everything is connected, everything is changing, and we are all in this together.

By Dr. Marty Matlock--Executive Director, University of Arkansas Resiliency Center