50th_anniversary : USDA ARS

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Thomas Shanower, right, with one of Reynolds' employees, showing off the special display of food products that have benefited from agriculture research over the last 50 years. The displays at Sidney's local County Market, Reynolds, and Quillings Market, along with Fairview's Super Valu will be up for the week of March 22-26, following National Agriculture Day on March 20, 2004.

NPARL hosted a special

NPARL Technician Deb Waters, dressed in 50s fashion with rolled-up jeans and a white t-shirt, greets two young visitors to her booth. It included items such as DEET insect repellant, instant potato flakes and frozen orange juice, just some of the inventions or improvements discovered by ARS scientists in that decade. In addition, the booth featured a poster outlining ARS' 1950s biocontrol work, including the highly successful screwworm effort which developed the

Laura Senior, wearing a classic 60s party dress, chats with booth visitors about ARS activities in that decade. Display items included information on a new life form - viroids - discovered by ARS scientists in 1962, as well as local wind erosion research work done by Sidney ARS scientists. The booth also included information on the groundbreaking and 1965 dedication of the original ARS facility in Sidney and a vintage Barbie doll, just for fun.

The swinging 70's booth, put together by NPARL Technician Rene Sol and Aide Mary Fay, featured a saline seep demonstration and a sour dough bread sampling, among other items. A highly successful saline seep remediation program was begun at the Sidney lab in the 1970s, while ARS scientists in California discovered a way to make authentic San Francisco sour dough bread outside San Francisco in 1970. In the latter instance, a special bacterium and high-acid yeast were discovered to be the source of the bread's unique taste and texture.

NPARL Technician Mark Gaffri discusses the finer points of soil testing with visitors to his 80s booth. In addition to the soil testing demonstration, the booth also featured information on the biological control of leafy spurge using flea beetles and the introduction of the NW-63 Small Red Bean, the most widely grown red bean cultivar in the U.S.

NPARL technician Kim Mann put together items for the 90s booth including the Pacific yew tree sprigs shown on the table. The Pacific yew tree was the original source of taxol, an active ingredient shown to combat ovarian and breast cancer. In the 1990s, ARS scientists developed a technique to grow taxol-producing cells in tissue culture, sparing the Pacific yew tree population from potential decimation. In that same decade ARS scientist also developed Oatrim, a fat substitute. Visitors to this booth were invited to participate in a taste test between regular brownies and brownies made with Oatrim.

Carrell Evans cuts the delicious cake she baked for the 50th anniversary celebration. Not so much as a crumb was left by the end of the evening.

Anniversary Open House visitors also had the opportunity to talk with NPARL scientists about their current activities. Here NPARL ecologist Gerry Anderson, far right, chats with visitors, John Franklin, president of First Bank in Sidney, and Leslie Messer, head of Richland Economic Development.

A good crowd enjoyed their trip down memory lane, with visitors lined up to read posters for each decade and chat with booth representatives, while others enjoyed refreshments including a special anniversary cake.

Open house visitors crowded NPARL's Tech Transfer Room for much of the evening, enjoying the refreshments and displays. Visitors were also treated to a historical PowerPoint presentation on ARS in Sidney, put together by NPARL Secretary Jill Miller. Top tunes from across the decades played softly in the background, in a collection compiled for the occasion by NPARL Botanist John Gaskin.

More visitors taking in the festivities at NPARL's 50th Anniversary Open House Nov. 6 with the 50's and 60's decade booths in the background.

In addition to the Nov. 6th Open House, NPARL also marked ARS's 50th Anniversary with an in-house potluck luncheon on Nov. 3, featuring an international theme. Employees, their families and NPARL Focus Group members able to attend also viewed a special video-taped message from ARS Acting Administrator.

Robert Evans, left, with one of the County Market employees showing the food display and posters that are placed throughout the store next to items that have benefited from ARS research.

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