Federal and State government agencies celebrated Public Service Recognition Week locally at Lakeside Shopping Mall on Wednesday, May 4, 2005. SRRC mounted a display aimed at informing the public of the many benefits they derive from ARS research, particularly those developed at SRRC.

Two large tri-fold table top display boards featured posters highlighting many of our current research efforts in food processing, phytase enhancement of feed, oilseed and cotton biotechnology and utilization, aflatoxin abatement, sugarcane production and processing, and Formosan termite control. In front of the boards we displayed 3-D objects relevant to some of the research. Food products included rice bread, low fat adsorbing batter from modified rice flour, 90% protein isolate from brown rice, quick cooking brown and wild rice, and sunflower butter. Non-food items included a termite resistant building product fabricated with sucrose epoxy and sugar cane bagasse or cotton waste, smart cotton bandages for chronic wounds, naturally colored cottons with yarns and fabrics produced from them, a living cotton plant with flowers and bolls, and live Formosan termites and examples of their damage.

Shoppers were invited to sample our recently developed and commercialized sunflower butter and to fill out a brief survey form. The Sunbutter was very well received and many inquired where it may be purchased locally.

Free literature offered included booklets explaining the new food guidelines in conjunction with the new obesity CRIS, copies of Agricultural Research Magazine, and pamphlets about career opportunities with ARS.