The glaring summer heat may have you convinced to add more shade to your landscape. Fall is the perfect time to plant trees to create that needed shade.

Daniel Hillel, the 2012 World Food Prize Laureate and a 1950 graduate of the University of Georgia, spent the better part of his career perfecting arid- land farming methods in Israel and sharing them with farmers across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. On Nov. 8, Hillel will return to Athens to deliver the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ 2012 D.W. Brooks Lecture at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Sweeping changes were approved in last year’s House Bill 386 that exempt inputs used in agricultural production from Georgia sales tax collections. For certified producers or farmers this means most of the items they buy to use in agricultural production will be sales tax exempt beginning in 2013.

If something appears to be chewing off the ends of tree branches in your landscape, that something is most likely a twig girdler.

A survey of local food hubs in Georgia found that the state already has some working models for providing local produce for growing local markets.

A classroom and field workshop focusing on how to develop a conservation reserve program plan is set for Oct. 23, 2012 on the University of Georgia campus in Tifton, Ga. The class is part of the Conservation Reserve Program Readiness Initiative (CRPRI) and is co-sponsored by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Perfluorinated chemicals keep eggs from sticking to frying pans, protect furniture from spills and help firefighters fight blazes, but studies now show that some of these chemicals—particularly the ones used to fight fires—are also toxic to laboratory animals in varying amounts.

Organizers of the agricultural leadership program Advancing Georgia’s Leaders in Agriculture have chosen 22 professionals from across the state to participate in the program’s inaugural class.

Cover crops may be your secret weapon to a better harvest next spring. Any gardener who was disappointed in their corn, tomato or squash harvests this summer might want to start planning for next summer’s crop now by thinking about planting cover crops.