Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue met with a group of select Georgia 4-H’ers on Friday, Oct. 6, in recognition of National 4-H Week, held Oct. 2-6. Perdue and the students toured the 4-H exhibits at the Georgia National Fair in Perry, Georgia, the former Georgia governor’s hometown. He also heard presentations from three Georgia 4-H’ers: Amelia Day of Houston County, Angel Austin of Ben Hill County and Evie Woodward of Coffee County.

University of Georgia natural resource economist Craig Landry will use his portion of a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how the economy and the environment are affected when humans and coastal regions commingle. The four-year project is a team effort with researchers from Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio.

While there is no hard-and-fast method to determining the exact number of deer in a county or state, current population estimates are coming in at just over 1 million animals. Ultimately, the habitat quality in a particular area limits the number of deer hunters may see.

Six million students across America participate in 4-H and, of those, more than 170,000 call Georgia home. To raise awareness of the state’s largest youth development organization, the week of Oct. 1-7 has been declared National 4-H Week.

‘NuMex Easter’ peppers are small, compact plants that reach up to 12 inches tall and as wide, but they load up with more colorful peppers than you would ever imagine for that size of a plant. They make great border plants for the traditional landscape and will dazzle in herb or tropical gardens.

Earlier this spring, representatives for former first lady Rosalynn Carter sought help from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. UGA Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Extension Volunteers, who are trained to help UGA Extension staff deliver research-based information about gardening and related topics to the public, began work on the project.

Summer may have ended, but Georgia’s silverleaf whitefly infestation has not.

Zoe, a loggerhead sea turtle that lived at the Burton 4-H Center on Tybee Island, Georgia, for the past five years, was released on the island Saturday, Sept. 30. A large crowd of local residents and tourists gathered with cameras ready as Zoe was lowered into the water just south of the pier on Tybee Beach, where the sea turtle hatched.

Researchers have produced biofuels from corn, switchgrass and even algae, but researchers at the University of Georgia will soon study a new source of renewable biofuels: the lesser-known crop of carinata, also known as “Ethiopian mustard.”