Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
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Table of Contents HEADLINES Top Vision Credits
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Division helps host 100th OFPA conventionWhen Richard E. Bell first came to Arkansas in 1977 to run Riceland Foods, he asked about getting an appointment to meet the state’s secretary of agriculture. He was surprised to learn then that there was neither a secretary nor a department of agriculture. About 30 years later, he is currently wrapping up his first year on the job as Arkansas’s first secretary of agriculture. Now that the state has an agriculture department, which was created by an act of the 2005 General Assembly, Bell said the agency’s job is “to provide Arkansas agriculture an advocate within the state government.” Speaking on March 29 to the Ozark Food Processors Association’s 100th annual convention at the Holiday Inn in Springdale, Bell said the department’s work “in the longer run could lead to some improvements in farm income.” Arkansas is among the top 10 states in cash farm receipts almost every year, Bell said, “but no one seems to know it.” Half of that revenue comes from the poultry industry, another 35 percent comes from row crops (rice, soybeans and cotton) and another 10 percent from wheat. The remaining 5 percent consists of “specialty crops” such as fruits, wine and catfish. Much of the state’s agricultural products are exported because of the state’s advantageous geographic location. “But when it comes to value-added forestry products, we’re not even in the top 20,” Bell said, even though 56 percent of the state’s land area is forest. State government is ‘beginning to put together an initiative to work on this.” Bell said he is serving as secretary until the end of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s term in January. During his tenure, he has a few items he wants to accomplish. His first goal is to improve and expand farmers’ markets around the state. “I see that as a market outlet for produce from small farms,” he said. Bell also wants to promote production and marketing of biofuels in Arkansas. “It gives us another dimension of demand for our farm products,” he said. “There will be a place in the fuel market for ethanol and biodiesel.” The state’s nutritional needs, particularly the school lunch program, is another of Bell’s targeted areas for improvement. His other areas of focus are to involve more of the state’s small businesses in exporting products and to improve the sourcing and identification of cattle amid the BSE crisis. CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY. At the University of Arkansas, the Center for Food Safety, one of the three centers that make up the Division of Agriculture's Institute of Food Science and Engineering, will focus its research efforts on “the biology of foodborne pathogens,” Steven Ricke, the new center director, told the OFPA convention. “The more we know about the biology, the more we can predict what the organism is going to do and maybe stay a step or two ahead of it.” The consumer should also be viewed as a part of the food safety equation, Ricke said. “It’s our job to make people realize what they can do to make things better. I get questions all the time that tells me there are still a lot of gaps there.” Visibility at the state and local level is critical for the center, he noted. On a national basis, the center is well positioned because of Northwest Arkansas’s prominence in food processing and production. “I think we have a good potential here to be a model system for ways to interface between academics and industry,” Ricke said. The center's potential for national and international impact will depend on its reputation. Ricke said a reputation for producing the best and most applicable science will assure its impact. CENTENNIAL YEAR. Tracing the history of the Ozark Food Processors Association would challenge the most skilled genealogist. It has been known by nine names during its 100 years, counting those of some ancestor organizations that merged with other parts of its family tree. The organization that met in Springdale March 28-29 for its annual convention – “Building for the Next Century” – was first known in 1906 as the Missouri Valley Canners Association. OFPA, with its headquarters based at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture's Institute of Food Science and Engineering, is today a diverse organization of companies specializing in processing, production, supplies, research and many other phases of the food industry. Its membership spreads far beyond the confines of the Ozark Mountains. But for much of its first decades, the canning industry was its primary focus. A canning plant in Springdale had been in business from 1885 to 1903. Another one was founded in Odessa, Mo., in 1900. Others followed in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas and soon formed the Missouri Valley Canners Association. An early history of the organization notes that “as the number of canners dwindled, they became outnumbered in the annual meetings by the supply men, so in 1958, the name, intent and purpose were changed, and a purely social group came into being under the name of Ozark Canners, Processors, Brokers and Supplymen Association.” In the early 1970s the OFPA refocused its role to provide a platform for strengthening the food processing industry. Its annual conventions include educational sessions, a varied lineup of guest speakers and an exposition that provides suppliers and customers the opportunity to connect. OFPA’s relationship with the university food science department first became prominent with the 1958 establishment of the Physiology and Processing Laboratory at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Fayetteville. Its research program began attracting interest from regional food processors, who met at the Processing Lab in 1961. The next year, OFPA donated seed money toward construction of the addition of a new wing to the building that was home to what would become known as the Department of Food Science. That same year, the association (then known as the Ozark Canners and Freezers Association) moved its headquarters to that building. The organization also made donations in 1967 and 1984 to help build two other additions to the food science department’s building. The food science department has not been the only one to benefit. OFPA has also awarded grants to the horticulture, plant pathology and entomology departments’ research efforts. OFPA annually awards scholarships to students in food science, with 423 scholarships awarded since the program began in the 1960s. SCHOLARSHIPS. The OFPA convention this year attracted 78 exhibitors with over 450 people attending. Thirteen University of Arkansas students were awarded scholarships sponsored by OFPA and its members. The addition of a 14th scholarship beginning next year – the Justin R. Morris Scholarship – was announced by the association in honor of Morris, the OFPA executive vice president and director of the UA Division of Agriculture's Institute of Food Science and Engineering. OFPA officers elected for 2006-2007 are Steve Crider of Gerber Products Co., president; Earl Wells of Allen Canning Co., vice president; Justin Morris of the UA IFSE, executive vice president; Renee Threlfall of the UA IFSE, secretary, and Mike Heilman of the UA IFSE, treasurer. |