• Dean Dan Arp co-chaired Governor’s Taskforce on Genetically Modified Organisms, to identify the main challenges between growers of GE crops and other agricultural producers in Oregon, especially related to information for consumers
• Ramesh Sagili heads Taskforce on pollinator health that delivered a series of recommendations to the Oregon legislature on how to help the state’s honey bees, native bees and other pollinators.
• Dean of AgSci commissions GMO white papers Dan Arp, Dean of the College, commissioned a series of white papers to explore issues surrounding genetically engineered (GE) organisms. The papers, drafted by AgSci faculty, provided valuable information to Oregon voters who faced ballot measures in 2014 and 2015.

• Seafood Laboratory mediates safety regulations Christina DeWitt, director of the OSU Seafood Lab, mediated a dispute between federal regulators and fishermen over handling procedures of freshly caught tuna. DeWitt traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with the FDA’s Office of Seafood Safety, ultimately drafting a set of handling guidelines that satisfied safety concerns, without being economically burdensome on fishermen.

• Bridges to Prosperity webpage was expanded to include more that 80 success stories geared for use with legislators and decision-makers from around the state.

• AgSci invested $60K into the technology infrastructure in the Ag and Life Sciences (ALS), in conjunction with the College of Science and the CGRB. This upgrade will enable the expansion of high speed networking to support numerous research labs within the building.
• AgSci invested $70K on a full video conferencing classroom on the EOU campus to facilitate course delivery to that population.
• AgSci provided $100K match to help facilitate water heating capability at the Fryer Salmon Disease Lab, which will enable scientists to study climate change impacts on diseases of aquatic species.
• AgSci’s flagship research publication, Oregon’s Agricultural Progress, launched two new versions in 2014—an app for tablets and a fully responsive mobile website—to reach an ever-expanding mobile audience with news and features about agricultural sciences.
• Ganti Murthy (BEE) created an e-book for the National Strawberry Sustainability Initiative with 60 digital pages and links to more than 70 videos, tools, and publications to improve the sustainability of U.S. strawberry production.

AgSci invested in creating a college-wide web team to develop new, consistent designs, navigation, and content management system that are fully integrated, mobile, and aligned with OSU’s branding.