USDA Deputy Secretary Visits LSU, Touts Agricultural Education
Xochitl Torres Small, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, visited the LSU campus April 1. Torres Small, who assumed the position less than a year ago, has been touring land-grant universities to learn about how they are addressing key agricultural issues through research and education programs.
“Something I think we’re all focused on is what the future of agriculture looks like,” Torres Small said during a meeting with university leaders, representatives of governmental agencies and others at the LSU Foundation Building. “And as I think about that future and some of the pivots that farmers — who are some of the most important businessmen and women we know — have to make in recognizing some of the challenges they’re facing right now, our land-grant institutions are fundamental in supporting them.”
Universities not only train the next generation of agriculturalists, she said. They also help keep farms — especially small- and midsized operations — profitable through research in emerging areas such as drought-resilient crops, specialty crops and value-added agriculture.
Torres Small said more people must be recruited to carry on land-grant institutions’ research and extension missions and to work in other aspects of agriculture — including at the USDA, where she oversees more than 100,000 employees.
The average age of the American farmer is 58, and the workforce at her agency and many other agricultural entities is aging too, she said.
“We depend on this relationship with you,” she told the LSU administrators, to recruit new hires.
Olivia McClure
LSU Ph.D. Candidate Explores Environmental Policy on a National Scale
LSU doctoral candidate Ashley Booth, who grew up in the mountains of South Carolina and Georgia, says her grandmother often spoke fondly of her experiences living near the Mississippi River and Louisiana swamps.
When Booth felt the urge to study and work in the environmental space, she was naturally drawn to the Bayou State, where she eventually landed a doctoral assistantship studying coastal wetlands at LSU's School of Renewable Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture.
This past year, Booth's academic journey took her to the highest levels of the federal government, where she recently completed a National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship working in the office of U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
"This experience provided an unparalleled opportunity to expand my expertise in communicating science to inform action on individual, state, federal and international scales," she said.
As a legislative fellow, Booth supported the senator in his legislative and policy efforts related to oceans, water, coastal resilience and the environment.
“This work involved writing legislation, providing edits and amendments to existing bills, briefing the senator on environmental issues, staffing the senator at hearings and meetings and forming collaborative partnerships with congressional offices, federal agencies and community stakeholders to address emerging issues,” she said.
Booth worked with Hawaii-based organizations to develop more than $150 million in appropriations requests for the 2024 federal budget. She also worked with federal agencies to develop the Hawaii congressional delegation's requests for the 2024 Water Resources Development Act and helped craft legislation related to weather modeling, carbon storage and sustainable aquaculture.
Staff report
Undergraduate Researcher Represents LSU at International Conference
Ashton Dalton, an LSU senior double majoring in animal sciences and religious studies, was given the opportunity to represent LSU undergraduate research at the International Embryo Technology Society annual conference in Denver, Colorado.
Dalton, who also took part in LSU Discover Day 2024, was included for his involvement in a research project, “The influence of different cryoprotectants on mitochondrial function in vitrified bovine oocytes.”
Maddison Jarveaux
Xochitl Torres Small, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, speaks to students during a visit to the LSU campus April. Photo by Olivia McClure
Ashton Dalton had the opportunity to represent LSU Undergraduate Research at LSU Discover Day 2024.