Browsing by Author "McWhirt, Amanda"

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    'Liz' and 'Rocco' Strawberries
    Fernandez, Gina; Pattison, Jeremy; Perkins-Veazie, Penelope; Ballington, James R.; Clevinger, Elizabeth M.; Schiavone, Rocco; Gu, Sanjun; Samtani, Jayesh B.; Vinson, Edgar; McWhirt, Amanda; Chacon, Jose Guillermo (2020-04)
    ‘Liz’ and ‘Rocco’ are new short-day (June-bearing) strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch. ex Rozier) cultivars from the North Carolina State University strawberry breeding program in Raleigh, NC. The most outstanding characteristic of ‘Liz’ is its consistently high yields. Total and marketable yields of ‘Liz’ were higher than those of other cultivars tested most years in our trials in North Carolina. Firmness of ‘Liz’ is comparable to ‘Camarosa’. Because of its consistent high yields and moderate firmness, ‘Liz’ can be considered an alternative to ‘Camarosa’. The most outstanding characteristics of ‘Rocco’ are its early season ripening and high soluble solids content. Total yield of ‘Rocco’ is higher than that of ‘Sweet Charlie’ and comparable to cultivars that ripen later in the season. ‘Rocco’ should be considered an alternative to ‘Sweet Charlie’ for early production. U.S. Plant Patents have been submitted for ‘Liz’ and ‘Rocco’.
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    Participatory praxis for community food security education
    Niewolny, Kimberly L.; Schroeder-Moreno, Michelle S.; Mason, Garland; McWhirt, Amanda; Clark, Susan F. (2017)
    Community food security (CFS) has a robust history as a social movement addressing the politics and practice of food access and availability. While CFS advocacy and policy activity are closely connected to grassroots efforts, the academic community has supported CFS goals in a number of ways. CFS intersects with similar food movements, such as food sovereignty, emphasizing a social justice agenda for achieving democratic social change in the food system. In our paper, we illustrate the teaching of CFS in higher education at the graduate level where masters, professional, and doctoral students seek programmatic and community-based research experiences rooted in the goals of food justice, health equity, and ecological sustainability. Drawing upon a participatory education and critical pedagogy philosophy, we describe our approach and outcomes in developing a graduate course centered on CFS with two institutions and stakeholder participation in central Appalachia. An interdisciplinary approach was taken using a food justice lens, with special attention given to rurality, race, and class as issues informing CFS work in the region. We illustrate how course themes, assignments, and community engagement aims were collectively developed by students, faculty, and community practitioners through the Appalachian Foodshed Project, a regional CFS project. We focus our insights learned through several processes: developing and offering a pilot course in food systems; conducting focus groups with graduate students from two institutions; and collecting course evaluations from the final CFS course we developed. Our paper concludes with suggestions for utilizing a participatory approach-as praxis-to create new opportunities for students, faculty, and CFS practitioners to learn together for food systems change.