UMES gets funding from USDA to study food safety, agriculture

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) is getting funding from the USDA to pay for five projects. Students and researchers at UMES will be studying pasture-raised poultry, food safety, soil health, and aquaponics.

UMES is just one of 19 historically black colleges and universities in the nation to receive this found of 3-year grant awards.

“They actually deal with teaching, research, and extension programs. At UMES, this time we’d like to get five of them with a total of $2.5 million,” said Dr. Stephan Tubene.

Dr. Tubene is the Acting Chair of UMES’ Department of Agriculture and Food Resource Science. He is also the Associate Director of UMES’ Center of Excellence for Global Food Security and Defense.

Dr. Arthur Allen, Dr. Fawzy Hashem, Dr. Behnam Khatabi, Dr. Salina Parveen, and Dr. Jennifer Timmons will be leading the projects.

“After collecting the data, then we can teach the farmers how to do it much better. And, also, addressing the demand for that special type of meat, which is chicken raised on pasture,” said Dr. Tubene of Dr. Timmons’ study on pasture-raised poultry.

“Dr. Parveen received this one to study aquaponics, to look at food safety, in order to gain more insight, and then bring that to the classroom and teach our students how to grow this food in a safe manner,” Dr. Tubene added about Dr. Parveen’s project on food safety, hydroponics, and aquponics.

Dr. Tubene says in each study, students will get hands-on experience, while also getting to share what they’ve learned with local farmers.

“The university is really grateful that NIFA is able to provide this funding, not only to us at UMES, but all land grant institutions, so we can do what we do best; doing research, and taking that research to the community,” said Dr. Tubene.