Book details Tifton campus’s first century

Before farm-to-table was trendy, scientists and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension personnel in Tifton were taking research from the lab to the farm.

That work is documented in A Century of Impact: From Experiment Station to Campus, a book published in recognition of the Tifton campus’s centennial. The impact spans 100 years of agronomic research and history, including rescuing the Southeast peanut industry from the death knell of disease; moving livestock production from subsistence to abundance; providing blueberry varieties to Jackie Onassis; and breeding turf for global venues such as World Cup soccer games.

Opening with a foreword by President Jimmy Carter, the book highlights the opening of the experiment station in 1919 when Silas Starr was the first director; the eradication of the boll weevil and its impact on the cotton industry in the early 1990s; the introduction of precision agriculture; and the advancements of genetics in plant production.