James Cassidy

So, just who is this mysterious man of mulch? Although Cassidy is well-known at Oregon State University, both as a soil scientist and an instructor, he also has a not-so-secret identity: He’s a pop star. Cassidy plays bass for Information Society, a free-style electronic band, which reached popularity in the late 1980s. He still draws upon his skills as a performer while teaching students at Oregon State about crop and soil science.

“When I quit the music business,” Cassidy says, “I realized that I had learned a lot about public speaking, working with an audience and knowing how to read people.” He often compares teaching to performing music. Both, he says, require performers to be absolutely dedicated to their craft. As an instructor at OSU, Cassidy uses his abilities to connect with audiences and inspire them about science.

From the Land of 10,000 Lakes

Cassidy hails from the Twin Cities of Minnesota. He describes himself growing up as a nerdy kid who wanted to escape the suburban ghetto. In 1981, he and few high school friends started Information Society, reinterpreting hip hop and rock styles from the East and West Coast into a new electronic fusion. Information Society focused on a critique of popular consumer culture. “We were laughed at in Minnesota,” Cassidy recalls.” People were like, ‘Who are these guys wearing multi-colored jumpsuits?’ Everybody hated us, which meant we knew that we were onto something.”

In October 1988, their hit song, “What’s on your mind? (Pure Energy),” reached No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s dance chart and No. 3 on the hot 100 pop chart. An accompanying music video became a breakout on MTV. But the band soared to even greater popularity in Brazil, where the anti-establishment message resonated with a generation of young Brazilians. “We were one of the first western bands to come down there,” Cassidy says. When Information Society first arrived at the Sao Paulo Airport, their plane was mobbed by thousands of screaming fans. “When we were driving to our hotel. The cab driver had the radio on. Every single station had Information Society playing on it.” The band toured the country twice. At the Rock-n-Rio music festival in 1991, Cassidy played in front of 135,000 fans.

James Cassidy is surrounded by tools of the trade. The gold record, in front of the tractor, commemorates the sale of the first 500,000 copies of Information Society’s first record. (Photo: Dennis Wolverton)

By the early 1990s, Cassidy had scaled a cultural Mt. Everest. “In our media-induced and celebrity-obsessed culture,” he says, “the highest level you can obtain is to be some sort of a rock star.” But for Cassidy, this popularity had come at a cost. A decade of tours had created tension within the members of the band. “People ask what it’s like to be a star. It’s your job to say it’s great, when really you’re empty and lonely.” He felt like a salesman peddling the same consumer culture that Information Society rejected. Disillusioned, Cassidy quit the band in 1993. He wasn’t sure, however, what to do next. “I was done with the music business,” he adds. “I was ready for reality.”

Looking for a fresh start, Cassidy moved to Oregon in 1993. After browsing career catalogs at his local public library, he decided to become a fish farmer. “I knew that I liked nature and the outdoors,” he recalls. But he was looking for more than a career. After spending thirty years immersed in the money driven recording industry, he was searching for a deeper meaning of life. “I intuited,” he explains, “ that the outdoors was where the truth was.”

Coming down to earth

Cassidy found truth in a soggy farm field, on the banks of Corvallis’ Oak Creek. He had been at Oregon State University for two years, studying stream ecology and fisheries under the tutelage of Stan Gregory, professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. As an undergraduate, Cassidy had become fascinated with the interconnectedness of ecosystems. The tangibility of the natural world impressed him, especially when he compared it with the artificial façade of the recording industry. He wondered how water quality was affected by forests, animals and human activity.

In 1999, he collaborated with other Fisheries and Wildlife students to investigate contamination in Oak Creek, a small stream that runs through OSU’s agricultural fields. During a heavy rainstorm, he tromped out to take water samples from the flooded creek. As he filled plastic bottles with water, he started to wonder where it was all really coming from.

That’s when, soaked from head to toe, he had an epiphany. “It suddenly occurred to me,” he says, “that the water wasn’t from the rain drops falling into the creek.” The water had traveled over and through soil in the surrounding fields. Dirt was the missing link in Cassidy’s holistic understanding of the water cycle.

But soil, Cassidy says, isn’t important only in water quality; it touches every part of our lives. “Soil is the nexus of everything. It’s where everything really does come together.”

Popular culture dismisses dirt as, well, beneath us. A person trapped in poverty is “dirt poor.” A grimy old T-shirt is “soiled” or “dirty.” In our hypoallergenic culture, obsessed with perpetual cleanliness, we have forgotten the true value of soil. Dirt, Cassidy explains, comprises so much more than grains of sediment.

It’s alive.

To Cassidy, soil is a four dimensional complex habitat with a direct relationship to human health. Just a pinch can contain a billion or more organisms. “And 99.99 percent of them,” he says, “we don’t know who they are or what they do. Every atom in your body has gone through the soil system billions of times over. Everything got its start in soil and everything goes back to it.” [Editor's note: OSU soil scientist David Myrold leads the Terragenome project, an international effort to sequence the genes of all soil microorganisms.)

Cassidy grounded himself in the study of soil, earning a master’s degree in crop and soil science from Oregon State in 2002. After graduation, he worked as a researcher in the OSU Soil Physics Laboratory and continued his investigation into farm field filtration. He worked with soil physicist Maria Dragila to determine how vole holes affect the filtration and transport of water on farm fields.

Teaching and Tilling

Cassidy’s former career as a bassist seemed another lifetime ago. But, in 2004, a chance teaching gig threw Cassidy back into the past. A professor asked him to step in as a lecturer in an introductory soil science class. Cassidy agreed.

James Cassidy teaches students about the real-life applications of soil science.

As he entered the lecture hall, the former rock star felt his blood pound. Eager eyes peered at him. He stood behind the podium before ninety students. The crowd buzzed with excitement. He was back on stage. “I was comfortable,” Cassidy says, “I could relax. I was funny. I knew how to reach them.” Every fall and winter, he gets back on stage and teaches basic introductory soil science to fresh undergraduates.

As he lectures, Cassidy draws upon his recent experiences as a student. He understands that every student approaches learning differently. “I know what it means to be a person who doesn’t know everything yet, because I didn’t go from high school being smart into college being smart. I was a poor student in high school, and I had to recreate myself as a student [in college]. So I’m still a student when I’m teaching. I know what they’re going through.” His zeal for soil piques the interest of his class as he deploys a variety of props (spray bottles, metal chains, sponges) to help his students understand theoretical concepts.

Cassidy acknowledges that many students are fascinated by his former career. “They think that I have some insight into popular culture, which they have been trained to worship, “ he says. “Yet here I am talking about soil. [It] makes them judge which is more important. And they realize that soil is more important, actually.”

To drive the point home, Cassidy has his students go out into the field and get their hands dirty. He’s created service-learning projects to expose students to the real-life applications of soil science. Students have tilled soil, developed sustainable cemeteries and taught children about soil. He says that service-learning projects provide students with a unique platform for learning. “Probably the best way of learning is experiencing. I developed these service learning projects to make them do something that is not possible in the lecture hall, in a book or online.”

Still Strumming

Pop star. Scientist. Teacher. James Cassidy somehow manages to wear all of these hats with confidence and ease. While he still enjoys the life of a musician, he prefers his current job. “My life has so much more meaning now,” he says. Being a musician prepared him for a pitch-perfect career as a professor. “I’m lucky to have the backstory,” he says, “that has given me the experiences to allow me the opportunity to reinvent myself after the end of the band.” He gathered a set of skills completely applicable to another life.

But Cassidy has not forgotten his roots. The original members of Information Society reunited in 2006 and get together every other year to tour South America. They always return to Brazil. “We can still go down there and play in front of 10,000 fans,” he says. “It’s really fun because it’s not my life anymore. It’s just a trip down memory lane.”

While Cassidy’s careers have never converged, he says that his fans are aware of his new career. Onstage, he wears a shirt with “Soil” emblazoned on the front. Fans approach him afterwards and ask him about it. “It gets the fans thinking about what’s going on with the soil,” he says.

In July 2012, the band will return to Brazil to play, once again, in front of thousands. Until then, Oregon State students can enjoy Cassidy’s talented presentations in the lecture hall.

Read more about Cassidy’s service-learning projects in the Corvallis Gazette Times
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_924c7c0e-21fc-11e0-a25f-001cc4c03286.html

Tiny fruit fly gives a giant headache to Oregon's berry and tree fruit growers.

It’s a pest not much bigger than the head of a pin. But for Oregon farmers, the tiny fruit fly has the potential to take a giant bite out of yields — and profits.

The spotted wing Drosophila has made its way to Oregon from its native Southeast Asia, turning up first in wine grapes late last summer and then invading berries, cherries, plums, peaches and other fruit crops across 13 counties. Willamette Valley growers lost up to 20 percent of their blueberries and raspberries and as much as 80 percent of their late-season peaches.

“This is an insect that, up to last year, had never been seen in the continental United States,” says OSU research entomologist Amy Dreves.

In February, to help head off a crisis in the state’s $500 million tree-fruit and berry industry, the Legislature gave $225,000 to a team of researchers from OSU and the state and national departments of agriculture for monitoring and controlling the fly. Among the team’s tasks are sampling fruits to detect infestations, mapping outbreaks, testing traps, developing natural baits, doing outreach and training growers.

“It is crucial to find infestations of this pest as early as possible, when they can still be treated effectively,” warns Dreves.

People who want to monitor the spotted wing Drosophila in their home gardens can learn how to make a trap and identify the insects through a series of videos produced by Dreves and Tiffany Woods of Extension and Experiment Station Communications.

To support OSU research on crop production, contact the OSU Foundation, 800-354-7281.

But canola’s rising profile has not come without controversy. A type of rapeseed bred in Canada (hence the name, “Canada” plus “oil”), canola has raised a number of agricultural concerns in Oregon, ranging from “rogue pollen” and “seed scatter” in the Willamette Valley to broader questions about its economic viability for Northwest farmers.

The science and economics of canola have the full attention of researchers in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension. “We’re providing research results to officials at the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) to help the agency refine its understanding of the risks and benefits of growing canola,” says Russell Karow, chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Science.

Of immediate concern are the risks to the nationally and internationally important and lucrative vegetable and seed-stock businesses in the Willamette Valley. As a species of “brassica” that falls into the same genus as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, canola could potentially cross-pollinate or cause harm in other ways to these crops. Genetically modified canola has raised another alarm for growers who export to countries that ban genetically modified organisms (GMOs). To prevent harmful cross-pollination or seed contamination, the ODA has set up canola-free buffer zones in traditional specialty-seed growing areas of the state. But entrepreneurs, eyeing new markets for canola, are pressuring the agency to loosen those restrictions. New canola planting in the valley is on hold, pending data from OSU and further public discussion.

“We’re providing research results to officials at the Oregon Department of Agriculture to help the agency refine its understanding of the risks and benefits of growing canola.”
Russell Karow
Chair, Department of Crop and Soil Science

The ag college’s research isn’t, however, limited to seed and pollen issues. Lab studies in Corvallis and field trials across the state are investigating a range of other concerns, such as herbicide tolerance, pest and disease management, canola’s value as a cover crop in field rotation and as a feed source for cattle. The findings will help guide decisions about this rising star on the alternative-fuel scene.

Not the least of the questions under scrutiny is profitability. Before growers plant canola in place of another crop, they need to know what kind of value they can expect to get. “Converting canola into biodiesel may not be the cheapest option because it may consume valuable land that could be used for other crops,” OSU crop physiologist Brian Duggan told the Bend Bulletin in July.

To help gauge canola’s biofuel potential for Central Oregon growers, Duggan is comparing several species for yield and oil quality. At OSU’s agricultural research station in Madras, the researcher stands in a field of two-foot-high stalks topped with butter-yellow flowers. With snowcapped Mt. Jefferson as a scenic backdrop, Duggan gestures outward in several directions, indicating three additional fields, each planted with a different variety. His crop trials, funded by the Agricultural Research Foundation, are designed to reveal whether winter varieties produce more seed — and hence are more lucrative — than spring varieties.

Where It Rains in Oregon

OSU researcher Chris Daly created PRISM, a unique spatial data analysis tool, to map climate parameters such as precipitation and temperature with great precision. See maps generated by PRISM showing precipitation in China and in Oregon (PDF).

Two OSU scientists have produced the first collection of maps that show climate, soil characteristics and plant species suitability for the People’s Republic of China. Their China atlas is the result of 10 years of research and has paid off by increasing grass exports from Oregon to the world’s most populous nation.

The 296-page atlas, Visualizing China’s Future Agriculture: Climate, Soil, and Suitability Maps for Improved Decision Making, was compiled by David Hannaway and Chris Daly. Hannaway is a forage crops specialist in the Department of Crop and Soil Science, and Daly, a climatologist in the Department of Geosciences, directs an OSU climate mapping group.

Land managers in China are interested in forage grasses to support livestock production and to control soil erosion problems on rangelands. They also want turf grasses to beautify their cities and suburban areas.

Hannaway and Daly worked with the Oregon Grass Seed Council to evaluate turf, forage and conservation plants for use in China and to determine the market potential for Oregon-grown grass seed. Before 1992, Oregon sold no grass seed to China. In 2003, Oregon growers exported to China more than 14 million pounds valued at $8 million to $10 million.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the State of Oregon, Daly and Hannaway conducted applied research, educational demonstrations and workshops throughout China. Both faculty members are part of the OSU China Working Group, a cooperative effort between OSU and the People’s Republic of China to identify mutually beneficial research and education projects and programs.

“The future success of many of Oregon’s agricultural industries is likely to lie in identity-preserved markets, providing high-quality products that have real added value to end users.”
Russ Karow
Chair, OSU Department of Crop and Soil Science

Wheat fields may have inspired Katherine Lee Bates to write a song about America’s beautiful “amber waves of grain,” but not all wheat is created equal. Mid Columbia Producers, Inc. (MCP), a farmer-owned cooperative based in Sherman County, Oregon, is banking that a new type of soft winter wheat developed by OSU scientists will earn a premium in the marketplace.

Last fall, MCP signed an exclusive licensing agreement with OSU to plant and market a wheat variety that has been in development since 1992. According to Russ Karow, chair of the OSU Department of Crop and Soil Science, the agreement “opens new doors and creates important marketing opportunities for Oregon wheat producers.”

OSU’s wheat studies are conducted in Corvallis and at agricultural experiment stations in Pendleton and Hermiston. Varieties developed by the late Warren E. Kronstad have nearly doubled wheat yields in the Pacific Northwest since 1960. Jim Peterson leads OSU’s wheat research endeavors and holds the Warren Kronstad Wheat Research Chair in Crop and Soil Science. Historically, public wheat varieties are released openly and marketed as a commodity, leading to a loss of brand identity for novel varieties.

The future of the OSU “SuperSoft” wheat variety will be different. It has superior end-use qualities — low protein content, high flour yields, large cookie diameters and high sponge cake volumes — that are prized by millers and the baked goods industry. By granting an exclusive license, OSU will enable wheat producers to capture value by segregating and delivering a product with superior quality, says Karow.

“The future success of many of Oregon’s agricultural industries is likely to lie in identity-preserved markets, providing high-quality products that have real added value to end users,” he adds.

MCP Manager Raleigh Curtis says the cooperative is excited about the new opportunity. “This will be the first soft white wheat variety identity-preserved (IP) program of this type in the United States and perhaps in the world,” he says. Cooperative members planted 3,500 acres last fall and may increase that to about 80,000 acres in 2006. MCP plans to begin marketing “SuperSoft” this summer.

More than 10 years of research and breeding go into a new wheat variety. Researchers evaluate tens of thousands of experimental lines each year to select a handful that have potential for commercial production. In addition to soft white wheat, OSU researchers are developing hard wheat varieties to better meet the needs of the Asian noodle market. Growers and the Oregon Wheat Commission partner with OSU researchers in breeding and genetics studies.

Today, the legacy established by Kronstad and his colleagues continues with support through a wheat industry endowment, managed by the OSU Foundation.