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    Center for Viticultural Sciences
    The mission of the Center for Viticultural Sciences and Small Fruit Research is to conduct research and provide service and support that will help the viticulture industry in Florida to become a viable industry (Florida Viticulture Policy Act, 1978).
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    Veterinary Technology
    Advances in both veterinary medicine technology and technique are the fuel firing the increased demand for well-trained individuals to work as veterinary technologists.
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    Groundwater Pollution
    N’guessan hopes to introduce students and educators to the findings on her book to support further scientific research on the topic.
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    Entomology
    Entomology prepares individuals to seek positions in State and Federal agencies or private businesses that concern themselves with various entomological activities...
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    Center for Biological Control
    The Mission of the Center is to…. generate, apply and transfer innovative, ecologically based solutions to pest problems affecting agriculture, natural resources, and human health while developing the human capacity for continued future innovation...

Meeting Community Needs

Vegetables for Victory Increasing food production and food security through community gardening is not a new idea. In the middle of a depression in 1890s Detroit, the mayor asked owners of vacant lots to donate their land temporarily to unemployed city residents for the purpose of supplementing their families' food supply. The gardens, called "potato patches" after their primary crop, produced 14,000 bushels of vegetables in the first year, with 2,000 families involved over the next 20 years of the gardens' popularity. The US Government promoted the planting of "Victory Gardens" during World War II expressly as a way to increase food security, health, and -- in modern terms -- homeland security in wartime. Through a campaign including slogans such as "Vegetables for Vitality, for Victory!" Victory Gardens became so popular that in 1944, 20 million victory gardeners produced 44% of the fresh vegetables in the United States. In the 1970s, there was a popular resurgence of interest in "growing your own" among many young people and antiwar activists.

While backyard and kitchen gardeners generally garden individually on private land, community gardeners use land shared among several households. Community gardeners generally grow produce to eat at home or to share. Some community gardens, often in urban areas, move into growing for commercial use -- one view of the difference between a community garden and urban agriculture defines the latter as gardens or farms planted for the purpose of selling the produce. Commercial urban farms can expand production on their generally small land area with aquaculture, hydroponics, and greenhouses -- and may partner with a commercial kitchen to create locally-produced value-added products such as jams and sauces.