đShower Goats and Arctic Kiwis with Xinyuan Shi
Xinyuan Shi spent 2020 as an Agroforestry Apprentice working with chestnut growers Greg and Amy Miller at Route 9 Cooperative in Ohio. Last year, Xinyuan joined the Savanna Institute staff as a research fellow to update a USDA guidebook on conservation buffers. Now in her final year with the University of Missouriâs Agroforestry Masterâs Program, Xinyuan is on an agroforestry career path that we hope others will follow.
âI loved my experience,â Xinyuan says. âThat family is just awesome. They know so much about nut crops and theyâve been growing chestnuts for 30+ years, theyâve got established orchards, theyâve got shipping and delivery systems all in place, a processing facility – it was awesome to see.â
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Raised in Upstate New York, Xinyuan gained experience in tropical agroforestry while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia. It was while working in Zambia that, as she tells podcast host Jacob Grace, she found a baby goat in her shower one day. In the latest episode of the Perennial AF podcast, Xinyuan shares this and other stories from her time in Zambia and in the Agroforestry Apprenticeship, and talks about her new favorite fruit, the Arctic kiwi.
In her work as a graduate student in the University of Missouriâs Agroforestry Masterâs Program, Xinyuan and her advisor Ashley Conway-Anderson recently published a literature review of silvopasture research across the world. As a Savanna Institute Research Fellow, Xinyuan is now working with the USDA National Agroforestry Center to update their 2008 USDA Conservation Buffers guidebook.
âWe might actually end up renaming it to something like âmultifunctional bufferâ,â Xinyuan says, âbecause weâre really not just looking at the conservation aspect of it. Weâre looking at all the different uses for a vegetative strip of land.âÂ
âI really appreciate this opportunity because itâs shown me how much research goes into writing just a single paragraph,â she adds. âWeâre reading hundreds of papers to take tiny little tidbits from each paper to try to create something that anyone can read.â
In addition to working with the Savanna Institute, Xinyuan also works with Cornell Cooperative Extension as a farm manager for the Syracuse Refugee Agricultural Program.
More from Perennial AF
Newsletter – March 2024
Catch up on what’s going on at Savanna Institute with our March 2024 newsletter. Included in this issue: Online courses, job postings, and our most recent podcasts! Be sure to save the date for PFG2024!
đ âSpreadsheets on the Radioâ – Farm Viability and the Fruit & Nut Compass with John Hendrickson
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6 Research Papers Published by Savanna Institute Scientists in 2023
To advance the field of agroforestry research, Savanna Institute staff collaborate with scientists worldwide to study tree crops and perennial farm systems. Our researchers work to make sure Midwest farmers and landholders have access to the latest information available to plan their farms. In 2023, staff from our research and commercialization teams contributed thought leadership on hazelnut genetics, chestnut value chains, and soil science for academic journals in the field â all to guide the development of perennial agriculture in the US. Explore the research published by the Savanna Institute in the organizationâs tenth year.