LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A tree-planting catch-up effort has taken root at the University of Kansas.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the number of trees planted in recent years has fallen short of the number lost to damage, disease, construction and age. Last year alone, the university removed 71 trees and planted 52.

The tree-planting effort has been dubbed Replant Mount Oread. The initiative includes a Halloween event, called “Trick or Trees.” It will focus on the lawn between Marvin and Lindley halls, just south of the Chi Omega Fountain.

The original landscaping at the site was a gift from the class of 1949. Plans call for planting additional Bartlett pear trees, Dwarf Mugo pines, peonies and periwinkle to bring the area back closer to what it was historically.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A man is in custody after authorities say a vehicle he was driving struck a restaurant window in downtown Columbia and he fled the scene.

Columbia police Sgt. Chad Gooch says four people were taken to the university hospital with injuries Saturday night after the driver hit a window at Addison’s Grill, causing glass to fall inside. Gooch did not know the extent of their injuries.

A diner told The Columbia Daily Tribune that he saw a truck back into a window in the rear of the restaurant, then pull away.

The restaurant was evacuated and closed after the crash.

LAWRENCE- Four people were injured in an accident just before 6 p.m. on Saturday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol Reported a Peterbilt semi driven by Martin D. Carter, 37, Onaga, was eastbound on N 1000 Road five miles southeast of Lawrence, failed to stop for a posted stop sign and struck a 2013 Chevy Impala driven by Anthony W. McClintock, 31, Eudora.

The collision caused the Impala to strike a 1989 Ford Ranger driven by Austin D. Trumble, 24, Lawrence. The semi continued eastbound, entered the ditch and rolled onto its side.

McClintock and passengers in the Chevy Stella J. McClintock and two children all of Eudora were transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Carter and Trumble were not injured.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

BY MATTHEW ERICKSON
October. The month of the fall classic. The time of year Cubs fans say “wait until next year,” an 86-year old curse is broken or a mid-market team overcomes the odds — America’s favorite pastime in October is such a treat to watch.

Baseball and modern agriculture share some common ground, in fact, as agriculture’s fast-paced technological advancements are getting the industry in the game of leveraging data. Take, for example, the movie “Moneyball,” the story of the Oakland Athletics (A’s) baseball team and general manager Billy Beane.

The central premise of “Moneyball” is that the collected wisdom of baseball insiders over the past century is subjective. Statistics such as stolen bases, runs batted in and batting average, which are typically used to gauge players, are relics of a 20th-century view of the game. Instead, on-base percentages and slugging percentages are better indicators of offensive success, according to rigorous statistical analysis.

As it plays out in the movie, by re-evaluating the strategies and variables that produce wins on the field, the 2002 A’s, with just a relatively paltry $40 million-plus in salary, were competitive with larger market teams such as the New York Yankees, who spent more than $125 million in payroll that same season. This analytical approach brought the A’s to the playoffs in 2002 and 2003.

Leveraging data in agriculture can be thought about similarly. In agriculture, collecting data is nothing new. Statistics such as yield, acreage and price, typically used to gauge profitability, are carryovers from a 20th century view of agriculture. However, identifying site-specific variables on a farmer’s field such as planting population, the type of seed hybrid planted, soil topography and fertilizer usage, on top of old metrics, provide better indicators to develop a “prescription” for farmers to use on their individual crop ground to determine what to grow, how to grow it and when to harvest. Through the use of rigorous statistical analysis, that prescription usually enhances the farm’s overall profitability. In fact, farmers responding to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s data privacy survey indicated that the use of precision technologies have reduced their input costs by an average of 15 percent, while increasing their crop yields by an average of 13 percent.

Precision technologies and the data generated are agriculture’s version of the analysis used in “Moneyball.” Simply put, the use of data can lead to better decisions and more dollars in a farmer’s pocket, if used correctly. Ultimately the use of data can provide a competitive advantage to farmers who use it versus farmers who don’t. It simply makes farmers better farmers by taking deficiencies and turning them into efficiencies.

But whether it’s baseball or agriculture does the data itself have any value? The value is not in the numbers themselves as opposed to the results of the analysis of the data. The Oakland A’s front office used individual player performance data together with analytical methods to field a team that could better compete against richer baseball teams. In contrast, agricultural technology providers turn farmer’s data into a service or a product that will help a farmer make different decisions. But some are asking if all that farm-level data, when aggregated, will create a competitive advantage in commodity markets or lead to a potential moral hazard.

That concern is real in the countryside. Over 75 percent of farmers responding to AFBF’s recent survey on big data expressed concern that their farm data could be used by a company or third party for market-sensitive commercial activities. A company having access to vast amounts of real-time data could develop near instant commodity reports, tilting the playing field between large and small companies. In addition, more than 77 percent of farmers were concerned that their data could get in the hands of another entity altogether and be used for regulatory purposes. So how are companies using farmers’ data? More than 82 percent of farmers were unsure of the various directions agriculture technology providers intended to go with their farm data.

Ensuring that farmers are aware of how a company intends to use their data is paramount. The 21st century view of the world is changing through the use of data analytics and real-time information to satiate an information-hungry society.

With less land to farm and more mouths to feed around the world, doing more with less has to be the focal point in agriculture. The use of data and innovative technologies will be one of the tools to help us achieve the goal of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. Yet, we cannot lose sight of the critical need to responsibly manage data and recognize it as the powerful aid, resource and asset that it is. If data and innovation are the drivers in feeding a growing world by 2050, transparency from companies to farmers must be accomplished in order for agriculture to win this ever-important World Series.

Matthew Erickson is an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

By Mike Sherry

Hale Center for Journalism
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At one point when he was a student at Kansas State University, Jon Smith would jog as many as 20 miles a day.

“If I wasn’t in the library and not in class,” he said, “I was running.”

But Smith was far from healthy.

His over-the-top regimen was a manifestation of an eating disorder known as purge-type anorexia, hints of which first surfaced when weight gain from migraine medication made Smith a pudgy fifth-grader. His training obsession began two years later during preparations for the Junior Olympics.

Born and raised in Lenexa, Kan., the 23-year-old now lives in his hometown and works as a data entry supervisor at a company that processes employee drug screenings for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Smith graduated from Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park in 2009 and earned a psychology degree from Kansas State University with a minor in English literature. He is now applying to medical school, thinking of pursuing a specialty in which he can use his unique insights to help eating disorder patients.

Smith’s experience makes clear that eating disorders are not just an issue for women.

Some researchers suggest that men make up a third of the 30 million Americans who battle clinically significant eating disorders. The National Association for Males with Eating Disorders, citing other research, said males make up anywhere from 25 percent to 40 percent of those suffering from eating disorders.

The association said that media objectification of men is just as rampant as it is for women and that males in treatment for eating disorders are more likely than women to exhibit co-occurring conditions such as excessive exercise.

Researchers suspect eating disorders might be under-reported among males who fear the stigma of suffering from a “women’s problem,” a view that contributed to Smith’s embarrassment over his struggles.

“I did not think guys got eating disorders,” he said.

By the time he was running fanatically at K-State, Smith’s diet consisted mostly of carrots, broccoli and kale.

In the fall of his senior year, he coughed up blood on one of his runs. The doctor diagnosed it as a pinhole in his lung and directed him not to run for two weeks, an order Smith followed for two days.

Eventually, Smith started to worry that he couldn’t concentrate in class and that his running compulsion was overriding his school work. By then, he was down to around 100 pounds and ready to seek inpatient treatment for the second time. An earlier attempt in high school had not worked.

Around Thanksgiving of 2012, he started what became a three-month stay at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. In December, he earned his degree from K-State.

Helping him recover, Smith said, has been the recognition of what he missed because of his disorder, including some amazing food served up during a study-abroad semester in Rome, and the extent to which it might stymie his dreams for the future.

In place of a fanatical running schedule, Smith said, he now walks during his lunch hour or plays with his nieces and nephews.

“I try to stay as active as I can,” he said.

Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

CENTERVILLE, Kan. – A Kansas woman died in an accident just before 2 p.m. on Saturday in Linn County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Ford Escape driven by Charlene Jo Conner, 64, Blue Mound, was northbound on 1077 Road, three miles south of Centerville. The vehicle left the roadway to the west, crossed a small creek, and struck several small trees, three fence posts and a large tree.

Conner was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Schneider Funeral Home in Pleasanton.

The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.