By Faith Peppers
University of Georgia
William C. Hurst, a University of Georgia extension food
scientist, received the 2004 D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in
Extension Oct. 18 in Athens, Ga.
The award includes a framed certificate and $5,000 cash.
Hurst has been a leader in developing food safety training and
workshop materials for Georgia’s fresh and fresh-cut produce
industries for more than 20 years.
His work with the Georgia Department of Agriculture and other
entities is recognized nationwide. He developed the Georgia State
“Fresh Produce Safety Team” and the nation’s first GAPs (Good
Agricultural Practices) short course for the fresh produce
industry.
Hurst developed the Georgia GAPs Food Safety Program for Georgia
produce growers, packers and shippers. The program saved
thousands of dollars in third-party audit fees for the Georgia
industry. It has become a model for other states around the
country that are working to establish similar programs.
Safety for produce
He was invited to share this program at an international
symposium on postharvest handling of fresh produce in Bangkok,
Thailand, this summer. He later spoke in detail to Thai
agricultural specialists about the GAPs procedures.
In 1999, Hurst developed the first Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Point (food safety) short course geared specifically to
the fresh-cut produce industry. The course now attracts an
international audience each year. It’s the only recognized food
safety short course in the country specifically designed for
fresh-cut processors.
He was presented with the International Fresh-cut Produce
Association’s Outstanding Service Award in 1992 and 1993. In
2000, he became the only academic person to date to receive the
IFPA Technical Award.
A $500 scholarship for a UGA food science student has been given
annually in Hurst’s honor by the Southeastern Food Processors
Association since 2001.
Other winners
Other Brooks honorees this year were Debbie Purvis, county
extension programs; Jeffrey Dorfman, teaching; Paul Bertsch,
research; and Jack Houston, international agriculture.
The Brooks teaching award was first given in 1981. Two years
later, the awards were expanded to include research, extension
and county extension programs. An award for international
agriculture was added in 1988 and is given in even-numbered years.
Before the awards ceremony, Mark Drabenstott delivered the D.W.
Brooks Lecture, “The Brave New World for Land-grant
Universities.” Drabenstott is vice president and director of the
Center for the Study of Rural America at the Federal Reserve Bank
of Kansas City.
The lecture and awards are named for the late D.W. Brooks,
founder of Gold Kist, Inc., and Cotton States Mutual Insurance
Companies. Brooks was an advisor on agriculture and trade issues
to seven U.S. presidents.
(Faith Peppers is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
