Message from the Chair
Keshun Liu
Have you registered for this year's AOCS Annual Meeting (May 13-16) yet? If not, it is now a great time to do so. You have many compelling reasons to attend this year's annual meeting. First, it is to be held in the beautiful city of Québec, Canada, which offers an exciting mixture of cultures and attractions. Second, this year's meeting is a joint World Congress with the Japanese Oil Chemists' Society (JOCS) and the International Society for Fat Research. Third, it is a global business forum with more than 650 technical presentations divided into 65 sessions and 13 interest areas, in addition to Hot Topic Symposia and over 120 exhibits. Our own division, Protein and Co-Products, has five symposia and one general oral session, with a total of more than 45 presentations. Within these sessions, one is co-organized with JOCS, and one is co-sponsored with the Feed Microscopy Division of AOCS. The full program of our Division is listed on the AOCS website. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the session organizers for their professional services.
The Protein and Co-Products Board meeting will be held on Sunday, May 13, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., along with other Division Board meetings, in the same big room. In order to attend this meeting, some board members (including myself) may have to start their trip on Saturday. The Protein and Co-Products Roundtable discussion is to be held on Tuesday, May 15 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Open to all meeting participants, its purpose is planning technical programs of future annual meetings. I invite and encourage every one of you to participate in this discussion and provide your ideas and suggestions.
A highlighted event for our division is Tuesday's dinner. We are holding the event jointly with the Edible Application Division. The speaker for the event will be past AOCS President Dr. Jim Daun from Agric-Analytical Consulting, who will give an enlightening overview of the history, processing and utilization of canola. As usual, winners of the ADM Best Paper Awards will receive their plaques at the dinner. The event also features a social hour with cash bar and full-service dinner. The menu includes Nordique shrimp cocktail and grilled grapefruit, cream of asparagus, fillet of beef, vegetables a l'orientale, and homemade chocolate cake with raspberry coulis. I cannot wait to taste these foods! Once again, the Protein and Co-Products Division is offering a special discount ticket price of $20 to all students who would like to attend the dinner.
I am grateful to all of you for your involvement with the Protein and Co-Products Division, particularly to these who make an extra effort in serving our division as board members, session organizers, etc., and to Mila Hojilla-Evangelista, our immediate past Chairperson, for her able service. I am also grateful to a few AOCS staff, who have provided great service to various aspects of our division: technical, financial, award administration, membership, newsletter, etc. I want to thank our outgoing board members, Shaowen Wu and Prachuab Kwanyuen, for their valuable contributions to the Protein and Co-Products Division during their terms of office. Also, congratulation to Nick Parris, our division's treasurer and secretary, on his retirement after 41 years of professional service to ARS-USDA.
Again, the AOCS and its Protein and Co-Products Division have prepared high-quality technical and social programs for this year's Annual Meeting. Do not hesitate, register now. See you soon in Québec.
Protein and Co-Products Activities in the Annual Meeting
Board Meeting
Sunday May 13, 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Room 206AB of the Québec City Convention Centre
Roundtable Discussion
Tuesday, May 15, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Room 203 of the Québec City Convention Centre
Division Dinner
Tuesday, May 15, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Panorama Les Plaines room at the Hilton Québec
Division Financial Status
The division membership relies on its board to oversee the funds and use them in appropriate programs. As of December 31, 2006, the division finances are in good standing order, and the board holds this responsibility in high regard.
Developing Plant Products for Aquafeeds
The aquaculture industry is the fastest-growing animal food-producing sector, increasing at an average rate of 8.9% per year since 1970. Although production from capture marine fisheries increased about five-fold from 1950 to1990, annual growth has become slow to stagnant over the past 15 years. Yet, due to population growth, urbanization, and rising per capita incomes, the global demand for fish and fishery products is predicted to continue increasing in the years to come—from 133 million tons in 1999 to 183 million metric tons by the year 2015 (Food and Agriculture Organization 2004, 2006). Considering that capture fisheries are close to or have already reached their potential, the world is looking toward aquaculture and its technologies to fulfill the expanding food demands.
For years, the aquaculture industry heavily replies on marine fishmeal and oils as the main feed protein and oil ingredients. Concerns about the environmental impacts of aquaculture, the growing trend toward more intensive production, and increasing demand for finite global supplies of marine proteins and oils are driving changes in fish feed formulation toward improvements in nutrient retention and higher inclusion levels of alternative proteins and oils from grains and oilseeds, bacterial proteins, and other non-traditional sources. However, the choice of ingredients from alternative sources, which can effectively substitute for fish protein and oil, and the level of inclusion are currently limited. Furthermore, fish performance is often compromised when higher inclusion levels are made. As a result, a primary task for world aquaculture has been developing alternative protein and oil ingredients and resulting feed products for aquafeeds that support fish growth and are economically feasible.
In line with this development, the Protein and Co-Products and Feed Microscopy Divisions are co-sponsoring a symposium entitled "Developing Plant Products for Aquafeeds" for this year's AOCS Annual Meeting at Québec, Canada. It is jointly organized by Gibson Gaylord, Keshun Liu, and Neil Vary. The symposium is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, May 15, and will bring eight leading scientists, most of them world-renewed fish nutritionists and physiologists, to discuss this critical topic, and provide the latest information on current efforts to develop plant-based aquafeeds, constraints associated with the development, and possible solutions to overcome them.
Click here to view all Protein and Co-Products technical sessions on the AOCS Annual Meeting website.
Nick Parris Retires
We would like to congratulate Nick Parris, Protein and Co-Products Division treasurer and secretary, on his retirement after 41 years of professional service as a research chemist to USDA-ARS, at Eastern Regional Research Center, Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. Nick's research has focused on organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and biochemistry, with a specialization in agricultural proteins. He has over 70 publications.
Suggestions on Book Projects Needed
The Books and Special Publications Committee needs your help developing new book projects for AOCS Press. The world has changed, and the old ways of developing book projects no longer provide a sufficient number of projects to keep AOCS Press productive and competitive in the scientific publishing field. Please send topics that you believe to be of interest to the members of your division, and the scientific community generally, and that you think would make a viable publication, to Jodey Schonfeld. It would be helpful if you also suggest possible editors and/or authors.
AOCS, 2710 S. Boulder, Urbana, IL 61802-6996 USA