Strengthening families and communities

New OARDC garden will help study links between plants and health

“I’m an Ohio State grad. My grandfather and father came from Wooster. This is something I wanted to do for the university. I believe plants are very important in people’s health, and I hope this garden will be beneficial for people of all ages in the community, as well as for research.” — Bill Lemmon, president and owner, Lemmon & Lemmon Inc.

“I’m an Ohio State grad. My grandfather and father came from Wooster. This is something I wanted to do for the university. I believe plants are very important in people’s health, and I hope this garden will be beneficial for people of all ages in the community, as well as for research.”
— Bill Lemmon, president and owner, Lemmon & Lemmon Inc.

The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s Secrest Arboretum has many gardens, but its newest addition stands out for its therapeutic and research value.

Established in summer 2015, The Lemmon and Rice Health and Wellness Garden was designed to boost visitors’ sense of well-being and provide opportunities for research into the impact gardens and nature have on human health. The garden was constructed thanks to donations from Bill Lemmon, president and owner of Lemmon & Lemmon Inc., and Kevin Rice, vice president of Rice’s Nursery and Landscaping, both located in the Canton area.

This is one of the country’s few gardens designed around the concept of the pillars of wellness. The garden focuses on six of the nine pillars: environmental, physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social. OARDC has teamed up with The Ohio State University College of Nursing to conduct future research in the garden.

“Many visitors already use the arboretum as a part of their wellness program,” said Joe Cochran, Secrest’s interim director. “One visitor told me he had lost 36 pounds somewhere on the paths throughout the gardens.”

ESSENTIALS

Studies have shown the benefits of gardens and other outdoor spaces on health and wellness.

• Gardening 3–5 times a week has been found to be a good strategy to combat obesity and lower stress.
• Patients with musculoskeletal pain taking part in horticultural therapy programs experience an improved ability to cope with chronic pain.
• Children with attention deficit disorder who play in grassy, outdoor spaces have less severe symptoms than those who play in windowless, indoor settings.
• Dementia patients who have access to gardens are less likely to display aggression or suffer injuries, and they display improved sleep patterns, balanced hormones and decreased agitation.

More: go.osu.edu/healthgarden

OSU Extension delivers answers during, after botulism crisis

The need for food preservation classes offered by Shannon Carter, left, and other Extension professionals rose sharply in 2015 after botulism struck a church potluck.

The need for food preservation classes offered by Shannon Carter, left, and other Extension professionals rose sharply in 2015 after botulism struck a church potluck.

It was a church potluck like any other. But within days, botulism from improperly home-canned potatoes killed one woman and hospitalized 24 others.

Shannon Carter, Fairfield County family and consumer sciences educator, and other Ohio State University Extension professionals jumped into action in April 2015, providing urgently needed information to the community, media and health department officials.

Food safety is a prime focus of Extension, with specialist Sanja Ilic working with produce growers and restaurants to reduce risks in food handling and on projects helping high-risk consumers, including the blind and cancer survivors.

In Fairfield County, Carter increased fivefold the number of food preservation classes she offered in 2015.

Aubry Shaw, daughter-in-law of Kim Shaw, who died from the botulism outbreak, participated in several of the classes.

“As soon as it happened, people were relying on the Extension office to get education out about canning and botulism,” Shaw said. “Even people who have canned for a long time can still learn something new. That’s why these classes are so important.”

Deb Kilbarger, registered sanitarian and food program supervisor with the Fairfield Department of Health, agrees.

“Anyone who cans (food) should take the class,” Kilbarger said. “Even if you’ve done it forever, there might be a safer way. Extension is the only place I’m aware of that offers classes like this. Hopefully, these classes will prevent anything like this from happening again.”

ESSENTIALS

In 2014, OSU Extension offered 181 food safety classes to 2,458 participants in 50 counties. Of those who took home food preservation classes:

  • 78 percent reported they would always use current, official canning recommendations, which is up from 16 percent who, before attending the class, said they would always do so.
  • 67 percent reported they would always acidify tomatoes before water-bath canning them — a vital food safety precaution — which is up from 16 percent before the class.
  • 66 percent reported they would always use a pressure canner to process low-acid foods, which is up from 22 percent before the class

High cost of foodborne illnesses: OARDC researcher provides state-by-state breakdown

Public health policymakers view the work of Robert Scharff, right, as invaluable when determining how to direct tight resources to fight foodborne illnesses.

Public health policymakers view the work of Robert Scharff, right, as invaluable when determining how to direct tight resources to fight foodborne illnesses.

Foodborne illnesses cost Ohio up to $2.9 billion every year. In other states, such costs range from just $181 million all the way to $12 billion, according to a 2015 study by Robert Scharff, economist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

Costs fluctuate between states for a variety of reasons, including population, cost of medical care, climate and other factors, Scharff said. Those variations can have a significant impact on local decision making.

Scharff’s Journal of Food Protection study is a first-of-its-kind economic analysis designed to offer public health authorities detailed information to help evaluate the cost-effectiveness of food-safety education efforts and how best to prioritize resources.

“Take an illness from a pathogen like Vibrio,” Scharff said. “It’s associated with seafood, particularly raw seafood in summer. States with higher shellfish consumption — those in coastal areas — have a higher incidence, and so it makes sense for them to devote more resources to battling it.”

Scharff’s analyses have gotten the attention of public health authorities nationwide.

“Scharff’s work has been indispensable to our efforts,” said Sandra B. Eskin, director of food safety with The Pew Charitable Trusts. “His estimates of the economic impact of these illnesses — considered both on a nationwide and state-by-state basis — help make the case that the benefits from policies aimed at preventing food safety problems clearly outweigh costs.”

ESSENTIALS
Robert Scharff’s study, “State Estimates for the Annual Cost of Foodborne Illness,” provides both conservative cost estimates — following the model typically used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — as well as higher estimates that include loss of quality of life, which is the model used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Using those models, the costs related to foodborne illnesses in Ohio are estimated to be:
  • $1,039 to $1,666 per case
  • $156 to $250 per resident, annually
  • $1.8 billion to $2.9 billion in total annual costs

More: go.osu.edu/fdillcost

Heart-Healthy Garden Program: ‘The Gift that Keeps on Giving’

Don Tedrow in Ross Heart Garden

Don Tedrow assists another Ross Heart Hospital Community Garden participant harvest radishes after a summer 2015 healthy living class.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Don Tedrow’s heart is full of gratitude.

In January 2015, Tedrow was shopping at a home improvement store when he began feeling “strange, feeling some pressure,” he said.

He went home, and he and his wife headed to the Emergency Department at the The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

“They kept me overnight, did some tests, and found out I had an 80 percent blockage in my main artery,” Tedrow said.

After a stent was inserted to open the blockage, Tedrow participated in the medical center’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.

“That was excellent,” he said. “A life-changer.”

While there, Tedrow learned about the new Ross Heart Hospital Community Garden program, a collaboration between the medical center and Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), which he participated in during the summer.

“It was the perfect follow-up,” Tedrow said, “because I had learned how to exercise in rehab, but I didn’t know what to do with my diet.”

The program, which combines gardening with healthy-living classes, started in 2015. It was the brainchild of Jim Warner, food and nutrition program director with the medical center’s food service administration. Warner also is involved with a similar program with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

To read more: http://go.osu.edu/heartgarden

 

Boosting urban food security — and with it, farms and nutrition

Cleveland’s Gateway 105 Farmers’ Market is one of more than two dozen farmers markets in and around Cuyahoga County participating in the Produce Perks program. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Cleveland’s Gateway 105 Farmers’ Market is one of more than two dozen farmers markets in and around Cuyahoga County participating in the Produce Perks program. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

A program called Produce Perks is tackling northeast Ohio’s urban food deserts while boosting small farms and food security.

Participating farmers’ markets give two-for-one incentive tokens, or “Produce Perks,” to customers who use an Ohio Direction Card — their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — to buy food. The program provides a dollar-for-dollar match up to $10 for every dollar spent at the market on produce.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition — established by local food leaders, including Ohio State University Extension’s Cuyahoga County office — runs the program.

“Produce Perks has brought many low-income and food-insecure residents to farmers’ markets for the first time,” said Nico Boyd, formerly the community development coordinator in the office and the coalition’s project coordinator. “Not only does it help stretch people’s food dollars to buy more fresh, local produce, it keeps food dollars here.”

“Families can stretch their food dollars by utilizing Produce Perks to double their whole-food purchases,” said Veronica Walton, who manages the Gateway 105 Farmers’ Market in Cleveland for the Famicos Foundation. “The relaxed atmosphere at farmers markets is perfect for conversations about meal preparation, food storage and preservation, all of which decrease food insecurities.”

Essentials

  • Some 55 percent of Clevelanders live in food deserts. People in food deserts have little access to fresh, healthy, affordable food.
  • OSU Extension’s Cuyahoga County office recently expanded Produce Perks to include 30 area farmers markets. A subgrant from Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit targeting food issues, funded the expansion.
  • Another Wholesome Wave subgrant allowed OSU Extension’s Hamilton County office to expand a produce buying incentive program in greater Cincinnati.
  • When the Broadway Farmers’ Market in Cleveland’s Slavic Village joined the Produce Perks program, it saw a 191 percent increase in Ohio Direction Card sales in a single year, according to an article in northeast Ohio’s Fresh Water e-magazine.

Learn more about the Produce Perks program here.

OSU Extension helps communities prepare for shale-related impacts

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Shale workers keep area hotels filled to capacity. While that’s an economic boost, leaders like Norm Blanchard work to minimize the drawback of potential tourists being turned away.

In 2010, Guernsey County’s unemployment rate was 14.7 percent. Thanks to shale development, it tumbled to 5.7 percent by May 2014.

That’s all well and good, but the shale-related boom has other implications.

“A gas and oil guy from Midland, Texas, came to speak and told us to be prepared for our population to grow from about 11,500 to 100,000 in the next 15 years — at least, that’s what happened in Midland,” said Norm Blanchard, president of the Cambridge-Guernsey County Community Improvement Corporation. “When that hit the newspaper, we got calls. What are we doing to plan for this? How would we handle that kind of growth?” On the flip side, how should the region prepare for when shale development declines?

To help, Ohio State University Extension is tapping a $200,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to work with four regional EDA offices representing 25 eastern Ohio counties. Together they are examining shale’s economic, social and environmental impacts and developing plans for sustainable development.

Essentials

The OSU Extension project is:

  • gathering and analyzing volumes of data to track the area’s economic, social and environmental conditions, including measurements on employment, population, income, charitable giving, school enrollment, crime, housing, noise, traffic counts, air quality, and water quantity and quality.
  • examining the growth and contraction of specific industry segments. This will allow targeted actions to help local businesses adjust when the active shale construction phase ends.
  • identifying sectors that need local investment. In some areas, the focus might be on infrastructure; others might zero in on housing, community amenities, entrepreneurship or workforce training.
  • working with regional EDA offices to foster long-term planning across community and county lines.
  • piloting educational materials in Guernsey County, thanks to another $20,000 grant. Community leaders across the Midwest will be able to use the materials to incorporate shale development into their strategic planning.

“OSU Extension is not only giving us guidance, but they’ve been in touch with other states that have already been through shale development, and they’re providing us with that experience and expertise,” Blanchard said.  “It’s been invaluable.”

More: go.osu.edu/shalecommdev

Local foods programs promote healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems in urban cities

Urban agriculture offers city-dwellers the ability to grow their own produce and increase the community’s access to safe, local foods. (pictured: Carol Contrada, Lucas County commissioner)

Urban agriculture offers city-dwellers the ability to grow their own produce and increase the community’s
access to safe, local foods. (pictured: Carol Contrada, Lucas County commissioner)

More Ohio urban neighborhoods are seeing an increase in season-extending gardens. The gardens offer city-dwellers the ability to grow their own foods and to become food entrepreneurs right where they live.

Seasonal high tunnels are similar to but less expensive than greenhouses, require no artificial energy and help keep local produce reaching consumers even when weather turns nasty. These domed structures are now in inner-city neighborhoods in Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, where they help urban farmers and gardeners grow food almost year-round. Ohio State University Extension provides technical support and marketing education to help the residents utilize the tunnels to increase profits.

Such programming occurs in all Ohio counties, with efforts to increase access to local foods by helping to create community gardens to promote urban agriculture and opportunities for vocational agricultural training. Efforts also strive to increase students’ access to healthy foods in schools, and to create local food councils similar to the Northwest Ohio Food Council.

Essentials

  • According to Ken Meter’s “Finding Food in Northwest Ohio,” if each resident of Northwest Ohio bought $5 worth of food weekly from a local farm, $345 million of new farm income would be generated.
  • OSU Extension supports 239 community gardens in Cuyahoga County that yield nearly $3.1 million in fruits and vegetables each growing season. Annually, Extension donates more than 10,000 pounds of produce to nonprofit agencies and shelters.
  • Market gardens are for-profit agricultural enterprises — including urban farms — that provide jobs and fresh, local food. Through the Market Gardener Training Program in Cuyahoga County, OSU Extension has trained 215 residents, 51 of whom have created microbusinesses such as farm stands and restaurants.
  • Kinsman Farms is OSU Extension’s 6-acre incubator farm in Cleveland. It supports 13 beginning urban farmers and saw aggregated sales of $98,870 in 2013.

“Eliminating food deserts and including fresh fruits and vegetables at convenience stores are some strategies being developed by the Northwest Ohio Food Council in partnership with Ohio State University Extension and other organizations designed to increase access to local, healthier foods in urban areas,” said Carol Contrada, Lucas County commissioner.

For more information: localfoods.osu.edu.

Land of opportunity: Cleveland empty lots yield environmental benefits

Graduate students in Mary Gardiner’s lab survey vacant lots in Cleveland to determine the environmental benefits of different landscape treatments being studied.

Graduate students in Mary Gardiner’s lab survey vacant lots in Cleveland to determine the environmental
benefits of different landscape treatments being studied.

Decades of population losses have left the city of Cleveland with 3,600 acres of vacant land, while some 1,000 homes are demolished every year.

Currently, Cleveland plants turfgrass on empty lots, but it’s expensive to maintain and offers few benefits. “Alternative plant communities could offer greater environmental benefits such as support of biodiversity and improved storm-water infiltration to reduce flooding,” said Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center entomologist Mary Gardiner.

Last year, Gardiner started a large-scale, never-before-attempted project that examines the impact of eight different landscape treatments on the biodiversity and ecosystem function of 64 empty lots in eight Cleveland neighborhoods. The five-year project’s main goal is to gather data that will inform future green space design in Cleveland and other cities engaged or interested in vacant-land management.

“With the right combination of plants and increased ecosystem services, urban vacant land can be seen as an asset for community development rather than as an eyesore,” Gardiner said.

Essentials

  • This project is funded by a highly competitive $909,200 Faculty Early Career Development Program grant from the National Science Foundation, which promotes the integration of research and education.
  • Part of the project includes the development of a high school science curriculum for use by teachers in Cleveland and throughout the state. The lessons focus on insect-predator-prey relationships and teaching students how to collect data and communicate their findings using scientific arguments.
  • A related program involves the training of Master Gardener volunteers on issues related to urban farming. These volunteers will then teach Cleveland residents best practices for growing fruits and vegetables on converted vacant land, fostering new economic opportunities and healthier eating.
  • Students in Gardiner’s lab are also studying the benefits of rain gardens in the city of Cleveland, including their contributions to pollinators, soil health and storm-water cleanup.

“Working on ecological research in city neighborhoods requires advanced scientific knowledge and excellent people skills,” said Terry Schwarz, director of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. “Mary embodies both of these things. Her work has the potential to impact people’s lives in tangible and lasting ways, and to contribute to new ways of thinking about Cleveland.”

More: ale.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/home