food production

A simple, low-cost way to grow more food

Urban Farms of Central Ohio, part of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, uses high-tunnel technology developed by OARDC scientists to train new farmers and help feed the hungry. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Urban Farms of Central Ohio uses high-tunnel technology developed by OARDC scientists to train new farmers and help feed the hungry. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

High tunnels help farmers grow more food of higher quality, and Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center scientists are working to widen their use.

Especially suited to small and urban farms, the simple, low-cost structures make the growing season longer.

Inside, fruits and vegetables ripen earlier in spring and yield later in fall, with no need for fossil-fuel heat.

“High tunnels translate into greater food production, greater food security and greater potential farm income,” said OARDC scientist Matt Kleinhenz.

At OARDC facilities in Piketon and Wooster and on cooperating farms, Kleinhenz and OARDC colleague Brad Bergefurd are studying high tunnels, documenting their benefits and refining the best ways to use them. Then, they’re sharing their findings with farmers.

“We’ve used OARDC’s high tunnel research to increase our impact by providing high-quality produce for more months of the year,” said Dana Hilfinger, farm manager for Urban Farms of Central Ohio (pictured above, right).

“We’re a nonprofit commercial farming organization providing fresh produce access to food-insecure individuals,” she said. “We’ve been able to market our produce earlier in the season, generating more revenue to support our mission and generally supporting central Ohio’s local food economy,”

Essentials

  • In Ohio, high tunnels can extend the marketing season of a farm from six months to year-round.
  • High tunnels increase a farm’s annual food production. Warm- and cool-season crops are grown and sold in succession. Hundreds to thousands of pounds of more and different kinds of produce are taken from tunnels when outside fields are dormant. That means more revenue to growers and greater choice and health benefits to consumers.
  • Weather extremes disrupt normal farming practices outside, but not so much inside high tunnels. High tunnels protect crops from rain, snow, wind, cold and other stresses, including some pests and disease-causing pathogens. Tunnel production can use less fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides and labor.

Get further details on this research here.

Kale! Kale! The gang’s all here … in an Ohio State greenhouse growing veggies for students

Lesa Holford, right, corporate executive chef with Ohio State University's Student Life Dining Services department, and Courtney George, a sophomore food science major, tend plants they’ve helped grow in a university greenhouse. (Photo: K.D. Chamberlain, CFAES Communications.)

Lesa Holford, right, corporate executive chef with Ohio State University’s Student Life Dining Services department, and Courtney George, a sophomore food science major, tend kale and basil plants in a university greenhouse. (Photo: K.D. Chamberlain, CFAES Communications.)

There’s a new spin to eating on campus.

Ohio State’s Student Life Dining Services department and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences have teamed to grow some of the produce served in the university’s dining halls.

In a greenhouse run by the college’s Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, plant experts from the department, food experts with Dining Services and student volunteers oversee hundreds of robust kale, basil and romaine lettuce plants.

After harvest, the crops go into such dishes as Caesar salads, caprese sandwiches, and kale and bacon tarts (recipe here), all served in campus eateries.

Systems like this one are part of the growing “farm-to-table” movement. Farm-to-table systems aim to shorten the distance as much as possible between where a food is produced and where it’s consumed.

Fresh from the Buckeyes’ backyard

  • Horticulture and Crop Science staff “have taught us so much,” said Lesa Holford, corporate executive chef with Student Life Dining Services. She said she’s more than pleased with the project’s first fruits: more than 230 pounds of greens and herbs in the first three months.
  • Zia Ahmed, senior director of Student Life Dining Services, said, “One day (the project) may lead to a significant amount of production coming out of our own backyard to feed our students. … It’s a great privilege to have the opportunity to grow our own food.”
  • To contact the sources: Lesa Holford at holford.8@osu.edu; Zia Ahmed at ahmed.290@osu.edu.

Read more.