Good read: How you can sell what you grow and raise to schools

specialty crop bulletinWe mentioned Ohio’s March 13 Farm to School conference in a previous post. Meantime, if you farm and want to sell or sell more to schools and other institutions, download this bulletin (pdf) by CFAES’s Agroecology Management Program. It can help you do just that. Beyond the nuts and bolts are six good stories of others’ success.

Tomorrow: What will climate change mean to invasive species in Lake Erie?

Zebra mussel cluster. Photo taken by D. Jude, Univ. of Michigan.

Ohio State’s next Climate Change webinar is tomorrow (1/17). Speaking will be the University of Wisconsin’s Galen McKinley on “Climate and Carbon Impacts on Productivity, Chemistry, and Invasive Species in the Great Lakes.” It’s part of an ongoing series by Ohio State’s Climate Change Outreach Team, whose members include scientists with CFAES.

Video: Ohio without any buckeyes? Not on their watch

invasive species videoTrees in Ohio face a growing number of pests from overseas. And from them growing damage. But the state’s oaks, maples, and, yes, even buckeyes have a CFAES team on their side (video, 1:08). Invasive species are a threat to sustainability — of farms, forests, yards, gardens, businesses, and biodiversity.

‘Biophilic Design’ to screen Jan. 17 at Ohio State: Kellert to give seminar, lead student ‘design charrette’

Yale’s Stephen Kellert, executive producer of “Biophilic Design,” which has a free screening in Wooster on Jan. 16, will present “Birthright: People and Nature in the Modern World” on Jan. 17 at Ohio State, part of the School of Environment and Natural Resources’ seminar series.

Later that day, “Biophilic Design” gets another screening, this time in Ohio State’s Drake Union. Then Ohio State students will present their proposals for restoring the Olentangy River corridor in a design charrette including Kellert, local design experts, and Ohio State administrators. The screening is open to the public, the design charrette only to registered participants.

Get times, locations, and other details here (scroll down).

This ‘good’ algae can be used to make biofuel

OSU OARDC FABE Dr. Yebo Li Alage TouchStoneThere are algae we don’t want. And algae we do. A pilot algae farm now operates near Wooster (pictured) and CFAES’s research arm, OARDC, is one of the project’s partners. Studies at the farm should give us new, specific details on the system’s costs, biofuel yields, evaporation rates (including an innovative material that cuts them), and sustainability. Of note: Some of the carbon dioxide released by the farm’s coal-burning greenhouse heat source gets reused. It gets pumped back into the water, which helps the algae grow. Also: Residue left after processing the algae for biofuel also gets reused. It feeds an anaerobic digester that in turn generates energy too.

Walk this way: ‘Biophilic Design’ screening moved, videocast site added

direction sign for GB

There’s been a location change for the “Biophilic Design” film screening on Jan. 16 in Wooster, from OARDC to the Lean Lecture Room, Wishart Hall, 303 E. University St., at the College of Wooster. And a videocast site has been added as well: in Room 103, Kottman Hall, 2021 Coffey Road, on our campus in Columbus. Click here for details and a link to a map.

Watch: Raj Patel on the sustainability benefits of food policy councils

Raj Patel video

Here’s a short video (1:22; click on the image when you get there to play) of Raj Patel talking about an idea called food policy councils, which he says can help create jobs, feed the hungry, and build sustainable local economies. He speaks next Thursday, Jan. 17, on our campus in Columbus.

‘Global hunger and obesity are symptoms of the same problem’

image of Stuffed and Starved book cover

“What he uncovers is shocking … Yet he also finds hope.” Here’s the web page for Raj Patel’s book Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System. He speaks on the topic next Thursday, Jan. 17, at Ohio State. The headline here comes from the book’s introduction, which itself has the headline “Our Big Fat Contradiction.”

‘Stuffed and Starved’: Raj Patel to speak Jan. 17 at Ohio State

raj_patelWriter/activist/academic Raj Patel, who has degrees from Oxford, Cornell, and the London School of Economics, will present “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System,” based on his book of the same name, on Thursday, Jan. 17, on our campus in Columbus. Details here. It’s part of a series celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at Ohio State.

Related posts about his talk here and here.