The Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series continues this weekend in central Ohio. The Pasture-based Livestock and Poultry Tour is Saturday in Williamsport. The Sustainable Urban Produce Farm Tour is Sunday in Columbus. For details, go here and see pages 34 and 39.
Month: July 2015
‘Every option has trade-offs’
CFAES’s Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science, also was quoted in the story “Why everyone who is sure about a food philosophy is wrong” in Sunday’s Washington Post.
Dig the solution: How to offset 100 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions
“If you take away only one thing from this article, I want it to be this quote from esteemed soil scientist Dr. Rattan Lal at Ohio State University,” John W. Roulac writes in “The solution under our feet: How regenerative organic agriculture can save the planet,” a Care2 story reposted from Ecowatch.
The quote? “A mere 2 percent increase in the carbon content of the planet’s soils,” says CFAES’s Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science, “could offset 100 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions going into the atmosphere.”
Deer (and more) vs. your yard? How to keep the peace
Get tips on managing conflicts with backyard wildlife — from deer to coyotes to woodchucks and more — in an Aug. 7 workshop near Toledo by CFAES experts. Sign-up ends Monday, Aug. 3.
Wild card below the ship’s deck
“There’s a weakness in our strategy” to limit phosphorus runoff and improve Lake Erie, Jeff Reutter of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab said in July 13’s Toledo Blade. “And the weakness is climate change. If we continue to have really, really heavy rains like we had this June, we’ll need to adjust our model.” Read Tom Henry’s story, “Climate change muddies algae solutions,” here.
Glad to eat local; or, to sow a new mentality, closer to the heart
Aug. 9-15 is Ohio’s first-ever Local Foods Week. Whether you grow them, eat them or both, here are ways you can celebrate. (Photo: iStock.)
‘A chance to connect with people around the state’
Ohio State President Michael V. Drake last week visited CFAES’s South Centers in Piketon and rolled up his sleeves working in a Vinton County community garden as part of his July-long tour of Ohio. Read about the food crisis in Vinton County, where the last grocery store closed in 2013, and about efforts to improve food security there and throughout Ohio in CFAES’s latest Continuum magazine (PDF; cover story, starts on p. 2). Check out photos of President Drake — and of Brutus Buckeye and CFAES Dean Bruce McPheron, among others — at the community garden by the Vinton County Courier’s Pam Johnson here. (Photo: University Communications.)
Hot in the city; or, lots of folks here plus us chickens
The urban farming boom has helped two brothers, both CFAES horticulture alumni, to successfully reinvent their garden center store. Marcia Pledger interviewed Don and Kevin Grace, owners of Grace Brothers Urban Farm, Garden & Pet store, in July 13’s Cleveland Plain Dealer.
It all adds up (to 1 million acres)
CFAES scientists are improving Ohio’s water quality one farm at a time …
‘Anyone can get involved’: Growing gardens big and small
Ron Vidika covered the hows and whys of community gardening and container gardening in July 16’s Lorain Morning Journal. “One of the best things about community gardening,” Erin Richardson, OSU Extension’s Summer Sprout coordinator in Cuyahoga County, said in the story, “is that anyone can get involved and learn how to grow plants.” Read the story. OSU Extension is CFAES’s statewide outreach arm.