CFAES soil scientist Rattan Lal wins Japan Prize

Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources, was today (Jan. 16) announced as a winner of the 2019 Japan Prize, considered one of the most prestigious honors in science and technology.

Japan Prize Foundation press release said the award is for Lal’s work in proposing and practicing sustainable soil management methods that contribute to “both the stability of food security and environment conservation for climate change mitigation.”

More details to come.

‘Green Drinks’ on Jan. 16 in Columbus

Columbus’s next Green Drinks event is from 6–8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, in the Nationwide & Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. The Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens, part of CFAES, is the host.

The casual event is part of a monthly series promoting networking for people interested in the environment. “Some attendees work in the environmental industry, most practice sustainable lifestyles, and all are ‘green curious,’ ” says the event’s website. “Everyone comes for different reasons because everyone is invited.”

Speaking at the event will be Columbus City Council member Emmanuel Remy and Kate Bartter, director of Ohio State’s Office of Energy and Environment.

Admission is free and open to the public, but donations of $5–10 by those who are able are welcome.

Find out more.

Friday: Talk on sustainable beef production

A reminder: Sara Place, senior director of sustainable beef production research for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, will present “Beef in a Sustainable Food System” (“Can a sustainable global food system include beef?”) from 10–11:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 11, in the Nationwide & Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

Learn more and register to attend. You also can watch on Facebook Live.

Lambing and Kidding School? Sign up baa today

Registration ends today, Wednesday, Jan. 9, for CFAES’ free Lambing and Kidding School, which is Saturday, Jan. 12, in Marion. Sheep and goat experts at the event will share helpful information on topics such as birthing problems, care of newborns, and management of orphan lambs and kids.

To register, contact 740-223-4041 or barnes.821@osu.edu.

Find out more online and in the flyer.

Ice, ice, very nice

Many moons ago, as a wet-behind-the-ears grad student, I spent a winter living and working at CFAES’s Stone Laboratory at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie. The winter was a good one for cold, snow, and ice, the lake freezing over in late December, the ice being broken up once by a storm, but then locking in and staying that way, solid, thick, and getting thicker, right into March. My roommate would drive his van on the lake, hauling his ice fishing gear. Guys from Canada’s Pelee Island would zip to Put-in-Bay by snowmobile, a distance of about 5 miles. Dozens of ice fishing shanties, a semi-permanent village, dotted a part of the lake where I’d seen a lone Lyman boat cruising just two months before, a mildish day in early December, the water black, eerily calm, but still then definitely liquid.

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