CFAES sustainability news, April 15, 2022

Columbus Dispatch, April 13, 2022; featuring Brent Sohngen, CFAES Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

CleanTechnica, April 13, 2022; featuring Katrina Cornish, CFAES Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering; and CFAES Department of Horticulture and Crop Science

Growing the bioeconomy in uncertain times

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, the bioeconomy is facing challenges.

On Friday, Feb. 12, from 9 a.m. to noon, CFAES’ Advanced BioSystems Workshop will look at those challenges and will brainstorm ways for technology, research, and the government to address them.

Continue reading Growing the bioeconomy in uncertain times

Learn about hemp in Wooster, then Dayton

Hemp note: Hemp researcher Craig Schluttenhofer of Wilberforce, Ohio’s Central State University, who speaks at CFAES’ upcoming Growing Hemp in Ohio: Separating Fact from Fiction workshop, set for Friday, Jan. 24, in Wooster, will give a workshop called “Hemp! Understanding a Revived Crop” from 2–3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association annual conference in Dayton. Multiple CFAES experts are slated to speak at the Wooster and Dayton events.

10 things and 2 days to learn about hemp

CFAES’ OSU Extension outreach arm has published a list of the top 10 things to know about growing hemp in Ohio. Check it out.

Hempily, Happily, the list is out in time for CFAES’ Growing Hemp in Ohio: Separating Fact from Fiction workshop, which is Friday, Jan. 24, in Wooster. There’s still time to register to attend.

Also, coming soon is another hemp-focused CFAES workshop, Hemp Production and Marketing Opportunities, set for Monday, Feb. 17, in Columbus. Find out more.

What’s cool? This, both the science and the story

The award for the coolest Ohio State science story of 2019 recently went to a team of CFAES researchers—Xiaoying Zhao, Yael Vodovotz, and Katrina Cornish—who are developing a promising biodegradable alternative to the plastic that covers supermarket food.

Read about the award.

Read the story itself.

So you want to grow hemp in Ohio?

Update, Jan. 13: The optional Jan. 25 program has been cancelled.

Join experts from CFAES and beyond in discovering Ohio’s possible new cash crop. A workshop titled “Growing Hemp in Ohio: Separating Fact from Fiction,” featuring 10 sessions by 18 speakers, is set for Jan. 24 at the CFAES Wooster campus, about 60 miles south of Cleveland.

Continue reading So you want to grow hemp in Ohio?

CFAES scientist Katrina Cornish honored for biobased products

CFAES scientist Katrina Cornish, Ohio Research Scholar and Endowed Chair in Bio-based Emergent Materials in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, recently received the 2019 Ohio Faculty Council Technology Award.

Continue reading CFAES scientist Katrina Cornish honored for biobased products

1 week, 2 honors for innovator Katrina Cornish

CFAES scientist Katrina Cornish had a big week last week, taking home not one but two honors for her sustainability-related research.

Cornish, who is an internationally recognized expert on alternative natural rubber production and on natural rubber biosynthesis, won CFAES’ Innovator of the Year Award on April 22 at the college’s Annual Research Conference; and then, two days later, Ohio State’s Innovator of the Year Award at the university’s new Research and Innovation Showcase.

Visit her lab’s website to learn more about her work.

‘We wish it would grow more like a weed’

CFAES’s John Cardina and Katrina Cornish spoke about their efforts to turn a surprisingly recalcitrant species of dandelion into an American-grown source of rubber in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (may require subscription).

Learn more about the research, which is developing the TKS dandelion, shown here growing in a CFAES high tunnel, at the Cornish Lab Group’s website. (Photo: CFAES.)