Following up on their morning session on “climate-smart” organic grains, CFAES researchers Rafiq Islam and Alan Sundermeier will present “Climate-Smart Organic Vegetables: Healthy Soils, Healthy Food, and Healthy People” from 2–3:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) annual conference.
Science shows that our climate is changing, and CFAES’s Aaron Wilson will talk about what that means to farming, and how farmers in Ohio can adapt to the changes, at the upcoming annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA).
How can farmers help their grain crops handle climate change? CFAES researchers Rafiq Islam and Alan Sundermeier will suggest practices at the upcoming annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA). Their workshop, “2020 Climate-Smart Organic Grains for Healthy Soils, Healthy Food, and Healthy People,” is set for 8:30–10 a.m. Feb. 14.
The entire OEFFA conference, the largest ecological agriculture conference in Ohio, runs from Feb. 13–15 in Dayton.
Bloomberg reports that “Al Gore Is Opening a New Front In the War on Climate Change”—farming practices that sequester carbon dioxide in the soil—and CFAES’ own world expert on the subject, Rattan Lal, visited the former vice president’s farm in Tennessee to look at, walk upon, and talk about the possibilities. Excellent story by Emily Chasan, Bloomberg’s sustainable finance editor.
Lal directs CFAES’ Carbon Management and Sequestration Center. Earlier this year he was awarded the Japan Prize.
Bangladesh, a country of 165 million in southern Asia, can teach the world a lot about climate change—how everything from climate to food to migration to economics is intertwined. So says CFAES development economist Joyce Chen, featured in our latest CFAES Story.
Some 1.5 million acres of Ohio’s farm fields—an area twice the size of Rhode Island—didn’t have any corn, soybeans, or other cash crops planted on them this year. Reason: Record spring rain made the ground too wet to plant. Now those fields are at risk of problems from something called fallow syndrome, which is caused by the loss of crop-friendly microbes that live—or lived—in the fields’ soils.
Experts from CFAES explain. (Photo: Getty Images.)
Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources, will speak on a panel titled “Facing the Greatest Challenge of Our Time: Agriculture’s Role in Impacting Climate Change” at the World Food Prize’s 2019 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium.
CFAES’ Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and a 2019 winner of the prestigious Japan Prize, was interviewed for a recent story in the Wall Street Journal. In “How to Get Rid of Carbon Emissions: Pay Farmers to Bury Them,” Lal talks about whether paying farmers to sequester carbon to fight the climate crisis is realistic or not, and what some feasible goals could be. The story is here, but you’ll need a subscription to read it.
Lal founded and directs CFAES’ Carbon Management and Sequestration Center. In the video above, he explains the interconnected reasons for storing organic matter (such as carbon) in the soil.
A talk set for next week’s Farm Science Review will feature alternative forage plants that tolerate flooding and drought.
Why it’s important: Ohio’s hay supply for livestock is currently extremely low due to spring’s excessive rainfall. Growing flooding-tolerant forages to feed livestock could limit the risk from such rain in the future. (Photo: Tall fescue, James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org.)
From a recent Ohio State press release, details on research involving a Buckeye in the College of Engineering:
“Electricity grids that incorporate storage for power sourced from renewable resources could cut carbon dioxide emissions substantially more than systems that simply increase renewably sourced power, a new study has found.
“The study, published … in the journal Nature Communications, found that storage could help make more efficient use of power generated by sources such as wind and solar and could help power grids move away from relying on fossil fuels for energy.”
Find helpful renewable-energy resources—videos, fact sheets, and more; for businesses, homes, and farms—on CFAES’ Energize Ohio website. (Photo: Eric Romich, CFAES.)