Survey: Slashing EPA won’t help economy

Results from a survey of members of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the leading professional organization of economists studying environmental and resource issues, found that most don’t think reducing the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory power will improve the U.S. economy. Read the story …

Starting, sustaining business

Two high-tech companies based on research done at Ohio State have been named among 2016’s “Best University Startups.” Neurxstem Inc. and 3Bar Biologics Inc. are two of the 36 startup companies to be honored by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer.

3Bar Biologics has developed a unique delivery system for beneficial microbes that provides farmers a natural, biological way to increase their crop yields while potentially lowering costs and improving sustainability of the land. The company was co-founded by Brian McSpadden Gardener, who was a former professor in CFAES’s Department of Plant Pathology and former director of the college’s Organic Food and Farming Education and Research program. Read more.

‘A chance to connect with people around the state’

OSU President DrakeOhio 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.)

And you want to be my latex salesman? 3 ways you can get started

Check out these three talks by CFAES scientists, all of Katrina Cornish’s lab, if you’re interested in sustainable latex production and in new, beneficial latex products, including for health care. They’re from 2-3:30 p.m. on Friday, July 17, in Room 200 in the new Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Building at OARDC, CFAES’s research arm in Wooster. It’s a sneak peek of sorts: All three talks are slated for presentation at next month’s International Latex Conference in Akron. The details that follow are the abstracts of the talks. Continue reading

(Sustainable) ice cream with breakfast

Jeni's Ice Cream pintsHere’s a scoop: The next Environmental Professionals Network breakfast program at Ohio State features Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. The Columbus company, which is continuing to expand nationally, last year earned B Corp certification for its sustainability practices, one of only eight Ohio businesses to hold that distinction. Registration for the May 12 event includes breakfast and, yes, ice cream samples. (Photo: CSRwire.)