What does greater urbanization mean to birds? And also to bird conservation? Tomorrow.
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Birdland
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
May 16th, 2012
Growing local? ‘Our business has steadily increased’
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
May 9th, 2012
Producing and consuming more local food “can spell increased economic opportunities for Ohio farmers and small businesses, in addition to health and environmental benefits.” And OSU Extension is helping (video, 1:30).
The chickens, however, have feathers
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
May 8th, 2012
OARDC scientists have received a major USDA grant to study whether so-called “naked oats” can be incorporated into organic farming rotations as a lower-cost way to feed organic chickens …
How should we talk about climate change?
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
May 8th, 2012
Why do we think what we think about climate change? What are the best ways to communicate climate change to the public? Find out tomorrow. Ohio State’s Eric Nisbet is the speaker. He’s a principal investigator on the NSF-funded project “Co-Evolution of Upstream Human Behavior and Downstream Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate.”
Growing new non-GMO soybeans
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
May 2nd, 2012
OARDC’s soybean breeding program serves, in part, a growing niche — the producing, selling, and/or exporting of non-GMO soybeans (not genetically engineered). Here’s why (video, 2:46).
Niche marketing, says sustainability advocate John Ikerd in a paper on marketing and sustainable agriculture, is a way to “enhance the economic viability of systems that are ecologically sound and socially responsible and otherwise likely to be sustainable.”
In other words, niches are one way to strengthen a side — the staying in business and making a living side — of the sustainability-based ecological pyramid.
You spin me round (like a wind turbine)
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
April 30th, 2012
“The wind energy capital of Ohio” is now on the plains of Van Wert County (located about 100 miles southwest of Toledo on the Indiana border), and work by OSU Extension, which is part of our college, helped make it happen. Watch (4:08).
Creating Community Through Sustainability
Posted by ENR 567 (Communicating Environmental and Natural Resources Information) students in the "Raising the Bar" group: Ted Zech, Katelyn Ferringer, Joel Throckmorton, Laurel Cope and Cole Rumschlag on
April 27th, 2012
Many Ohio State students enjoy the social life that campus-area bars provide. Throughout the weekend, anyone walking down High Street at Ohio State can see a large number of students lining the street, waiting to get into their favorite bar. Due to this large amount of business, these bars ultimately produce a huge amount of waste.
This led our group to wonder, how much of this waste is actually being recycled? We interviewed employees at 11 off-campus bars, and found that most do not have a recycling program. Additionally, all of the employees felt that their bars were isolated from the city, the campus, or both.
We thought, why not kill two birds with one stone and build community while also cleaning up off-campus bars? To do this, ... Read More »
Coming Monday, clean energy’s ‘next 50 years’
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
April 26th, 2012
“Clean energy will define our future. … Public and land-grant universities will define clean energy.” So says the website for a national conference on energy challenges starting this Monday in Columbus. The focus is how public and land-grant universities (such as Ohio State) (thanks to 150 years of the Morrill Act) can solve those challenges. Ohio State is the host and a sponsor.
‘It all turns on affection’
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
April 25th, 2012
Wendell Berry gave the 2012 Jefferson Lecture at the National Endowment for the Humanities this past Monday. His focus: Sustainability — of farms, “land-communities,” economy. How do we make them sustainable? The answer, he said, is affection.
“To live from a place without destroying it, we must imagine it. By imagination we see it illuminated by its own unique character and by our love for it. … As imagination enables sympathy, sympathy enables affection. And it is in affection that we find the possibility of a neighborly, kind, and conserving economy.”
Berry has rocked lots of worlds with his writing. (Inside Higher Ed said Monday’s talk did the same.) This is long but worth it. Read it.
Buckeyes (and Ravens) on buckeyes (the trees)
Posted by Kurt Knebusch on
April 25th, 2012
Celebrate trees on Ohio State’s Oval this Friday. You’ll see, among others, a very big (B)uckeye. Though actually now a Raven. Though actually ravens are now coming back. It’s an Arbor Day program hosted by our Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens.
