Honored: 70-plus reasons for those amber waves of grain

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities today received the World Food Prize Foundation’s Borlaug Medallion during a ceremony celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Land-grant Act of 1862. The act created America’s 70-plus land-grant colleges, including Ohio State, and led to ramped-up agricultural education across the country. APLU counts Ohio State among its 218 members.

Vilsack: ‘Creating jobs by strengthening the bio-based economy’

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack blogged on Friday about USDA’s support for a bio-based economy, one that will “help increase business opportunities for farmers and ranchers, and create jobs across our nation.” He’ll visit our Columbus campus this Thursday (June 28), where in part he’ll talk with food scientists in our college about innovations in food safety and in functional foods. Update: His schedule.

‘Hippie chimps,’ a Top 10 grad, and a ‘dream come true’ with a CFAES degree

Speaking of bonobos, an endangered primate and our genetic cousin, check out this nice story about spring CFAES graduate Drew Enigk, who was a Top 10 Senior. He studied bonobos at the Columbus Zoo for an undergraduate research project and will study common chimpanzees, the bonobo’s genetic sibling, in graduate school at the University of New Mexico.