Tip 1: Picking the Greenest Option for the Holidays: If you're like many people, Thanksgiving weekend is not only for turkey and the trimmings, but also for decorating your home for the holidays. Do you purchase a fresh cut tree and greenery or do you dig out last year’s reusable items from the attic? Have you thought about the impact these items have on our environment and our culture? Elizabeth Toman, visiting assistant professor in The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), can discuss a life cycle analysis of real and artificial holiday decorations that highlights local and global supply chains and their sustainability trade-offs. Contact her in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at 614-688-1057 or toman....
Do you have any tips on how I can indulge in all the holiday food festivities without overdoing it?
You aren’t the only one wondering about this issue. With the holidays approaching, many people are concerned about trying to stay healthy while also enjoying all the delicious foods and traditions associated with the many celebrations that are or will be soon occurring.
Many people are looking for ways to either avoid temptation or make better choices that will allow them to maintain a healthy weight while they navigate all the indulgence of the season, said Jenny Lobb, a family and consumer sciences educator for Ohio State University Extension. OSU Extension is the outreach arm of The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES)....
COLUMBUS, Ohio — American beech trees are dying in northeast Ohio and beyond. An Ohio State University study aims to figure out why.
The study is looking into the cause of beech leaf disease, which was first found in Lake County in 2012 and has since spread to nine other counties in Ohio, eight in Pennsylvania, one in New York and five in Ontario.
Young trees seem to be particularly susceptible to the disease, which initially causes dark stripes to appear on leaves, then deforms the leaves. Eventually the disease can kill the trees.
“There’s no similar forest tree disease that we are aware of anywhere,” said Enrico Bonello, a professor of plant pathology in Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), who oversees...
Tip 1: Smarter Commuting: Getting to work does not have to be an angst-producing slog behind a line of brake lights. Consider a cheaper, albeit colder, option: biking. “Let’s Make Biking Work,” a Nov. 15 breakfast program hosted by the Environmental Professionals Network at The Ohio State University, will discuss a regional strategy to assist the growing number of Columbus-area bike commuters and encourage more of them. Representatives from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission will discuss a regional strategy to help link biking with other transit options to allow more people to get to and from work without having to drive. The program will be from 7:15 to 9:30 a.m. at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, Ohio State, Columbus....
I bought two turkeys last November, with the intent to cook one at Thanksgiving and the second one for New Year’s Day. We ended up going to a friend’s house on New Year’s instead, so now I still have the frozen turkey from last year in my freezer. Is it safe to cook it for our Thanksgiving meal this year?
Great question!
Yes, you can still safely cook that turkey as long as it has been stored in the freezer unopened and uninterrupted and stored at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service.
That’s because freezing keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage, USDA says. Freezing preserves food for extended periods because it prevents...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The cost of producing a grain crop is expected to rise next year, but farm income is unlikely to increase, an agricultural economist with The Ohio State University has projected.
On average, profits for Ohio farmers next year will be “low to negative,” said Barry Ward, an assistant professor in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
For the past five years, farm income nationwide has been declining, with the exception of 2017 when it increased slightly.
Next year, fertilizer, seed, machinery, labor and energy costs likely will be “modestly higher,” Ward said.
“Nothing is really exploding, but we are going to see some increases,” said Ward, one of several faculty who spoke Nov. 2 at the...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Some farm fields in northwest Ohio’s Maumee River watershed have more phosphorus than their crops can use. Called “elevated phosphorus fields,” such fields may be at higher risk of contributing to Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms.
That’s the premise of a new five-year, $5 million study that hopes to learn about those fields and lower that risk by creating new public-private partnerships.
Led by Jay Martin, an ecological engineering professor with The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), the study plans to monitor and manage more than a dozen elevated phosphorus fields, all in the Maumee River watershed.
Public-private partnerships
To do the work, the study is...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Farmers rattled by the dip in value of their soybean crop likely will see prices for their corn go up next year, one of the few optimistic projections made at a recent conference on future profits in farming.
Most of the graphs presented at the Nov. 2 event hosted by the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics (AEDE) at The Ohio State University offered a grim outlook: a decline in soybean crop prices resembling a steep ski slope, shrinking pie slices representing Chinese demand for U.S. soybeans.
But there were a few bright spots noted at the Agricultural Policy and Outlook Conference, including a projection that corn prices could improve in 2019.
As the world supply of corn shrinks, that will drive up corn prices, said Ben...
Tip 1: Harmful Algal Bloom Level Milder Than Predicted: Lake Erie's summer algal bloom level was less serious than scientists had predicted in July. The level was 3.6 out of a possible 10, indicating a relatively mild bloom, according to an Oct. 26 report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In a July report, scientists from NOAA and Ohio Sea Grant program at The Ohio State University had predicted the bloom level would be 6 on the severity index. While this year’s level is slightly more severe than the 3.2 measured in 2016, it was much milder than the severe bloom of 2017 in which the level measured 8. Chris Winslow, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory in Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental...
My kids love to watch TV or view their cellphones or tablets while they eat. I used to eat cereal on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons when I was a kid, but my children prefer to watch a screen at every meal, every day. Is this something I should be worried about?
Research has shown that children who have family mealtimes at least three or more times a week are more likely to be of normal weight and have healthier eating habits. And children who have family meals are more likely to feel better about themselves, experience less depression, are less likely to use illegal drugs and tend to get better grades at school.
And while 63 percent of consumers believe that eating at home with their families is important, only 30 percent actually share dinner every night, according to a...
