COSI Exhibit Celebrates Production Agriculture

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An annual exhibit at COSI Columbus, Central Ohio’s Science and Technology museum, designed to highlight and celebrate the production agriculture work farmers and farm families perform, will feature presentations from experts from Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

The annual Farm Days: Little Seeds, Big Tractors, opens today (8/14) through Aug. 18 and will feature more than 20 pieces of heavy production farming equipment displayed in downtown Columbus on COSI’s English Plaza and Washington Boulevard, organizers said.

The Farm Days Science in Action series will feature presentations from experts from Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, said Dee Jepsen, assistant professor for OSU Extension and coordinator of the event for Ohio State.

OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of the college.

The COSI exhibit is an excellent agricultural awareness program where faculty and staff interact with families and the community to share more about agriculture, including day-to-day practices and the science behind the agriculture industry, Jepsen said.

“Visitors will get to see how agriculture interacts with their lives,” she said. “Some visitors may be from city or urban environments and some are from rural or country environments and may have different interactions with agriculture.

“But through this exhibit, COSI brings it all together to let people know how they are intertwined with agriculture and how much it touches everyone’s lives on a day-to-day existence. Some 15,000 people are likely to see the exhibit over the five-day period.”

The CFAES presentations are every day from 11a.m. to 3 p.m. Each day will feature a different topic. Sessions include presentations by:

• Dustin Homan, program director of the Ohio Bioproducts Innovation Center, who will discuss biomass and bioproducts Aug. 14.
• Yebo Li, associate professor in CFAES’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering and leader of OARDC’s Wooster-based Bioproducts and Bioenergy Research Laboratory, which focuses on biomass, biofuels, biopolymers, anaerobic digestion and algae-based biofuels, who will hold a biogas demonstration Aug. 15.
• V.M. “Bala” Balasubramaniam, professor of food safety engineering at Ohio State, who will discuss high pressure food processing Aug. 16.
• Steve Boyles, OSU Extension beef cattle specialist, who will discuss corral design Aug. 16.
• Kimberly Cole, OSU Extension Equine Specialist, who will be accompanied by a life-size fiberglass horse to discuss horse-related research projects Aug. 17.
• Lauren Bates, graduate fellow majoring in environmental and natural resources, who will discuss soil Aug. 17.
• Monica Lewandowski, academic program coordinator in CFAES’s Department of Plant Pathology, who will discuss plant diseases Aug. 18.

The exhibit will also feature the Slow Moving Vehicle emblem, which was designed in the 1960s by faculty in CFAES’ Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

“For 50 years, the triangle-shaped emblem has been behind agricultural equipment and horse-drawn vehicles warning motorists to slow down and pass with caution,” Jepsen said.

The Farm Days exhibit is open during normal COSI hours. Admission to the exhibit is included with regular COSI admission, organizers said.