Recent Blog Posts
Ohio State joined other community partners at the 2024 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference - Cultivating Common Ground in Sustainable Agriculture Ohio, June 27-29 in Central Ohio.
“It was encouraging to see producers learn from one another, from USDA teams, and from community tour hosts,” commented Julie Fox, Ohio State University Director or Strategic Initiatives and Urban Engagement.
The event began with keynote speakers from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), John Wilson, State Conservationist-Ohio, USDA NRCS and Terry Cosby, Chief, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
A competent urban Extension workforce is critical to extending university research to address today’s complex issues (e.g., affordable housing, poverty, food insecurity, emerging technologies, etc.) in urban areas. However, older models of training the Extension workforce do not always align with current needs. Urban Extension professionals face a different set of challenges than their rural colleagues including large and diverse populations, complex ecosystems of public and private organizations, and navigating the integrated urban-rural interface. These challenges can be difficult to manage using traditional Extension competencies that are based in content area expertise, rely on residents’ existing knowledge of Extension as is typical in non-urban areas, and engage with traditional funders and partners of Extension. Learn more.
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Urban agriculture includes market gardens and small farms within cities that grow crops for sale, but urban agriculture also includes school gardens, community gardens, gardens used to provide nutritious donations for food pantries and also backyard gardens. Urban farms are “small but mighty.” Seventy-six percent of urban farms in Indiana are less than an acre in size, and they contribute significantly to the food system. Still most urban farmers need another source of income besides their farm. This webinar provides details about urban agriculture demographics. Learn about ways the Great Lakes Urban Agriculture Working Group supports urban farmers, the resources that are available, how to join the working group, and the group's ongoing efforts. Speakers were Maggie Rivera (Ohio State) and Laura Ingwell (Purdue). Watch the 37-minute webinar recording.
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Racism is considered a fundamental cause of health inequities, but research on structural racism and health has been limited by lack of data. Since Mapping Inequality digitized New Deal-era redlining maps from the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, there has been an explosion of research examining historic redlining and present-day neighborhood environmental hazards and health. Helen Meier will discuss the application of HOLC maps in population health research and new efforts to characterize historic environmental hazards using the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. Learn more and register for this July 12 webinar.
Adults who continuously played organized sports through their youth have fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression than those who never played or those who dropped out, a new study finds. And those who dropped out of sports had poorer mental health than those who never played at all. But many more people drop out of youth sports than play continuously until they are 18, said Chris Knoester, senior author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University. “If you play and stick with sports, it’s a positive for your mental health, but if you play and drop out it seems to be negative – and most kids drop out,” Knoester said. Read more.
The 233 participants at the 2024 Urban Food Systems Symposium represented 26 states and 4 countries. The Symposium was held at the Hyatt Regency Columbus June 11-13.
The purpose of the symposium was to bring together a national and international audience of academic, non-profit, government, and research-oriented professionals to share and gain knowledge on how to build coalitions to adapt to this changing world and how urban food systems contribute to these solutions. The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) hosted the symposium. The event included keynotes, a grower panel, 40 presentations, a reception with more than 30 posters, a choice of five tours, and dinner and tours at Waterman, a unique 261-acre university facility for teaching, research, and community engagement.
Here is the complete Urban Food Systems Symposium website along with specific links to the Symposium Program and the Book of Abstracts.
This interview with keynote speaker Qiana Mickie and UFSS co-chair Mike Hogan was shared through NPR during the Symposium.
The 2026 Urban Food Systems Symposium will be held in the fall in Kansas City.
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Over the past 20 years, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been committed to the work of preventing childhood obesity and improving healthy food access for all children and families. There is a new funding opportunity for organizations working toward the same goal. RWJF has an open call for proposals that aim to address structural racism, advance health equity, and improve health and nutrition outcomes in the communities most impacted by these systemic issues. Learn more about how to submit. If the National Urban Research & Extension Center can support an aspect of your project, please reach out to Brad Gaolach.
On May 2, The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences hosted faculty from Central State University. In attendance were two educators from Central State University who shared about their research, including their collaboration efforts. In additional to other Ohio State faculty in attendance, Fernanda Krupek shared urban ag and food system updates. Overall, it was a great workshop with connections for the future.
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Thanks to the generosity of funders, the book Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture is available for free in digital form from the publisher’s website at: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-32076-7. A printed version is available for purchase at the same site.
Book Overview
Editors: Samina Raja, Marcia Caton Campbell, Alexandra Judelsohn, Branden Born, Alfonso Morales
- Examines the potential and pitfalls of planning for urban agriculture in the United States
- Contains case studies from across the United States
- Includes illustrative examples of planning and policy tools to strengthen urban agriculture
- This book is open access, which means you have free and unlimited access
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To prevent extreme rainfall, flooding and other severe weather from causing major damage, urban planning efforts should take a more comprehensive approach, according to a March 29 presentation by The Ohio State University’s Center for Urban Research and Analysis and the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Read more.
Sourced from Ohio State News
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