News & Events

Food stamps and ice cream shaping farm bill in Congress

Published May. 17, 2013

Fewer people would get food stamps -- and ice cream and cheese might cost more. As disparate as these morsels appear, they are related.

A New Kind Of Agriculture Replaces Intuition With Precision

Published May. 17, 2013

The key is precision farming: the convergence of digital technology that allows farmers to apply just the right amount of fertilizer and water on their fields. Humans have practiced a rather crude form of agriculture for millennia: we douse fields to give them as much water and fertilizer as we think they need. Yet field conditions may differ drastically within a few feet.

Farm Bill Fight Over SNAP Cuts Previewed in Markup

Published May. 17, 2013

Just as with last year’s attempt at a farm program reauthorization, some conservatives say the bill’s proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, amounting to $20.5 billion over 10 years, do not go far enough, while many Democrats say they are too much.

Legislators’ fix for Ohio deer season is rejected

Published May. 16, 2013

The change would have added two days of open gun and bow hunting in early January, followed by three days of muzzleloader-only hunting. Members of the Ohio Wildlife Council, which approves Ohio Department of Natural Resources changes, bucked the measure in a 4-3 vote.

Rain may increase algae in Lake Erie

Published May. 16, 2013

Jeffrey Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant Program, shared the data during an Ohio Senate Finance Subcommittee hearing yesterday. He said it doesn’t guarantee that a record algae bloom will spread across the lake as it did during the summer of 2011.