Program Highlights: Social Responsibility Initiative
SRI Highlighted Projects and Activities
Sri Web Site Is Up And Running
With the assistance of OSU CFAES Communications and Technology, we launched our web site in 2005. In case you haven’t visited, our address is: www.sri.osu.edu. On this site, you can find a listing of the many projects we are currently working on and upcoming events. This newsletter can also be found on our site, as well as faculty profiles of researchers involved in the SRI. Over the next year, we anticipate making some significant additions to this site, especially as results from the 2006 Ohio Survey of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Issues are compiled.
Seeking Ohioans’ Attitudes on Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Issues
The Ohio Survey is a biennial, statewide mail survey to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of Ohioans related to emerging — and potentially contentious — food, agricultural, and environmental issues. Topics explored have included Ohioans’ views of agriculture’s importance in Ohio; attitudes about the environment and land use; food safety concerns; attitudes and behaviors related to local and organic foods; attitudes about animal welfare; and concern about large-scale livestock development in the state.
The 2006 Ohio Survey of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Issues covered a wide variety of topics, including views on community and local schools; farming and food production in Ohio; food safety; energy and environmental attitudes; issues related to living the American dream; and some standard sociodemographic and economic items. One section of the survey also addresses issues related to the activities of the Ohio Farm Bureau.
The 2006 Ohio Survey was mailed initially to 3,500 Ohio households in the winter of 2006. Reporting of initial results will begin in summer 2006. The 2006 Ohio Survey has several partners — the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, OSU Communications and Technology, OSUE Community Development, and the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. Through this survey, we are able to assess and identify emerging stakeholder public issues and concerns related to food, agriculture, and the environment and report these in a timely manner to stakeholders and policy makers throughout Ohio. Results from the Ohio Survey can be accessed through our web site at sri.osu.edu.
Determining the Acceptability of Large Dairy Farms in Rural Ohio Communities
The goal of this project is to identify key factors associated with acceptability or unacceptability of large dairies in local communities. Residents of several communities have been surveyed to determine their attitudes and values concerning large farms. In addition, this research will attempt to identify community changes or impacts that are likely to occur as a result of siting of these large-scale facilities. A topical report on the dairy industry in Ohio is currently in progress, and maps locating large-scale dairies in Ohio have been developed.
Rural Social Science Summit Focuses on Local Food Systems
The goal of the summit is to present research findings and background on current food and agricultural issues. The 2006 Summit focused on the development of local food systems. OSU’s local and regional food system network, the Department of Human and Community Resource Development, and OSU Extension’s Sustainable Agriculture Team cosponsored the event along with SRI. Approximately 170 stakeholders gathered on the Ohio State campus on January 11, 2006, for a program focused on making the case for establishing and maintaining local food systems. The noon lunch was catered mostly with local foods.
Several speakers addressed topics such as community economics and local food systems, food and culture, health and local food systems, and the environment and local food systems. Overall conference evaluations were positive, with 100% rating the event as good or excellent. To view some of the presentations from the summit, visit our web site at sri.osu.edu.
SRI Launches Listserv on Local Food, Farming
Beginning in February 2006, SRI launched a bi-monthly e-mail announcement and listserv related to local food and farming. Each issue provides a listing of upcoming events related to food and farming throughout Ohio. Topics and resources are also provided in relationship to the evelopment of local food systems in each issue. Farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture are two of the topics that have been explored thus far. There are currently 126 subscribers to this list. To subscribe, send a message to: locfood@osu.edu.
In May 2006, the SRI began collaborating with Local Matters (formerly Central Ohio Chef Growers Network). The SRI will provide inkind sponsorship of their web site and will engage in future programming related to local food system development with them. External grant funding to support additional work in this area by the SRI will be pursued during 2007.
Risk Analysis Roundtable Fosters Collaboration
The Risk Analysis Program hosted a roundtable on the Ohio State campus in May 2006 with the theme of fostering collaboration in risk analysis. The purpose of the roundtable was to bring together various scholars and professionals to discuss how they are adapting and using risk analysis approaches in their work. Some 35 individuals attended this roundtable from botany, entomology, veterinary preventive medicine, human nutrition, consumer sciences, food and animal health, environmental sciences, communications, and agricultural economics. For more information on this program, visit riskanalysis.osu.edu. SRI allocated seed resources in the fall of 2005 to support research and outreach activities associated with the risk analysis program.
SRI Supports Graduate Research Seed Grant Program
SRI supported graduate student education with the SRI Graduate Research Seed Grant Program. Five graduate development grants (stipend, fees, and tuition for one quarter) were awarded to support graduate research consistent with the mission of SRI. The graduate student seed grant monies are to be used by graduate students to develop competitive proposals for submission to funding programs specifically designed for graduate students or to assist in the development of proposals for other programs in collaboration with an OSU CFAES faculty member.
One SRI award recipient, Shoshana Inwood, received notification that her grant proposal was reviewed favorably by the North Central Regional Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Fund (NCR-SARE) and was awarded funding. The title of her proposal was “Intergenerational Transfer of Farm Land at the Rural Urban Interface: What Is the Role of Culture, Alternative Food, and Agricultural Enterprises?”. Another SRI grant recipient, Holli Kendall, developed a manuscript titled “Public Concern with Animal Well-Being: Place, Social Structural Location, and Individual Experience” which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Rural Sociology.
