04/07/2009

World-renowned Soil Scientist to Keynote Green Fair April 22

Writer:

Kurt Knebusch
knebusch.1@osu.edu
330-263-3776

Source:

Allen Zimmerman, Ohio State ATI
zimmerman.7@osu.edu
330-287-1263

WOOSTER, Ohio — Rattan Lal, a world-renowned soil scientist and the director of Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, will keynote the opening ceremonies of the university’s Wooster Campus Scarlet, Gray and Green Fair here on Wednesday, April 22 — Earth Day.

Lal, whose many professional awards include a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Certificate from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will present “Sustainable Management of Soil and Natural Resources” during the event’s 11 a.m. kickoff in Fisher Auditorium at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), 1680 Madison Ave. Admission is free.

Focused on a theme of “Green is For Life,” the fair runs from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on the OARDC campus.

“We are dealing with 10 global issues at the moment: food security, availability of water, climate change, energy demand, waste disposal, extinction of biodiversity, soil degradation and desertification, poverty, political and ethnic instability, and rapid population increase,” Lal said in an Ohio State press release earlier this year. “The solution to all of these lies in soil management.”

He’ll talk about that management in his presentation, will compare and contrast a range of strategies, and will explain 10 laws of sustainable soil management.

He’s a professor in Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources and holds a joint appointment with OARDC.

His recent honors include the COMLAND Award from the Commission on Land Degradation and Desertification, Berlin, Germany, 2009; the Cordoban Award, University of Cordoba, Spain, 2008; the invitation to deliver a series of lectures in Iceland by the country’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, 2006; the Liebig Award, International Union of Soil Scientists, Wageningen, Netherlands, 2006; and the Norman Borlaug Award, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India, 2005.

The Punjab, India, native holds a doctorate in soils from Ohio State, a master’s degree in soils from IARI and a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Punjab Agricultural University.

“Dr. Lal is an internationally recognized and acclaimed scholar and educator in the sustainable management of soil resources,” said Allen Zimmerman of the university’s Agricultural Technical Institute (Ohio State ATI) in Wooster and the chair of the fair’s steering committee. “We’re honored to have him deliver the keynote address.”

OARDC and Ohio State ATI are part of the university’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, as is Ohio State University Extension. Together with the Wayne County Sustainable Energy Network, the college and those three parts of it are serving as the fair’s coordinating sponsors.

“Dr. Lal’s accomplishments are representative of the important and high-impact scholarship in sustainability and resource conservation being undertaken by many of the faculty in our college,” Zimmerman said.

Now in its second year, the fair will highlight that work — not just at Ohio State but by farmers, businesses, non-profit groups and government agencies — through exhibits, demonstrations, student contests and food vendors.

Last year’s fair drew some 1,700 people.

For more information, call (330) 263-3700 or go to http://www.wcsen.org/wcsggf/index.html.

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