Local and Sustainable Food Purchasing at The Ohio State University: Capstone Course Proposal

Course Code: ENR/AEDE 4567The purpose of this project is to create a response to the university’s sustainability goals developed by the President and Provost’s Council on Sustainability in November 2015 at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The specific scope of our project is to address the university’s goal to “increase production and purchase of locally and sustainably sourced food to 40% by 2025.” The methods to develop a response to the university included: quantitatively analyzing OSU’s 2016 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (AASHE STARS) report for Food and Beverage Purchasing, qualitatively assessing the present-day atmosphere around food at OSU, including meetings with Dining Services representatives and leaders in the School of Environment and Natural Resources, as well as researching the Real Food Challenge (RFC), deeming it an appropriate and necessary tool for the university to utilize. The results that the research group produced is the creation of an EEDS (Environment, Economics, Development, and Sustainability) Capstone course that focuses on the research and analysis of The Ohio State University’s purchasing and sourcing of local and sustainable food using the Real Food Calculator Framework, which is a tool used by students to track institutional purchasing over time. The baselining work that Ohio State would need to accomplish in order to achieve purchasing of 40% local and sustainable food is an undertaking in itself; the introduction of a new capstone will help the university utilize their resources in a financially responsible manner by allowing students to conduct and analyze this necessary research, as well as fill the growing demand for a thematic capstone course within the School of Environment and Natural Resources. Our team believes that the goal put forth by Ohio State is very ambitious, as the university has less than ten years to almost quadruple the percentage of local and sustainable food purchasing. No other universities reporting to AASHE of comparable financial resources and student enrollment to Ohio State are near 40% at this time. Leaders in local and sustainable food purchasing (Michigan State University and University of Texas at Austin) are currently at 21%. In order to achieve comparable results with these universities, The Ohio State University needs to conduct extensive baselining work and provide a mechanism that ensures transparency, accountability, and constant collaboration with involved stakeholders. We believe the capstone course will provide Ohio State with a financially responsible option of pursuing this goal. In addition to the course, we recommend that the University should sign the Real Food Campus Commitment. Signing the commitment will hold Ohio State accountable, provide a mechanism of transparency, and will enable the capstone course’s work to be viable in the decision making process.Academic Major: Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainabilit

Exposure to animals and risk of oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a multicenter case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An inverse association between early contact with microbial compounds and respiratory allergies is well established. The protective effect of infant contact with animals was also shown for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We aimed to test the association between animal contact in infancy and oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (OA JIA).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Parents of children with OA JIA registered at the Hospital for Pediatric Rheumatology in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were asked to complete a questionnaire. Children who underwent strabismus surgery at six referral centers for ophthalmology served as controls. Children age 6 to 18 years born in Germany without malformations were included (238 cases; response 89% and 832 controls; response 86%). Data were analyzed using logistic regression models after adjusting for potential confounders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Neither place of living (urban vs. rural area), living on a farm, nor regular farm animal (adjusted odds ratio 0.79; 95% confidence interval 0.42-1.47) or pet contact (0.79; 0.55-1.14) during infancy were clearly related to case status. Allergic rhinitis was inversely related to OA JIA (0.57; 0.34-0.95).</p> <p>Neither place of living (urban vs. rural area), living on a farm, nor regular farm animal (adjusted odds ratio 0.79; 95% confidence interval 0.42-1.47) or pet contact (0.79; 0.55-1.14) during infancy were related to case status. Allergic rhinitis was inversely related to OA JIA (0.57; 0.34-0.95).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Contact with farm environments in infancy might not be associated with OA JIA. This finding is consistent with previous findings for diabetes mellitus type 1 but contradicts results for IBD and SLE.</p

Cachimbos europeus de cerâmica branca, séculos XVI ao XIX: parâmetros básicos para análise arqueológica

O tabaco foi introduzido na Europa no final do século XV. Desde então, uma das formas mais comuns para o seu consumo foi o cachimbo, além do rapé, do tabaco de mascar, do charuto e, mais recentemente, dos cigarros. Os cachimbos de cerâmica branca, largamente produzidos e utilizados na Europa desde o século XV, são encontrados em sítios arqueológicos históricos ao redor do mundo, incluindo no Brasil, em decorrência do comércio internacional, que gradualmente se intensificou após o início da conquista europeia. Eles funcionam como excelentes elementos para datação de sítios e estratos arqueológicos, tendo sido estudados em vários países a partir dessa abordagem. Ainda, esse tipo de artefato, mais que fornecer datações, permite identificar redes comerciais entre nações e desenvolver discussões de cunho social e cultural. Contudo, eles foram pouco estudados no Brasil. Visando contribuir com os estudos nacionais dessa categoria material, este artigo oferece uma revisão da literatura internacional acerca do histórico da produção dos cachimbos europeus de caulim, incluindo apresentação dos principais centros produtores; da morfologia e decoração desses produtos, considerando a cronologia do fabrico; e dos métodos de análise dos diferentes cachimbos de caulim no âmbito da arqueologia histórica.Tobacco was introduced in Europe at the end of the 15th century. Since then, one of the most traditional means for its use has been the pipe, next to the powder version, chewing, cigars, and, more recently, cigarettes. White clay tobacco pipes, widely produced and used in Europe since the 15th century, are found in historical archaeological sites around the world, including Brazil, due to international trade, which gradually intensified with the European conquest of the New World. They are excellent guides for dating archaeological sites and layers. In addition, this type of artifact, more than a dating tool, permits identifying trading networks between nations and developing discussions of cultural and social nature. These pipes, however, have been understudied in Brazil. In order to contribute to studies of this type of artifact in our country, this paper offers a revision of the international literature on the history of clay pipe production in Europe, including the presentation of main production centers; morphology and decoration of these products, considering issues of fabrication chronology; and the methods used in Historical Archaeology for analyzing clay tobacco pipes

Investing in Urban Studies to Ensure Urban Archaeology’s Future: A Response to ‘The Challenges and Opportunities for Mega-infrastructure Projects and Archaeology’

In reading J. J. Carver’s excellent suggestions for how to better enable archaeology and large urban infrastructure projects to progress to mutual benefit, I found myself in enthusiastic agreement with his point that ‘professional working relationships are the most important challenge for archaeology in mega projects’ and that we must convince project directors, engineers, and site teams that archaeology ‘can enhance the value of the project they are building’ (4). This is especially crucial in cities like New York City (NYC), where government protection of cultural heritage is weaker than in London and where the city’s identity is tied more to its future than its past. In future-oriented cities, it is thus necessary to take Carver’s point even further and to engage people involved in all levels of urban planning and development, both at project sites and within the academic programs that train them, to help bring about a cultural shift in attitudes towards the value of archaeology

Social difference, community -building, and material social practice: Solidarity and diversity at the Ludlow tent colony, 1913-1914

In 1913, coal miners in southern Colorado initiated a strike under the auspices of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The strike was brutally suppressed and the violence reached a crescendo during the little-known Ludlow Massacre of 20 April 1914. This struggle united workers of at least thirty-two ethnic, national, racial, and linguistic groups under the union's banner, and has become an exemplar of multi-ethnic working-class solidarity. Drawing on oral histories of survivors of the strike, and archaeological data from excavations at the site of the strikers' community known as the Ludlow tent colony, I explore the interplay of cultural diversity and solidarity. Social difference played a critical role in structuring daily social life within the exclusively working-class community at the Ludlow, Colorado, tent colony. The study reveals the complexity of processes of social differentiation and community-building among strikers, and probes the extent and limits of solidarity within the community. Evidence of a high degree of unity among miners, who also expressed a strong investment in (and awareness of) ethnic distinctions, underscores the complex relationship between social difference and community. This "dialectic of difference" (in the sense of Laclau 1996) was manifest in social contexts of inter-ethnic interaction that incorporated ethnically-distinctive practices. These contexts simultaneously marked social difference and, in some cases, promoted shared experiences and community-building among the diverse strike colony population. The research also critically examines the narrative of inter-ethnic unity that has become associated with the 1913-14 strike; the “we all got along” narrative. Close readings of first-person accounts of the life in the coal camps and tent colonies of southern Colorado reveal subtle forms of exclusion that held certain ethnic and racial groups at a distance from the general community of strikers. The nominally white European/Euro-American miners who made up the majority of oral history informants on the strike period deployed a shifting “circle of we” (in the sense of Di Leonardo 1998) that obscured lines of division within the coal mining community. The dynamics of difference and community among coal miners was also cross-cut by gender identities. Finally, the project reveals the ambivalent attitudes to diversity held by Colorado's coal mining companies and the UMWA. Despite fundamental ideological differences, both organizations adopted surprisingly similar outlooks regarding ethnic/racial difference. The study examines continuities and contradictions in company- and union-sponsored Americanization programs, and their unintended effects on miners' solidarity

The Form of Law: Practical Principles and the Foundations of Kant’s Moral Theory

Immanuel Kant argued that morality requires us to act on principles that we can will as universal laws. However, there has always been profound disagreement about how to apply this requirement, and about why this demand should be morally fundamental. This dissertation offers new answers to these questions by developing a deeper understanding of the “practical” principles that Kant wants us to be able to will as universal laws.My primary thesis is that practical principles state three things: a reason to act, the end or goal that this reason requires us to accomplish, and the means that we must use to achieve that end. Several crucial lines of Kant’s thought require this structure for practical principles, I argue. Primarily: practical principles, as principles for action, must also be causal principles, and Kant’s views on causation require practical principles to have the structure I propose.I use this structure to answer some venerable problems: first, why can’t we will any principle whatsoever as a universal law, especially if we make each principle unique to each case? Because Kant requires causal relations to be rule-governed, I argue, in a way that prevents practical principles from being unique to each situation.Next, why isn’t morality satisfied when everyone could follow our principles? Under my interpretation, practical principles say how we are required to act. As rational beings, though, we cannot be required to contradict ourselves. Everyone could contradict themselves in order to follow a principle, but we cannot be required to do so. So I argue that “willing” our principles as universal laws is supposed to capture how principles cannot require us to contradict ourselves.Last, why must we act on principles that we can will as universal laws? Kant answers: to act that way is to give laws to ourselves, and we must think of ourselves as laws to ourselves. That is autonomy. But if I give a law to myself, couldn’t I release myself from that law, too? I conclude by using my interpretation to explain how laws that we give to ourselves can also impose genuine requirements on us