Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Sen. Lankford visits OSU, tours agriculture and engineering facilities Courtesy of OSU News U.S. Sen. James Lankford toured facilities and met with leaders on the OSU-Stillwater campus Thursday to learn more about how the state’s modern land-grant university is improving lives through public impact research. Lankford, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015 and became the senior senator from Oklahoma in 2023, said it’s essential that institutions like OSU live out the modern land-grant mission and continue to drive research forward because it impacts everyone and essentially everything — from the clothes people wear to the food they eat. “Everything that we do in a land-grant university is different than many other universities because it’s really focused on what are we doing together about the skills and the future, and the research that is going to feed the rest of the world and the United States,” Lankford said. “There’s a reason we have an inexpensive food supply in the United States. and it’s because of this kind of research, this kind of work.” OSU President Kayse Shrum, First Cowboy Darren Shrum and Dr. Justin Quetone Moss, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture head, showed Lankford around the OSU Student Farm — part of The Innovation Park — and shared details about the initiative’s expansive impact in its inaugural year.
Combining all areas of OSU’s land-grant mission, the Student Farm offers teaching opportunities and research projects while also carrying out Extension’s mission of service. On just two acres of land, the farm grew more than 54,000 pounds of produce for Payne County residents. Moss said there are plans to expand the Student Farm by adding a facility that will allow produce to be cleaned and packed for distribution outside of Payne County through the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. But Moss said it’s already a oneof-a-kind project among land-grant universities. “It’s great to be able to see the work OSU is doing to help people in Oklahoma,” Lankford said. “It’s a big difference between saying to somebody, ‘Here’s a can of corn and here’s something fresh.’ Most of our food banks are not able to provide a lot of fresh produce. So, to see that there’s an opportunity here in this county, and hopefully multiple others — and quite frankly, just see the model that’s happening here at OSU that’s not happening in other places in the state or other land-grant universities — we can help solve some of the issues that we’re facing in the country right now on food, through our landgrant universities all over the country. “I’m really proud of OSU. It’s not only trying to figure it out, but also figuring out and already intentionally thinking, ‘Here’s how we could be the example.’” See Lankford on 7
Anna Gret Asi
Martha Deitz, owner of skin product business Happy Valley Goats, brought her companions to the festival for the third year in a row.
Annual Herb and Succulent Festival
avoids bad weather, connects community Anna Gret Asi O’Colly Contributor
people,” Anella said. “We probably have 1,000 people here today, and I think that’s just wonderful to get that many people together and have them come and enjoy it The Botanic Garden at OSU and bring their families.” Participants could purchase hosted the annual Herb and Sucherbs and succulents from diverse culent Festival on Saturday. displays. An OSU almuna, Rachel A windy afternoon did not Appleseth, said the quality and stop The Botanic Garden from showing its various herbs and suc- price relationship was satisfying, culents. Vendors and participants and her first priority was to gather the herbs. were in high spirits while enjoy“I got different herbs for ing the variety of opportunities (a) garden, such as basil, cilantro The Botanic Garden offered. and parsley,” Appleseth said. “I For Lou Anella, the direcpurchased those very first thing tor of The Botanic Garden, the whenever we got here.” festival is all about people. The Herb and Succulent “I just love seeing all the
Festival is special to its partakers. Appleseth, who graduated from OSU in 2003, said she enjoys revisiting Stillwater with her family to support OSU and see how the town is changing. “It’s a festival that we enjoy coming to every year,” Appleseth said. Aside from plants, dozens of vendors set up booths around the garden offering a range of items, such as handmade pottery, jewelry, honey and gifts. Despite the strong wind, which made the booths unstable, the vendors took advantage of the marketing opportunities for their smaller businesses. See Herb on 8
Team from OSU-CHS, HPNRI publishes findings on language used in obesity research Courtesy of OSU News
Courtesy of OSU News
From left: Dr. Jayson Lusk, Dr. Brett Carver and Sen. James Lankford.
were not adhering to language guidelines specific to obesity. In 2018, the American Medical Association adopted person-centered language (PCL) A team of medical students, guidelines, including obesity-specific language, that all researchers residents and faculty from the should follow. Oklahoma State University ColThe research team examlege of Osteopathic Medicine, ined obesity-related articles pubOSU Medicine, and the Human lished in the top 10 sports mediPerformance and Nutrition Recine journals between 2019 and search Institute have found that 2022. Of the 198 articles sampled, most sports medicine journals almost 59% didn’t adhere to PCL
guidelines. The most common non-PCL terms used were obese, overweight, heavy, fat and morbid. “Multiple published studies have shown that using stigmatizing language has a negative impact on patient outcomes and decreases trust in medical providers,” said Jason Webb, a thirdyear medical student at OSUCOM at the Cherokee Nation and the study’s lead author. See HPNRI on 5