Growing up in disadvantaged communities can take a toll on children, with greater stress leading to mental health issues and delays in psychological development. But a decade’s worth of research suggests there’s an effective and nearly free remedy that may level the playing field with their advantaged counterparts: time in nature. 

How do you assess the health needs of an entire community, especially its most vulnerable members? It’s a huge logistical challenge for public health offices serving counties and states around the country, but an accurate view of community health is needed to guide the services they offer and to reach their intended audiences. 

"Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” That’s what kids are usually told on nature walks. But Caitlin Bloomer, aquatic ecologist and teaching assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, believes that a more hands-on, land-based approach is needed to improve conservation. So when she traveled to Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis, this summer to help lead a nature walk for kids, they went home with some invasive crayfish. 

 Scientists have long known that Black women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer and those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods often have more aggressive forms of the disease and poorer survival rates. However, the underlying factors that link these outcomes with women’s living environments have remained unclear.

Cover crops improve soil health and water quality, prevent nutrient loss, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they’re only grown on about 5% of U.S. agricultural lands. That’s despite billions in annual federal investments, primarily in the form of cost-share and incentive payments to farmers who adopt conservation practices.   

When Chris Mujjabi found an envelope marked ‘Kitale Synthetic’ in a cold storage room at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the corn breeder knew he had stumbled on something special. He had gone looking for exotic germplasm that could improve yield or weed tolerance in his latest organic hybrids, but instead he found a connection to his past and his community.

Looking for a family-friendly event this weekend? Check out the fourth annual Crop Sciences Harvest Open House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center south of campus.  

Cherisse Smith (she/her), the new coordinator of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) education for the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences,, is at the forefront of inclusive intelligence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

A critical program supporting healthy communities in Illinois and across the country took a devastating hit on July 4 when HR1, the federal budget reconciliation bill, was passed and signed into law. In addition to slashing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), the bill eliminated funding altogether for SNAP’s companion program, SNAP-Education, which works with community partners to educate SNAP-eligible families and individuals on obesity prevention, healthy foods, active lifestyles, and stretching food dollars.