Our Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture (COE) has been helping food and ag businesses adapt to the COVID-19 economy with new marketing strategies and by diversifying products. “Whether we are helping startups with their business plans or looking at ways that we can assist farmers during the upcoming growing season,” said Cathy Young, executive director of the COE. "We want members of the food and ag community to know that we are here for them.”

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” — Fred Rogers Cornell Cooperative Extension volunteers have been making a difference for...

Gagne graduated with a degree in horticulture and a specialization in controlled environment agriculture and recently landed an apprentice grower position at BrightFarms, a company based in the Hudson Valley. Controlled environment agriculture...

“While formula had everything she needed to thrive and grow, it didn’t have everything we wanted for her,” said Ippolito, a lecturer in the Engineering Management Program at Cornell. In summer 2019, she launched SimpliFed, a startup company...

This project is no small undertaking. One of the challenges stems from the fact that broccoli was originally cultivated for Mediterranean climates, so growing it in the U.S. confuses the plant’s developmental cues. Broccoli flower buds and heads...

Now, as students complete the spring semester from off-campus locations, CALS’ efforts to make sure that they feel safe and supported are more crucial than ever. “It’s very important that a sense of belonging envelops our Cornellians who are now...

The course, Just Food: Exploring the Modern Food System, benefits from an interdisciplinary pair of instructors: Rachel Bezner Kerr, professor in the Department of Global Development, and Frank Rossi, associate professor of horticulture in the...

But scientists are increasingly understanding that bogs are also crucial ecosystems in the fight against climate change: in some cases, bogs can actually sequester more carbon than rain forests. Bogs are an ecologically unique aquatic system...

And in the class Hands-On Horticulture for Gardeners, Professor Marvin Pritts has asked students to design their own experiments, such as determining whether music helps plants grow, or what the best method might be for propagating Pothos, an...

Fifty years on, Earth Day is more relevant than ever as the impacts of climate change are felt across New York state and the rest of the country. The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for...

One of our researchers is helping organic farmers in upstate New York start growing perennial grain crops, which can be planted once and will yield grain for multiple years — supporting commercial products such as breads, cereals, beer and whiskey.

Tidball, senior research associate in the Department of Natural Resources, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, served as a consultant to members of the New York State Senate on the Outdoor Rx Act, a bill that seeks to make it easier...

Alfredo Resendiz ’19, the first member of his family born in the United States and the first to go to college, developed a passion for agriculture through JDL. “These types of programs do have impact, especially within schools that have no...

As events and businesses began to shutter last month in response to increasing concerns over the spread of COVID-19, so did Finger Lakes Harvest’s primary sales outlets. “We showcase our products at approximately 50 specialty shows and farmers...

Because there is no cure, HLB is a major threat to the $10 billion citrus industry in Florida, where it was first detected in 2005, and to the $7 billion industry in California, where it appeared last year. Researchers from the Boyce Thompson...

By using new tools to measure the levels of soil moisture in different climates, new Cornell research shows that even minor global warming could amplify drought hazards around the world.

Farms have many microbial risks, and in order to protect the fruits and vegetables grown and packaged on a farm, every grower needs to be able to identify and reduce those risks. Cornell’s new online Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training course complements an existing in-person course that, since 2016, has reached more than 56,000 individuals in all 50 U.S. states, territories and commonwealths and 32 other countries.

For decades, researchers have tried to understand how plants biosynthesize cardenolides, knowledge that could help them discover and develop safer versions of the drugs. Unfortunately, the cardenolides’ best-known plant sources – foxglove and...

A Cornell plant disease specialist is teaming up with land managers and conservationists to teach dogs how to sniff out invasive species — hoping to catch pathogens before it's too late.