College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University

05/29/2026

When grapevines bud too early, a single spring frost can wipe out an entire season’s work.

That’s the challenge Jennifer Russo, viticulturist with CCE’s Lake Erie Regional Grape Program, is working to solve.

After a 2024 frost event damaged roughly 17,000 acres of grapes across the Lake Erie region, resulting in an estimated $25.5 million crop loss, Russo developed a spray application designed to delay bud break beyond the typical frost window.

The treatment, co-developed with Ohio State University researcher Josh Blakeslee, has shown success for two consecutive years, helping vineyards protect young shoots during one of the most vulnerable stages of the growing season. The team is now exploring whether the same approach could help protect other crops, including apples.

05/22/2026

Ursa Alta will supply material for multiple product streams, including textiles such as denim, animal bedding and wall insulation.

05/14/2026

Every year, millions of gallons of wine are pressed, leaving behind a mountain of pulpy residue – grape skins, seeds, stems and peels – that wineries struggle to dispose of. Now, researchers say this overlooked byproduct could find a new life on the farm, as a replacement for the antibiotics routinely added to chicken feed.

The study, published May 7 in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes by a team of Cornell food scientists, tested grape pomace as an additive in broiler chicken diets, comparing it head-to-head against zinc bacitracin, one of the most widely used antibiotic growth promoters in the poultry industry.

The results are striking, said corresponding author Elad Tako, associate professor in the Department of Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, suggesting that a modest half-percent inclusion of grape pomace in feed can nearly match the antibiotic’s performance – improving weight gain, feed efficiency and gut health in birds raised on an inflammation-inducing diet.

05/11/2026

As biodigesters go, Cornell’s new unit will be small: two 10,000-gallon tanks on a concrete pad that might not be much to look at. But this little system, which will transform food scraps and cow manure into energy, will have an impact far beyond its footprint.

“This is such a great opportunity for research, education and extension,” said Lauren Ray, senior extension associate and agricultural sustainability and energy engineer for PRO-DAIRY, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University (CALS). “It has this element of practicality, because it really will supply energy to the university, but at the same time it’s a platform for learning and even playing, as well as providing hands-on demonstrations for farmers and students.”

The digester is one of the newest additions to Cornell’s Living Lab: a long-standing approach that uses campus operations to research and advance sustainability. It will be installed this summer at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s (CVM) Teaching Dairy, where it will take in a portion of manure from the 180-cow herd, as well as food service scraps and byproducts from campus.

Microbes in the sealed tanks will anaerobically convert the organic waste into biogas, a combination of methane and carbon dioxide, and nutrient-rich, liquid digestate. The biogas will provide energy to the dairy – offsetting fossil fuel use – and both the gas and digestate will provide raw materials for Cornell researchers who study cutting-edge processes for carbon capture or the conversion of waste streams to biofuels.

Funding and project management came from the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.

Read more: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/05/living-lab-small-biodigester-fuel-research-extension.

05/04/2026

Microcredentials are now available to help CALS undergraduate students expand their skillsets and get a head start in the ever-changing job market!

In partnership with eCornell, CALS is now offering online certificate programs in AI and leadership this summer.

Students will gain experience in fields highly sought after by employers, while earning verified credentials they can easily share on their resumes and LinkedIn.

Microcredentials were developed as part of our E3 initiative, which focuses on equipping students with real-world experiences to better prepare them for careers after CALS. We will continue working with industry partners to expand these offerings.

“Preparing students for today’s workforce means going beyond the classroom, said Benjamin Houlton, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of CALS. “These microcredentials give CALS students practical, in-demand skills they can apply immediately in a rapidly changing job market.”

The first round of eCornell certificate programs start up on May 13. Learn more: https://cals.cornell.edu/education/experiential-learning/microcredentials-cals

05/01/2026

Cornell plant biology Ph.D. student Justin Scholten '22 knows the plants of the Finger Lakes forest floor cold. There's white baneberry (Actaea pachypoda), and red baneberry (Actaea rubra). Both grow about 30 to 70 centimeters tall, both are herbaceous, and both are extremely toxic if eaten.

But in 2023, hiking through Summer Hill State Forest less than 30 miles northeast of Ithaca, he spotted something off: a baneberry with pink berries.

He first assumed it was a hybrid of the red and white. Instead of moving on, he spent the next two years searching the region, finding more populations, spending a full growing season measuring every trait, and running genetic tests back in the lab.

It's not a hybrid. It's a new species — Actaea rhodostigma — and it's the first new flowering plant described in New York in nearly a decade.

Read more at the link in our comments.

04/24/2026

04/23/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the inaugural Cornell CALS Land-Grant Summit yesterday.

We were honored to bring together farmers, policymakers, industry leaders, faculty, extension specialists and community organizations from across New York for a day of conversation, connection and shared learning.

From inspiring speakers to small-group discussions, we heard thoughtful perspectives on what the land-grant mission means today and how we can continue to strengthen it for the future.

We are grateful to all who participated and shared their insights. We look forward to continuing the conversation and working together to serve communities across our state.

04/22/2026

Student-built methane sensor aids mangrove restoration efforts

In fall of 2024, a team of students and faculty met to launch a project: creating a device that could measure methane from water bodies, a valuable tool in the fight against climate change.

The kind of methane sensor device they needed didn’t yet exist. Their task – to help communities and researchers measure methane emissions accurately and protect their water bodies – required something low-cost, rugged and portable. It would need to be deployed anywhere in the world, robust to wind and rain, run off a light battery, and contain a chamber that can fill with gases and then efficiently clear those gases to enable new measurements.

“The real-world application of this was really motivating for me,” said Grace Lo ’24, M.Eng. ’25, who is now a computer engineer for IBM. “Knowing that people are going to actually put this out in a lake or out in a real mangrove forest inspired me to make this the best device I could produce within the time limit and the supplies I had. That challenges you in a way you don’t get just by doing projects isolated in a lab.”

Sixteen months later, in partnership with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), these sensors were deployed in Colombia for the first time, informing global greenhouse gas assessments and reforestation of mangroves – ecosystems that can store up to four times more carbon per hectare than tropical rainforests.

In the future, the student-built methane sensor device could be used to study emissions from lakes, wetlands, dairy farm manure lagoons, abandoned gas wells and many other sources.

The student methane sensor development was supported by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. The Colombian mangrove research was supported through the collaborative research partnership between EDF and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability supported by the David and Patricia Atkinson Foundation.

Read more: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/04/student-built-methane-sensor-aids-mangrove-restoration-efforts.

04/21/2026

How do aluminum cans affect flavor?

In this episode of Research Matters, we dive deep into the hidden chemistry inside the aluminum can.

Food scientist Gavin Sacks, Ph.D. ’05, unpacks how subtle reactions affect the flavor, safety and shelf life of popular beverages — from wine to soda – and the innovative fixes now in development.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University | Cornell Research & Innovation

Check out the episode at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts.