Cornell Hosts Better Process Control School: Cornell University hosted a Better Process Control School (BPCS) May 8–11 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. BPCS helps food processors comply with FDA and USDA regulations. “This school is designed for companies who manufacture shelf-stable foods in sealed containers such as cans, jars, cups, bowls, and flexible pouches,” said Olga Padilla-Zakour, associate professor of food processing in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Experiment Station.
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/public/comm/news/better-process.cfm

Cornell scientist works on recycling options to stop farm plastics from polluting air, water, and food: To make "ag plastic" recycling as standard as recycling plastic supermarket bags, Lois Levitan, program leader of Cornell University's Environmental Risk Analysis Program in the Department of Communication, has been spearheading efforts to develop alternatives for New York farmers who now have few disposal options other than open burning. She is identifying potential markets for purchasing used plastic film sheeting from dairies and nurseries and putting together the pieces necessary for a recycling infrastructure.
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/public/comm/news/plastics.cfm

Rough roads are highway robbers, asserts Cornell researcher — but a computer in a truck can arrest them: Rough roads impose a hidden tax on motorists in wear and tear, depreciation and higher fuel use that can cost 20 cents a gallon or more over the cost of driving on smooth surfaces, says Lynne Irwin, Cornell associate professor of highway engineering, who has been spearheading groundbreaking — or rather road-preserving — research for more than 25 years to keep roads smooth.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/rough_road.ssl.html

Evolution in action? African fish could be providing rare example of forming two separate species: "We think we are seeing evolution in action," said Matt Arnegard, a neurobiology postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Carl Hopkins, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior, who has been recording electric fish in Gabon since the 1970s.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/electric.fish.sb.html

Cornell leads initiative to promote organic milk production in New York state: “New York has a tremendous potential to become a leader in the organic milk industry," said Fay Benson, a small farms educator at Cortland County's Cornell Cooperative Extension and coordinator of the organic dairy initiative.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/organic_milk.kd.html

Child soldiers coerced into military conflicts are barrier to peace process, two Cornell researchers assert: Warfare displaces families, and displacement makes children vulnerable to military recruitment, which, in turn, feeds "a war machine that cannibalizes children," said Charles Geisler, professor of development sociology at Cornell. The continual supply of obedient, cheap and disposable child soldiers allows war to continue through a "morally repulsive" vicious cycle. His article with Niousha Roshani, a graduate student in international development at Cornell, will be published in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Forced Migration Review, which is published in French, English, Spanish, and Arabic and circulated in 175 countries.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/child_soldiers.ssl.html

Tiny wasps help keep sweet corn worm-free and customers more satisfied: "Clean" sweet corn is not easy to grow, but organic and no- or low-spray growers are successfully dealing with potential pest infestations using tiny wasps so consumers won't find little worms when they husk their corn.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/clean_corn.kd.html

Garden Mosaics takes root in South Africa to spread education and understanding through gardening: Garden Mosaics has teamed up with Rhodes University in South Africa and the World Agroforestry Centre in Malawi to develop and evaluate youth education programs that integrate local knowledge of farmers and gardeners with scientific research-based knowledge. The collaboration will also study the impact of school and community gardens on science learning in communities in Malawi, South Africa and the United States.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/gardens.africa.ssl.html

New York farmers visit Mexico to probe dairy workers' lives: In January 2007 up to 10 New York state dairy farmers will head to Mexico to help better understand Central American workers back home. "The trip is designed for farmers who hire employees from Mexico and Guatemala to experience Hispanic culture by visiting communities where dairy workers come from, and promote cross-cultural understanding in their local communities," said trip coordinator Thomas Maloney, a senior extension associate in applied economics and management at Cornell, who led a first group of eight dairy farmers to the remote mountain village of Malacatapec, Mexico, in December 2005.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/dairy.mexico.jb.html

Cornell opens doors for Emily Levitt to study malnutrition in Afghanistan: Emily Levitt, a doctoral candidate in Cornell's Program in International Nutrition, departed May 27 for Afghanistan. She will stay until February, talking to villagers to learn why malnutrition is such a persistent threat to Afghanistan 's women and children. She will focus on the remote villages of Balkh, a province that lies to the north of the Hindu Kush Mountains.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/Levitt.jg.html

Did outreach really work? Cornell team will develop tools to evaluate science and technology education: With a two-year, $605,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers led by principal investigator William Trochim, Cornell professor of policy analysis and management and director of extension evaluation for the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and of Human Ecology, will create a set of tools to evaluate NSF's science, technology, engineering and mathematics education programs.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/evaluation.ws.html

Cornell Lab of Ornithology produces a 'Who's Hooo' of North American owl sounds: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has just released a two-CD guide, "Voices of North American Owls." The CDs give voice to more than 19 species of owls and their repertoires that include more than 200 different calls.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/owls.CD.fac.html

Cornell acquires two more 'ecologically fragile' off-campus natural areas: Cornell Plantations has added two more natural areas to its just over 4,000 acres of biologically diverse and ecologically fragile natural areas. They are a 120-acre chestnut oak forest with a mountain laurel understory on Bald Hill, 13 miles southeast of Ithaca , and an approximately 20-acre fen -- a wetland with a continuous source of calcium-rich, mineral saturated groundwater -- on Old Stage Road in Groton, 15 miles northeast of campus.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/Plantation.adds.ssl.html

Challenge gift enriches Cornell experience for Native American students: A former chief of the Cayuga Wolf Clan and his wife have made a challenge grant to benefit Native American students in Cornell's American Indian Program. Frank and June Bonamie's gift of $25,000 could be tripled through the matching of other gifts to the program dollar-for-dollar through Aug. 31.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/AIP_grant.gl.html

Nurseries to give big-city test to Cornell-cloned trees and tree-growing technique: Cornell researchers are partnering with nursery operators in a project funded by the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI) to help trees thrive in harsh urban landscapes. Project leader Nina Bassuk of Cornell's Urban Horticulture Institute and Cornell Ph.D. candidate Naalamle Amissah have developed a new cloning technique called clonal propagation that allows oaks to develop their own root system, rather than growers having to use the traditional and difficult grafting method.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/oak.maple.cities.kd.html

Historic mutant corn garden grows at Cornell: To create a living maize chromosome map, a garden with 106 maize plants, each with a different type of mutation, has been planted at Cornell. The garden, which recreates a maize-chromosome-map garden planted in 1932 in honor of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics, will pay tribute to Cornell's pioneer maize geneticists, including Rollins A. Emerson and Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock. Next year, it will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Cornell's Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics and the 75th anniversary of the original garden at the 1932 genetics meeting.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/MaizeGeneMap.kr.html

Cornell Plantations and land trust partner to protect natural areas of Tompkins County: Cornell Plantations and the Finger Lakes Land Trust are partnering to protect significant natural areas within Tompkins County. Cornell also has announced its commitment of $125,000 to the land trust to help buy land and fund conservation easements in these areas.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/Finger.Lakes.Trust.ssl.html

Evolution can occur quickly and change how populations interact: This insight is critical to predicting the recovery time needed for threatened populations or for predicting disease dynamics, says Justin Meyer '04, who conducted the study as an undergraduate student with Cornell ecologists Stephen Ellner, Nelson Hairston and colleagues.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/RN.evolution.quick.ssl.html

Geneva third-graders plant seeds, while Cornell faculty plant seeds of careers in science: For the second year in a row, third-graders from the Geneva City School District are attending a summer science day camp at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/Geneva.science.camp.TK.html

Inadequate data are available to assess risk of sludge that is applied to land, CU study finds: Tens of thousands of organic chemicals from homes, farms, industries, medical facilities, street runoff and businesses are treated in waste-water treatment plants. The resulting sludge -- rich in organic matter and nutrients but also potentially containing toxic metals, pathogens and pollutants -- often is applied to land to amend soil. Yet sludge concentration data for only 516 organic chemicals can be found in peer-reviewed and official government reports, say Cornell researchers.

Of those 516 chemicals, more than 80 percent are not on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) established list of priority pollutants or on its list of target compounds, said Ellen Z. Harrison, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute at Cornell and the lead researcher of the study.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/RN.sludge.ssl.html

Cornell releases three new wine grape varieties: Cornell officially debuted three new wine grapes today (July 10), Noiret, Corot noir and Valvin Muscat, which are broadly adapted to the wine-growing regions in the East and produce high-quality varietal wines that are superior to those currently available to eastern growers today, says grape breeder Bruce Reisch, professor of horticultural sciences at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/3.new.grapes.ssl.html

Cornell plant geneticist gives local high school students lessons in living environment: Susan McCouch, professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell, has worked with local high schools since 2002 to create a hands-on laboratory experience that also meets New York 's educational standards for the Living Environment curriculum. Once again this year, students in Ithaca-area schools — Groton , Homer and Cortland — welcomed McCouch into their classrooms.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/McCouch.Groton.ssl.html

People with a sweet tooth eat more fruit, study finds: People who like sweets eat more fruit than salty-snack lovers, and people who love fruit eat more sweets than vegetable lovers do, according to two Cornell University analyses. "If we know a person likes one type of food, this kind of study helps us better predict what other types of foods he or she might prefer," said Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/RN.sweet.fruit.ssl.html

On-campus farmers' market features organic vegetables, flowers: The Cornell campus is getting even greener, thanks to the new semiweekly sale of organic flowers and vegetables grown on the student-run Dilmun Hill organic farm.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/farmers.market.ssl.html

Cornell plant scientists detect presence of plum pox virus — disease of all stone fruits — for first time in New York state: Cornell plant scientists, working with state and federal officials, have detected plum pox virus (PPV) for the first time in New York state on trees from an orchard in Niagara County. The discovery was made by the Cornell University Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic early in July and confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Plum pox is a viral disease of stone fruits, including plums, peaches, apricots and nectarines.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/Plum.Fruit.Virus.html

Cornell researchers challenge Cornell-led proposal to stock U.S. plains with lions and elephants: "We can never return North American ecosystems to the way that they were in the Pleistocene, especially since we are not sure what they really were like back then," said Dustin Rubenstein, the paper's lead author and a graduate student in Cornell's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. "The goal now should be to preserve and maintain what native ecosystems and organisms are left."

The original researchers, who include former Cornell graduate student and first author Josh Donlan and Cornell conservation biologist Harry Greene, will publish an in-depth defense of their Pleistocene rewilding in the August issue of The American Naturalist.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/RewildingRedux.kr.html

Seven-year glitch: Cornell warns that Chinese GM cotton farmers are losing money due to 'secondary' pests: Although Chinese cotton growers were among the first farmers worldwide to plant genetically modified (GM) cotton to resist bollworms, the substantial profits they have reaped for several years by saving on pesticides have now been eroded.

The reason, as reported by Cornell University researchers at the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting in Long Beach , Calif. , July 25, is that other pests are now attacking the GM cotton.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/Bt.cotton.China.ssl.html

Black currants making a comeback in New York after repeal of 1911 ban: Olga Padilla-Zakour, associate professor of food processing and director of the New York State Food Venture Center at Cornell, has been working with grower Curt Rhodes of Penn Yan, N.Y. to explore new potential products for his black currants. "Once the currants are in full production, we will be developing new beverages, jams and other products. At that time, we will be able to document the levels of beneficial anti-oxidants and vitamins in each product," Padilla-Zakour says. Red and black currants have four times more vitamin C than oranges and twice the antioxidants of blueberries.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/black.currants.ssl.html

Cornell's farm vehicles just got greener and cleaner with use of biodiesel: To pump up enthusiasm for greener, cleaner fuel on the Cornell campus, Cornell's Farm Services' 20-plus vehicle fleet of trucks, tractors, a bulldozer, a backhoe and other farm equipment has been running on B20 biodiesel exclusively for more than a month. The environmentally friendly farming experiment is going well.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/CU.biodiesel.farm.ssl.html

Cornell pest-alert network helps link attacks to changing climates: A Cornell University "trap network," begun in 1994 to alert farmers when damaging pests are threatening 60,000 acres of sweet corn across New York state, could now help researchers track how these pests respond to changing climates. "This is the sort of thing we anticipate seeing as climates shift," says Abby Seaman, a vegetable IPM extension educator with Cornell's IPM Program, who began the trap network. "We expect that insects will expand their range and reproduce more quickly. The network is giving us an idea of what pest pressure might look like in the future."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/pest.alert.climate.ssl.html

Sour power: Entrepreneur teams up with Cornell food scientists to create sports drink using tart cherries: John Davey quit his job as a Wall Street banker to work with food scientists at Cornell University to create an all-natural, restorative sports drink using sour cherries. Now he's launched his own food company. Among the first customers: the New York Rangers, who are hitting the cherry juice after every game and workout.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/cherrypharm.html

Freshness date influences consumer perceptions, regardless of food safety, study shows: "We found that as the expiration dates approached or went by, the panelists' acceptance of the food diminished, as did their perceptions of the food's healthfulness and freshness," said Brian Wansink, a Cornell professor of marketing and of nutritional sciences.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/RN.expire.date.ssl.html

Sen. Clinton and Cornell help launch fund to aid New York 's flood-devastated farmers: New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has joined Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) and the New York Farm Bureau Foundation for Agricultural Education Inc. providing feed and cash assistance to farmers in New York who have been severely affected by the recent flooding.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/forage.aid.ssl.html

Shoals mysteries: castrated snails and immigrant crabs: For years now, faculty researchers and undergraduates in the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) fellowship program at the lab on Appledore Island have worked to build an understanding of the island's interconnecting biology.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/ShoalsResearch.kr.html

The decline of just one fish species can disrupt an entire ecosystem, study finds: The flannelmouth characin is a fish that is harvested in South America ; it feeds on the organic matter on river bottoms that influences carbon flow and nutrient cycling. When Cornell ecologist Alexander Flecker and colleagues, including first author Brad W. Taylor '93, removed the species from a small stretch of a river in Venezuela , they found that the flow of organic carbon in the river dramatically changed, the researchers reported in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Science.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/RN.fish.diversity.ssl.html

Cornellia, the fiberglass cow, has been stolen (again):
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/Cornellia.stolen.ssl.html

Scoop du jour: Cornell to unveil 'Banana-Berry Skorton' ice cream at presidential inauguration: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept06/Skorton.ice.cream.html

Two graduate students named Heinz scholars: Two Cornell students have received 2006 awards from the Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research program. They are: Jason Andras, a doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology, and Hannah Shayler, a master's degree student in natural resources.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug06/Heinz.06.scholars.ssl.html

Beach plum jam, anyone? Cornell develops line of crop plants away from the dunes to make sure you get your fill: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept06/BeachPlum.kr.html

Sunny side up: Cornell's solar house landscaping wins national award: The Cornell student-designed and -built solar house that earned second place in the 2005 Solar Decathlon Competition now has won a student "Award of Honor" from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for its functional landscape.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept06/Notable.solar.house.sl.html

Cornell's free online 'eClips Career Corner' provides job-hunting advice from industry experts: "Now, anyone anywhere in the world can have access to the hundreds of business experts who visit Cornell to tell our students about the real world of business," says Deborah Streeter, the Bruce F. Failing Sr. Professor of Personal Enterprise and Small Business Management, "and hear right from industry experts how to best go about landing a job."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept06/eclips.careers.ssl.html