Engaged Graduate Student Grants
Stakeholder Engagement: Avoiding Catastrophic and Chronic Losses in the New York Hop Industry
Working with new hop growers in New York to identify knowledge gaps and connect them with experts who can interpret research and communicate best practices.
New York was the center of North American hop production in the early 1900s before fungal epidemics destroyed harvests and the industry moved west. However, the number of New York hop yards has recently exploded thanks to recent growth of the US microbrewing industry and a 2012 law that incentivizes brewers to use hops and barley grown in the state. This has created a community of new growers whose inexperience puts operations at risk for catastrophic and chronic losses in yield. So Bill Weldon is working with these growers to identify information gaps and connect them with experts who can effectively interpret research and communicate best practices for growing hops in New York.
Topics: Economic Vitality and Entrepreneurship; Food and Agriculture
The Team
- Graduate student: Bill Weldon, School of Integrative Plant Science – Plant Pathology
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Special committee chair:
David Gadoury, School of Integrative Plant Science – Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Community partner: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County
- Community partner: Northeast Hop Alliance
- Community partner: USDA-ARS Corvallis
- Community partner: Pedersen Farms
- Community partner: Fowler Farms
In the News
JANUARY 2, 2018
Geneva Experiment Station helps growers hop on board
– Finger Lakes Times
NOVEMBER 30, 2017
Hop growers face challenges to meet rising brewery demands
– Cornell Chronicle