Sen. Chuck Schumer announced today $68.9 million in funding to build a new laboratory for the federal Grape Genetic Research Unit at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York. The Grape Genetic Research Unit provides critical information to grape growers across the country through a variety of innovative research programs, including cold tolerance and improved resistance to crop-killing disease.

Agriculture and Life Sciences

Food & Agriculture

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Christopher Gerling, an enologist and craft-beverage expert, says that local sourcing and geographical identification are key ingredients to Empire Rye and other regional food and drink.g

Food & Agriculture

Agriculture and Life Sciences

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Elizabeth Bunting, Gen Meredith, Karyn Havas and Caroline Yancey explain the impact of rabies worldwide and provide prevention tips.

Life Sciences & Veterinary Medicine

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Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University and faculty fellow at Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, comments on the Trump administration's proposed plan for coal emissions.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

Law, Government & Public Policy

Agriculture and Life Sciences

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Marvin Pritts, a horticulture professor and small fruit specialist at Cornell University, says a later winter combined with cooler weather in April produced a strawberry crop that is smaller than in years past, but that same cool weather set up the blueberry and raspberry crops for a remarkable season.

Agriculture and Life Sciences

Food & Agriculture

New York State

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Essential workers at online and brick-and-mortar stores have been increasingly vocal with dissatisfaction about how their employers have treated them during the pandemic. Employees at Target and Amazon, among others, are planning mass “sick-outs” to protest what they perceive as management’s disregard for their health and safety. Angela Cornell and Patricia Campos-Medina comment on how the government and consumers must step up to safeguard workers. 

Economics and Business

Industrial and Labor Relations

Law School

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The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on an Upstate New York dairy farm last week resulted in the arrest of an undocumented farmworker and has raised questions about the legitimacy of such federal actions. Mary Jo Dudley, Director of the Cornell University Farmworker Program and a faculty member in the Department of Development Sociology, says that immigration policies need to change both to protect the rights of farmworkers and to support the struggling dairy industry.

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On Wednesday, as effects of the coronavirus pandemic started hitting the U.S. job market, the Senate approved an emergency stimulus package to help businesses avoid mass layoffs. Cornell University economists, Paul Davis and Ian Greer are available to discuss the package, in particular, the measures taken to control unemployment. They also offer some perspective on what businesses and the government could do to further ease the effects of massive layoffs.

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A handful of New York state craft distilleries is launching a new, regional whiskey, “Empire Rye.” Bradley J. Rickard, an expert on economic and policy issues in food and beverage markets – and associate professor in Cornell University’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, notes that such industry-led initiatives are driven by the value that consumers increasingly place on knowing where a product is produced, how it is produced and where its ingredients come from.

Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Food & Agriculture

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced his support for The Medical Aid in Dying Act, which would allow terminally ill adults in New York to request and obtain prescriptions for life-ending medication from their doctors. Clinical ethicist Dr. Kim Overby says given the complexity of aid in dying, it’s critical that the consequences of new legislation be evaluated. Professor of wildlife health and health policy, Steven Osofsky, shares a personal experience related to aid in dying.

New York State

Health, Nutrition & Medicine

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