News from the Media

Cranberries are a billion-dollar industry in Massachusetts and employ more than 6,900 people. But the market is getting crowded, and that’s pushing down the price. Wisconsin has been the top grower in North America for years. Quebec has only been growing cranberries for the last 20 years, but it surpassed Massachusetts in its cranberry harvest in 2014. Why hasn’t Massachusetts kept up with Wisconsin and Quebec?  “It’s not so much that our production is down, it's that it's stable, and other areas are growing,” according to Carolyn DeMoranville, the director of the UMass Cranberry Station in Wareham. (WCAI 11/21/16)

Stockbridge School of Agriculture professor Baoshan Xing is being recognized as a UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholar. An expert in analyzing the chemical behaviors of soil and soil contaminants, Xing has been identified as a most highly cited researcher in the area of environmental and ecological sciences by Thomson-Reuters for the past three years. He represents one of the world’s “most influential scientific minds.” (11/8/16 UMass News Office)

The browntail moth that is infamous for an itchy, painful rash caused by the hairs of its larvae, increased in population and territory in Maine this year. The moths remain an occasional problem on Cape Cod, but that's the only place in Massachusetts where they're a problem, said Joe Elkinton, professor of entomology at the University of Massachusetts. (Press Enterprise [Maine], 10/23/16; Berkshire Eagle, 10/22/16)

Local apples are particularly sweet this year because of sunny weather and not much rain, a combination that adds up to apples concentrating their sugar more. That is the assessment of "Mr. Honeycrisp," as Jon Clements is known. (Herald 9/22/16)

Wildlife ecologist Curt Griffin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with postdoctoral researcher Scott Schlossberg, are members of a research team that compiled the data for the Great Elephant Census. It confirmed massive declines in African Savannah Elephants over the last decade. (9/1/16 News Office)
 

UMass Extension tree fruit specialist Jon Clements quoted on this year's apple crop in New England. (Tri-Valley Dispatch [Arizona], 9/7/2016)

Daniel Lass, University of Massachusetts resource economist, comments on low milk prices. When farmers look back at their ledgers for 2016, Lass says, “This year is going to be terrible. Horrible,” largely because of an oversupply of milk in New England as well as most places around the world. (Recorder 8/29/16)

An educator from the UMass nutrition program is stationed at Fall River farmer’s market each week. Sue Loughlin,an educator at the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program, offered free samples of garbanzo summer salad, recipes, and answers questions about nutrition. (Herald News 8/22/16)

Lili He, UMass associate professor of food chemistry, is featured in the cover story of Chemical & Engineering News, which introduces this year’s “Talented 12.” The magazine highlights skilled young chemists whose mission it is to use top-notch chemistry to solve some of the world's most diabolical scientific problems. (Chemical & Engineering News, 8/22/16)