News from the Center

The UMass Cranberry Station in East Wareham, the 100-year-old premier research facility on cranberry production, is due to get a laboratory infrastructure upgrade and addition in the next 18 months or so. Funded with $5.75M from the Commonwealth and $2M from UMass Amherst, the construction project is now open for bids. Bid documents available here. General bids are due on June 9.  Sub-bids are due on May 26. There are walk-through times available, sorted by work type, on May 13. Read more...

Spotted Lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, an invasive insect native to Asia, was first detected in the United States in 2014, in southeastern Pennsylvania. This highly destructive pest has spread rapidly across the northeastern region of the United States. SLF has the potential to cause catastrophic damage to Massachusetts agricultural and horticultural industries. Update on SLF: July 23, 2021

Creative people continue to find fun ways to celebrate traditional events, even during a pandemic. Mass 4-H has proven once again that staying at home does not have to dampen kids’ spirits.   

We are working hard to make our expertise and resources available to you in this challenging time. While in-person events and some on-campus services are suspended to protect public health, we are continuing with some scouting and farm visits, and many existing and new resources are available online and through virtual delivery.

Ahhh, twilight meetings: much-anticipated moments for farmers. So what do Extension and Massachusetts growers do when a coronavirus pandemic changes the in-person meet up?  They pivot: information now flows virtually, over Youtube channels, conference calls and zoom meetings.

Solar power is one step closer to serving rural Massachusetts. The University of Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Extension will work with three Western Massachusetts communities--Blandford, Wendell and Westhampton--to develop plans for siting solar panels, in a project funded by a grant from the federal Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

If you are a grower, work for an agency, non-profit organization, or business that intersects with agriculture, the document you’ve been waiting for is now available. The results of the every-five-year federal census of agriculture came out months ago, but now you can make use of an easier-to-read version of the results for Massachusetts.

The Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, along with other sponsors, hosted the Massachusetts Ecosystem Climate Adaptation Network’s  third annual conference on Tuesday, Oct. 29 in Newton.

The CAFE Summer Scholars Program completed its fourth year in 2019 with another varied selection of academic research and extension projects.