April 24, 2024 • 28 mins
In this episode, we, talk with Jared Buono, Director of the Hudson Valley Research Lab and the critical role that agricultural research plays in helping farmers adopt new technologies, methods, and practices to improve sustainability, efficiency, and resilience.
Buono provides insights into the lab's work on addressing issues like invasive species, plant diseases, and the impacts of climate change. He also highlights exciting projects like integrating solar panels into apple orchards and developing new crop varieties suited for the region's conditions.
This fascinating conversation underscores the importance of continued investment in agricultural research to drive innovation and ensure a viable food system for New York and beyond.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Research is the name of the game when it comes to moving New York agriculture and our food system forward.
(00:08):
Unfortunately, we have some of the best researchers in the country right here in New York State.
Hi, I'm Steve Ammerman, Director of Communications for New York Farm Bureau, and welcome to News Bites.
Research is so important to New York farmers.
Over the decades, it has led to new technology, new equipment, new methods, new breeding, a whole host of opportunities and tools to help farmers do better, be better.
(00:34):
It's led to us being more sustainable, more environmentally friendly.
It's helped our farms be more efficient, in other words, producing more food for much less inputs.
And overall, it's really helped move our food system forward.
However, we need to constantly be keeping up with research and investing in more research.
In fact, other countries in Europe and Asia are outspending the United States.
(00:58):
And that is of concern for many people because we need to make sure that we have a viable and substantial food system in this country in order to feed ourselves.
Well, recently, New York Farm Bureau went on a tour of the Hudson Valley Research Lab associated with the College of Ag and Life Sciences at Cornell, as well as their Agritech program.
And we really got a firsthand look at some really innovative programs that are happening there at the lab that will benefit particularly our fruit and vegetable growers in the Hudson Valley and ultimately across the state.
(01:27):
So today we're going to introduce you to Jared Bono.
He is the director of the research lab and is going to shine some light on some things that are really, really going to be moving our industry forward.
Well, Jared, thanks so much for joining us today on News Bites.
We were just down your way a few weeks ago for a tour of the Hudson Valley Research Lab, this part of Cornell Cowell's extension and seeing all the great work that you do down there.
(01:55):
So I'm excited to talk a little bit about that more today.
So thanks for being with us.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It was fun to host you.
Really enjoyed it.
Yeah, it was fascinating, you know, just to see the scope of the work.
So we're going to just dive right in.
And before we hear a little bit about the research lab, I'd like to hear a little bit about you.
What's your background?
What got you interested in studying agriculture and learning about ways that you can help farmers?
(02:22):
Oh, yeah.
So I grew up on a farm in the Hudson Valley, actually, a small farm in Sargities.
We were a little recreational farm, but I grew up with lots of animals, lots of chores, lots of things to do on the farm.
So always sort of been associated.
I was a 4-H kid.
And then throughout my college career, I always wanted to work in an environmental work.
(02:43):
And I was lucky enough to do a semester abroad in Africa where my sister was a Peace Corps volunteer.
So I went to West Africa and I saw subsistence farming.
I saw how important it was for people who needed it to eat on a daily basis.
I saw like food insecurity and environmental degradation in a way I hadn't seen necessarily in the Hudson Valley.
And it sort of gave me this focus to study, actually, my background is hydrology.
(03:06):
So plant-soil-water interactions is what my specialty is.
I'm not that great at growing things, but I've always been working with farmers on the water side of things.
And yeah, that's what led me back here to New York.
My wife and I have had small kids and we wanted to be back closer to home.
So after working in different parts of the world, decided to come back in 2017 and started working with Cornell Cooperative Extension at Ulster County.
(03:32):
And then I took over the Hudson Valley Research Lab about a year and a half ago.
So let's talk about the lab. It's really all encompassing and it does so much.
What is the, how did it get started?
And tell me a little bit about its history.
Well, it started a long time ago.
So we celebrated 100 years in 2023, which is pretty amazing.
So the New York State Experiment Station, the New York State Agriculture Experiment Station started in Geneva,
(03:57):
Gosh, 115, 120 years ago, they have 700 acres.
It's where a lot of the Cornell faculty are based.
And at some point in time, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, other parts in New York said, look, we love your recommendations, what you're doing in Geneva, New York.
But really, we're ahead of you by several weeks in terms of climate.
We face different disease and pest pressures.
(04:19):
Could we start an experiment station?
They convinced the legislature in New York State to start one and the governor signed it.
Gosh, 1923 was when the Hudson Valley land started.
I think the year before that, the one out on Riverhead and Long Island started.
So it's been a long time and it's where this really interesting partnership because the growers own the building I'm sitting in.
(04:40):
They maintain this facility and Cornell provides the faculty researchers who provide this applied research for the growers in Hudson Valley and Eastern New York.
So it really is a great partnership and the fact that farmers are directly involved with so much of what you do, I think really does amplify that work.
And it's pretty broad work.
(05:00):
You know, when we were down there, we saw everything from working on invasive species to plant breeding to I mean, there were so many things, you know,
ultimately, before we look into some of the projects, you know, what is the overarching goal or mission of the research lab?
So our goal is to keep agriculture vibrant in the Hudson Valley through applied research and we also support extension from this facility.
(05:23):
So we have several labs equipped for entomology and pathology horticulture work, mainly in the fruit industry,
because that's always been sort of the the largest economic driver in the Hudson Valley.
And there are still the growers who are members of the station and support the station the most.
But we do support some vegetable work being Cornell's center in the Hudson Valley, more or less.
(05:45):
We also host other parts of Cornell.
So even though we're not focused on say, field crops or livestock, our partners at New York State Integrated Pest Management from Cornell,
they're also housed here with us.
We provide them some space so that they're conducting their research in Hudson Valley here, too.
And same thing with some of the extension programs who are doing research in addition to their extension.
(06:07):
So really, it's a wide range of research that happens out of here.
We mainly focus on the agri-tech employees.
Agri-tech is the new term for the New York State Experiment Station, the agriculture experiment station.
They thought agri-tech, Cornell agri-tech sounded a little bit easier to say, but we end up explaining it still anyway.
We mainly focus on tree fruit, but there's a lot of vegetable work, field crops, livestock, berries and some viticulture that happens in here.
(06:35):
And it's research, so there's a lot of activity that goes on at the lab, but then it's applied research that then moves to the farm.
And so it's not just done in the vacuum there at the lab.
And so how integral is that relationship between the lab and the farmers in making that research workable for the farmers?
(06:57):
Gosh, it has to be out on the farms as well because there's just we have 22 acres
and we'd like to have a lot of pest and disease pressure here.
A lot of the growers don't, so we tend to reserve the space here for, you know, we'll actually inoculate with fire blight, which is deadly for orchards,
and put that into our orchard, whereas no grower is going to want us to do that.
(07:19):
So we need that separation.
But a lot of the horticulture work happens on our fields with their cooperation.
We rely on them to, and there's a lot of acres under research that growers are maintaining out there and we go out and sample.
If it wasn't for that, we don't have enough space here to do all the research that's required on 22 acres.
Well, let's break down some of that research.
(07:40):
I mean, you didn't mention fire blight is something that you're looking at.
Well, let's talk about what is fire blight and why is that a concern to the Hudson Valley?
Oh, bacteria that gets into the flowers when the trees are about to blossom and it just gets in
and will cause the, you know, all of the flower and the fruiting and even the whole end of the branch to die.
(08:03):
And it can devastate orchards.
I mean, it just takes the fruit, right?
If the fruit doesn't, can't, it's not there.
So really needs to be controlled.
And it's one of the things that growers do their best to keep out.
So there's a couple of things going on in terms of that research.
There are some of the conventional things that people are spraying.
But Cornell also has a lot of the weather models and disease models.
(08:28):
So there's a network out there called NUA.
It's weather stations on this orchard and then a lot of the growers around here.
So it's this network across the state.
And this model actually looks at what's happened in the weather in the last seven days,
what the forecast is for the next seven days.
And it actually will say, hey, look, Thursday, we've got a really high fire blight risk.
And that's a complicated model with, you know, how much humidity and rain there's been
(08:52):
and what the temperature is going to be.
They know those ideal conditions for that bacteria to get into the flymers.
So, you know, trying to always improve those models is something that we're doing here.
Another interesting thing that we're doing for fire blight specifically,
Carrick Cox, a faculty researcher up at Geneva,
and I think some of the great folks up there too, working on UV seed light,
(09:14):
instead of a spray application, actually a bright UV light that you can drive through the orchard
and expose the trees and fruit and the blossoms to, and it will destroy that bacteria.
And so we're building one of these things this year, really interesting potential application.
So we're going to try it out.
We're going to see how it works in Hudson Valley.
(09:34):
We're going to try it during the day where we're actually going to turn the lights up really bright
because we've been doing it at night for a bunch of reasons,
but we're going to try to add more power during the day.
And hopefully that doesn't damage the fruit, but also achieves the result of killing that fire blight.
Well, that's why you're able to test those things out in your lab before they go to the farm.
(09:55):
Like you said, could this damage the tree or the fruit?
You kind of want to find that out on your end before the farmers find it out on their end.
And I'm assuming that's one important component of your research
is that you can be a little more risky and take chances.
And if you lose something, it doesn't affect your livelihood, so to speak, like it would for a farmer.
(10:16):
Yeah, exactly.
You know, risk is the right term there.
You know, we're the risk capital.
Not a lot of growers have the opportunity to do a whole lot of experiments and spend the money to do that.
Whereas we can do that here.
We get money for publicly funded research and we can be pretty rough on our trees.
And we are, or it could be through, but I think it was when you came, there wasn't a whole lot on,
(10:39):
but come back in the summer, you'll see we let the pressure build pretty high.
It's good. You can take those chances.
Yeah, like you were saying that with the weather stations,
you can better predict when the tree is most at risk of fire blight.
And I'm assuming years ago, decades ago, you know, if farmers didn't have that information,
(11:04):
they may just say, well, you know what, I'm going to go out and spray today just in case when now it's more targeted.
So maybe that means less spraying, less use of chemicals.
It's just it and it's all grounded in science.
So ultimately that helps everybody.
It saves the farmers money.
It's less chemicals being used.
Is that one of the benefits of the research that you're doing?
(11:27):
Absolutely. It has to save the growers time and more money or it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for us to do.
That's what we mean when we say the applied research.
One of our growers, I think, says it best and I quote him all the time.
Ken McGreally said, you know, now more than ever, we need timely, more timely and precise recommendations.
You know, a lot of the protections, a lot of the the chemistries that were used are much less effective or powerful than they were before,
(11:53):
but they're much better for the environment.
So there's that balance.
So, yeah, just got to find out what what chemistry has worked with what we have now and and you know, how much less can we actually spray?
I think that's the goal for everybody is is using less, being more efficient and and and finding things that work better,
(12:13):
that have less of an impact.
It's just it's not getting any cheaper.
The farmer's job is so difficult as it is.
You add inflation and labor costs and there's very little margin out there for any of that.
So we're really trying to find those things.
They're going to save that.
You know, it's a game of inches.
We're going to try to find those things that save save the small percentages here or there.
And that adds up and keeps farmers farming.
(12:37):
Kind of going what Ken said.
I mean, there's always new things to coming along and we've got to find new ways of attacking them invasive species with a warmer climate.
We're seeing more things move northward.
Ottered lanternfly.
They came over from from Asia.
That's that's now risking some of the populations of our orchards and what have you.
(12:59):
I know there's a lot of work going on on the entomology side.
And can you talk a little bit about that work?
Yes.
So, you know, case in point for why there's a Hudson Valley research land is the spotted lanternfly started in Pennsylvania.
It's been growing out of their North Jersey, New York City, the lower Hudson Valley.
It's been it's I don't know if you've been in the city in a while, but it's pretty serious and significant everywhere you go.
(13:21):
And that's slowly marching north.
So being here in the mid Hudson Valley, it's coming our way.
It's already up and around us.
So we were able to start a colony before anybody else in the Cornell system because we're the further south and it was already here.
So it was easy to get those permissions to start a colony and to start look at what we can do to combat this and control the pest.
(13:41):
So, yeah, one of the reasons why you need to have these stations spread out and the spotted lanternfly is a serious threat.
I think its favorite things are in addition to it's the there's a native invasive tree that it also tends to stand,
which is called the Tree of Heaven, a lamp this and a lamp this.
Besides that, it likes apples, hops, maple grapes, which is a lot of Hudson Valley agriculture.
(14:07):
So key past for us.
And it's just spreading by the day.
We see it all the time.
And this is some of the I don't know if I showed you this when you were here.
Do you see this is a 3D printed?
Wow.
How did lanternfly that are some of the instars?
Those are the different life cycles of the lanternfly.
You can see it looks like three different insects.
Really hard to track, really hard to manage.
(14:28):
And so, yeah, so we've got some of these in a laboratory now.
They're hatching, waking up for the season and we'll be doing a couple experiments with them and tracking them in the Hudson Valley this year.
And do they kill the plants?
I mean, what kind of devastation do they pose?
They can before we really knew what was happening.
You know, there's been some horror stories in Pennsylvania like vineyards going out.
(14:49):
It's not that bad now that you can spray them.
What we're concerned about is, you know, if you're treating your farm and let's say the the tree of heaven in a forest next to your farm,
you know, there could be 10,000 of these per tree and they go to the highest point.
And so you can clear your field.
You might be able to find some chemistries that spray them.
There's some recommendations out there.
(15:11):
But then they're just coming from the forest like a like a wave.
And so we're we're wondering how much of an impact that is going to be.
But yeah, they're economically dangerous past.
So it's important that we find ways to deal with them.
And that's again, relying on the work that you and your team do.
There's also, you know, traditional research that goes on with plant breeding.
(15:36):
And Amy mentioned obviously apple and grapes.
You know, we walk through your orchards.
You have vineyards where you're able to try different things.
What is some of the work that's happening on that end of the spectrum?
Yes, so we have what the vineyard block that was the for the signature grape,
the Hudson Valley Cabernet front.
They wanted to see what grew well in Hudson Valley and what would be a good,
(15:58):
you know, wine grape, what would draw people and have like a signature name
for marketing for the Hudson Valley.
So that started here and we have some clones up on the hill.
And so we're maintaining that vineyard in partnership with our friends at Eastern
New York Commercial Horticulture Program, part of extension and harvesting
and seeing what the wine tastes like.
So we'll have some science wine for you to come and try soon to see which of
(16:20):
those clones and root stocks are best, which tastes good.
But the Cabernet Frank Coalition, which is a group of growers in the Hudson
Valley really help us maintain that.
And they're actually on site because they want, they want it grown to their
standard and not necessarily have all the disease pressure that we normally
do here.
So they want to grow to their standard so that they're getting a good idea of
(16:43):
what clones and root stocks taste the best because that's what they're going
to turn around and plant.
So we've got a lot going on like that, not just in viticulture, but also in
apples.
We're looking at a new variety trial for newer apple species.
We're turning over a lot of the blocks and pulling things out and really look
into the next, what's the next, what are the next big crops for the Hudson Valley?
What's going to grow well here?
(17:04):
Another thing that's kind of, you know, that's a big buzz in the agricultural
world is solar development.
And a lot of farms use it for on-farm energy, but there's also growing
so large-scale solar developments and some concern about, you know, loss of
farmland and what could that mean?
And you're looking to do a really interesting project with solar and
(17:25):
agri-faltaics.
I always feel like I'm saying that word wrong, but maybe I just did.
But yeah, talk a little bit about that research because it's fascinating what
you may be able to do and say in an apple orchard and incorporate solar use
along with the fruit trees.
And I thought it was fascinating when we were down there hearing you talk
(17:46):
about this.
Yeah, so yeah, agri-faltaics is the term which just means combining solar
and food production on the exact same location, like one on top of the other.
I think in Massachusetts, they're calling it dual use.
So it's so new.
It hasn't really arrived at what may be the final name, but some parts of
the world, Europe's been doing this for just over a decade and have tried
(18:07):
multiple crops and it turns out that a lot of fruit crops do pretty well
with a small amount of additional shade.
And we've seen apples and other things, berries, some other tree fruit,
actually increase yield with about an increase of 15% shade.
And it really depends on where you are and what your other conditions are.
(18:31):
But for us, what we're planning to do is put solar panels over top of the
tree rows for a high density apple orchard.
So picture the small trees that are close together and over top of those,
you've got solar panels that actually originally were made to track the
sun to be more efficient in power generation.
But what we can do is anti-track the sun where we let the sunlight into
(18:53):
the plant by aiming the solar panel away.
And so even if you have a high coverage of these panels over top of
your apple orchard, you can actually allow most of the light, 90% of the
light through depending on what the farmer wants to do with the crop.
And that's really interesting now because we might be able to do things
like hail protection where we close the panels, call it table the panels,
(19:16):
and maybe keep some of that hail from coming down onto the fruit.
Another thing we can do is early season frost where if we close the panels,
we see that underneath that daytime temperature gets trapped overnight.
We can actually increase the temperature under the panel by a few degrees.
Last May, when we had that statewide freeze, this would have been huge as
something that we could have done to save a lot of crop.
(19:38):
But other things too that we might be able to do in terms of growing these
things where culturally we know that apple trees under the hottest part of
the day and the hottest part of the season, especially these or if high
density trees have very small root stops, they get pretty water-stressed
easily and require a lot of irrigation.
They stop transpiring during the middle of the day, the hottest parts of
the day, and we're not sure what that does to the fruit.
(20:00):
It might be beneficial, it might not be, but what we're going to be able to
do is actually manipulate that with the panels to see if we can provide some
shade to these trees during the middle of the hottest part of the day to
keep either the fruit growing or not, depends on what you want to do.
Nobody wants a honeycrisp this big, but these are the kind of experiments
that we're going to do on the experiment station with this.
(20:21):
So we're looking at putting in about an acre of orchard with these panels over top.
Now, it's quite expensive, of course.
It's more expensive when you put these things up this high, and then we're
going to try to run farm operations underneath them.
But in a place like the Hudson Valley where we're constrained land-wise,
there's a lot of demand for clean energy and local foods and demand, land
(20:43):
isn't high demand, something like this stack might make sense where we can
sell the power, the growers could hopefully sell the power, and it changes
the economics of an orchard because when you plant, you don't have to wait
three, four years for five years for your yield to come in.
You can start selling power immediately as your trees are growing in.
So some really interesting things that we're going to be able to do from here,
(21:06):
and this is going to be part of a larger network within Cornell.
We're looking at different crop types, so field crops, vegetables, berries.
We're going to do specialty crops and apples here.
Fascinating.
And it's interesting how it's more than just finding ways to get power.
It's literally there could be actual benefits to the trees as well that you may find out.
So I think that's pretty cool.
(21:27):
Yeah.
So we've touched on a lot.
Anything else just in terms of the applied research that you're doing that
you want to talk about or you think, you know what, this is really cool.
People need to know about this.
No, what I'd like to do is say if there are growers out there that want to see
something, they've got an idea, you know, we're in touch with your extension agent,
(21:49):
get in touch with us.
If there's an experiment to be done, we will try it and we're interested to know
what growers want to do.
We've got a lot of innovators out there who are trying stuff and that's the kind of
stuff we want to support.
We'll help you do that and then we'll spread the word on whether it works or not.
And, you know, hopefully we'll keep the fruit industry really strong for the next
hundred years.
Absolutely.
(22:09):
Well, so I mean research in general from New York Farm Bureau's perspective is always
a priority to advocate for funding, whether at the state level or at the federal level.
And, you know, so many people don't understand all that goes into farming.
All the changes and why, you know, we always have to keep up with doing better, being
better.
And, you know, other countries are investing more in research now than the United States.
(22:34):
And so if you had to tell someone why it's so important to invest in research, what
does that sound like to you?
What how do you really want to convince someone that we need to keep up with supporting
efforts like yours in the lab?
Yeah, it's only 2% of the farm bill is as research.
(22:56):
And we're trying to get that to 4%.
It's not a whole lot when you talk about the grand scheme of things, but it's critically
important.
If you go to every year in February in Albany, all of the growers in Eastern New York,
fruits, vegetables, berries, grapes, they get together in Albany and they meet with
the scientists who've been working all year and what they're planning for the next
(23:18):
year.
And it's amazing to see how science-based this industry is and how it is critical to
growing in the modern world.
And it's just it's foundational to agriculture.
I see research.
It's just being a part of it.
Come to the Eastern New York Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Albany and Fibra and
you will you too will see it.
(23:40):
I mean, if we're going to keep up with with all the changes that are happening, it's
we have to have the information.
We have to know we have to have the tools available to change as well.
And that's what you're providing.
Yeah, and it's changing faster than you know, maybe we could keep up with before, you
know, growers could potentially keep up with something that changed over a few
(24:01):
seasons.
Now with our temperature swings, we're seeing cold hardiness in apple trees.
Jason Blondo is a professor at Abri Tech is looking at a lot of our apple trees aren't
surviving when it gets warm in February like it has for the last few years.
We get that warm spell in February.
The trees start to wake up and then it goes, you know, super cold again.
(24:22):
We're going to have hard time potentially keeping these trees going.
And that's the kind of research we need to be.
That's that's what investing in research will give us is what's that next tree
species that next Apple orchard that's going to be able to survive these changes.
So you're looking ahead.
What do you see as the future for agriculture in the Hudson Valley and obviously
(24:44):
greater interest in food production and the diversity of farms that we have not
only in the Hudson Valley, but across the state.
There are challenges many challenges facing our farms, but also a lot of great
opportunities out there.
You know, where do you see the future of agriculture in your region?
The future is bright.
Actually the latest ag census showed an increase in a certain segment of
(25:07):
farms, you know, the last the 2017 ag census showed that, you know, for the
first time in a generation, there was an increase in young farmers.
You know, farming was cool.
Again, people want to do it.
And this was before the pandemic.
And then during the pandemic, you know, a lot of the fruit growers here with cold
store rooms were opening them up to feed New York City and our local communities.
(25:27):
And people made those connections and realized, oh, we need farms for a
Brazilian food systems, resilient communities.
We need these farms.
May you know, so I see a lot of those connections being made.
Now the with the farm schoolwork farm at the institution, things that are
happening, we had a map during the pandemic that showed the general public
(25:48):
where you could go, which farms you could actually go to folks who had farms who
had never done retail before.
But during that spring of the pandemic, they were selling what they had or
were just open and it was incredible.
The amount of traffic that went to it.
This is what we had always wanted.
Right.
Now, literally 1% of the people in the US are growing the food for the rest of us.
(26:10):
You know, to be able to have those connections feels like we've got that
opportunity right now in the Hudson Valley.
People, people from all over the, you know, New York and New Jersey and
everyone else come up to the Hudson Valley to just be on farms.
Try to drive through New Paltz on a fall day where they're directing traffic
like out in the farm fields and up on the mountains, because there's just so
(26:33):
many people who want to be, you know, connected to farms and pick those
pumpkins.
And so it's an exciting time.
It is.
And hopefully with the work that you're doing at the lab, it will continue to be
exciting for many years to come.
Jared, thanks so much for chatting with us today.
And again, if people want to find out more about your work, where should
(26:55):
they go to learn that?
Go to the Cornell Agrotech website.
Very good.
Cornell Agrotech.
Yeah.
Jared, thanks so much.
And we wish you the best of luck in the upcoming season as everything is
starting to pop out soon.
So best of luck and we're all counting on you.
Don't let us down, Jared.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I'm going to get up in the orchard now.
(27:16):
I got some implements to put on some tractors.
So come back and visit.
Stop by anytime.
Anybody's welcome.
So we're right here in Highland, New York.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it, Jared.
Have a good day.
Yeah.
It really is amazing the research that's happening right here in New York State.
That's helping our farmers be better, do better, and really helping them put
their best foot forward and making sure that they're ready to address the
(27:38):
environmental, the economic challenges, all kinds of things that are going to
be coming down the pike in the coming years.
And we're fortunate to have a lot of great researchers doing a lot of great
work right here in New York State.
And we're going to be exploring more of this technology and research and
innovation in coming weeks here on News Bites as we visit Agrotech in Geneva
(28:00):
and explore more of what research means to New York farmers and why it really
does matter to all of us to have a strong, sustainable, and viable food
system here in New York State.
So, you know, it's not just New York Farm Bureau advocating for this.
We would encourage everybody who's listening to let your lawmakers know,
both at the state and the federal levels, that we need more investment
into research and we need to make sure that our farmers have the tools that
(28:23):
they need to be successful for whatever comes their way in the coming years.
It's really important for all of us to invest in our food system and in our
farmers, not only in the Hudson Valley, but across the state.
Well, we appreciate you listening today.
I'd like to thank Seth Mozer-Katz for editing today's podcast.
And as always, make sure you thank a farmer for all that they do.
Research is the name of the game when it comes to moving New York agriculture and our food system forward.
(00:08):
Unfortunately, we have some of the best researchers in the country right here in New York State.
Hi, I'm Steve Ammerman, Director of Communications for New York Farm Bureau, and welcome to News Bites.
Research is so important to New York farmers.
Over the decades, it has led to new technology, new equipment, new methods, new breeding, a whole host of opportunities and tools to help farmers do better, be better.
(00:34):
It's led to us being more sustainable, more environmentally friendly.
It's helped our farms be more efficient, in other words, producing more food for much less inputs.
And overall, it's really helped move our food system forward.
However, we need to constantly be keeping up with research and investing in more research.
In fact, other countries in Europe and Asia are outspending the United States.
(00:58):
And that is of concern for many people because we need to make sure that we have a viable and substantial food system in this country in order to feed ourselves.
Well, recently, New York Farm Bureau went on a tour of the Hudson Valley Research Lab associated with the College of Ag and Life Sciences at Cornell, as well as their Agritech program.
And we really got a firsthand look at some really innovative programs that are happening there at the lab that will benefit particularly our fruit and vegetable growers in the Hudson Valley and ultimately across the state.
(01:27):
So today we're going to introduce you to Jared Bono.
He is the director of the research lab and is going to shine some light on some things that are really, really going to be moving our industry forward.
Well, Jared, thanks so much for joining us today on News Bites.
We were just down your way a few weeks ago for a tour of the Hudson Valley Research Lab, this part of Cornell Cowell's extension and seeing all the great work that you do down there.
(01:55):
So I'm excited to talk a little bit about that more today.
So thanks for being with us.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It was fun to host you.
Really enjoyed it.
Yeah, it was fascinating, you know, just to see the scope of the work.
So we're going to just dive right in.
And before we hear a little bit about the research lab, I'd like to hear a little bit about you.
What's your background?
What got you interested in studying agriculture and learning about ways that you can help farmers?
(02:22):
Oh, yeah.
So I grew up on a farm in the Hudson Valley, actually, a small farm in Sargities.
We were a little recreational farm, but I grew up with lots of animals, lots of chores, lots of things to do on the farm.
So always sort of been associated.
I was a 4-H kid.
And then throughout my college career, I always wanted to work in an environmental work.
(02:43):
And I was lucky enough to do a semester abroad in Africa where my sister was a Peace Corps volunteer.
So I went to West Africa and I saw subsistence farming.
I saw how important it was for people who needed it to eat on a daily basis.
I saw like food insecurity and environmental degradation in a way I hadn't seen necessarily in the Hudson Valley.
And it sort of gave me this focus to study, actually, my background is hydrology.
(03:06):
So plant-soil-water interactions is what my specialty is.
I'm not that great at growing things, but I've always been working with farmers on the water side of things.
And yeah, that's what led me back here to New York.
My wife and I have had small kids and we wanted to be back closer to home.
So after working in different parts of the world, decided to come back in 2017 and started working with Cornell Cooperative Extension at Ulster County.
(03:32):
And then I took over the Hudson Valley Research Lab about a year and a half ago.
So let's talk about the lab. It's really all encompassing and it does so much.
What is the, how did it get started?
And tell me a little bit about its history.
Well, it started a long time ago.
So we celebrated 100 years in 2023, which is pretty amazing.
So the New York State Experiment Station, the New York State Agriculture Experiment Station started in Geneva,
(03:57):
Gosh, 115, 120 years ago, they have 700 acres.
It's where a lot of the Cornell faculty are based.
And at some point in time, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, other parts in New York said, look, we love your recommendations, what you're doing in Geneva, New York.
But really, we're ahead of you by several weeks in terms of climate.
We face different disease and pest pressures.
(04:19):
Could we start an experiment station?
They convinced the legislature in New York State to start one and the governor signed it.
Gosh, 1923 was when the Hudson Valley land started.
I think the year before that, the one out on Riverhead and Long Island started.
So it's been a long time and it's where this really interesting partnership because the growers own the building I'm sitting in.
(04:40):
They maintain this facility and Cornell provides the faculty researchers who provide this applied research for the growers in Hudson Valley and Eastern New York.
So it really is a great partnership and the fact that farmers are directly involved with so much of what you do, I think really does amplify that work.
And it's pretty broad work.
(05:00):
You know, when we were down there, we saw everything from working on invasive species to plant breeding to I mean, there were so many things, you know,
ultimately, before we look into some of the projects, you know, what is the overarching goal or mission of the research lab?
So our goal is to keep agriculture vibrant in the Hudson Valley through applied research and we also support extension from this facility.
(05:23):
So we have several labs equipped for entomology and pathology horticulture work, mainly in the fruit industry,
because that's always been sort of the the largest economic driver in the Hudson Valley.
And there are still the growers who are members of the station and support the station the most.
But we do support some vegetable work being Cornell's center in the Hudson Valley, more or less.
(05:45):
We also host other parts of Cornell.
So even though we're not focused on say, field crops or livestock, our partners at New York State Integrated Pest Management from Cornell,
they're also housed here with us.
We provide them some space so that they're conducting their research in Hudson Valley here, too.
And same thing with some of the extension programs who are doing research in addition to their extension.
(06:07):
So really, it's a wide range of research that happens out of here.
We mainly focus on the agri-tech employees.
Agri-tech is the new term for the New York State Experiment Station, the agriculture experiment station.
They thought agri-tech, Cornell agri-tech sounded a little bit easier to say, but we end up explaining it still anyway.
We mainly focus on tree fruit, but there's a lot of vegetable work, field crops, livestock, berries and some viticulture that happens in here.
(06:35):
And it's research, so there's a lot of activity that goes on at the lab, but then it's applied research that then moves to the farm.
And so it's not just done in the vacuum there at the lab.
And so how integral is that relationship between the lab and the farmers in making that research workable for the farmers?
(06:57):
Gosh, it has to be out on the farms as well because there's just we have 22 acres
and we'd like to have a lot of pest and disease pressure here.
A lot of the growers don't, so we tend to reserve the space here for, you know, we'll actually inoculate with fire blight, which is deadly for orchards,
and put that into our orchard, whereas no grower is going to want us to do that.
(07:19):
So we need that separation.
But a lot of the horticulture work happens on our fields with their cooperation.
We rely on them to, and there's a lot of acres under research that growers are maintaining out there and we go out and sample.
If it wasn't for that, we don't have enough space here to do all the research that's required on 22 acres.
Well, let's break down some of that research.
(07:40):
I mean, you didn't mention fire blight is something that you're looking at.
Well, let's talk about what is fire blight and why is that a concern to the Hudson Valley?
Oh, bacteria that gets into the flowers when the trees are about to blossom and it just gets in
and will cause the, you know, all of the flower and the fruiting and even the whole end of the branch to die.
(08:03):
And it can devastate orchards.
I mean, it just takes the fruit, right?
If the fruit doesn't, can't, it's not there.
So really needs to be controlled.
And it's one of the things that growers do their best to keep out.
So there's a couple of things going on in terms of that research.
There are some of the conventional things that people are spraying.
But Cornell also has a lot of the weather models and disease models.
(08:28):
So there's a network out there called NUA.
It's weather stations on this orchard and then a lot of the growers around here.
So it's this network across the state.
And this model actually looks at what's happened in the weather in the last seven days,
what the forecast is for the next seven days.
And it actually will say, hey, look, Thursday, we've got a really high fire blight risk.
And that's a complicated model with, you know, how much humidity and rain there's been
(08:52):
and what the temperature is going to be.
They know those ideal conditions for that bacteria to get into the flymers.
So, you know, trying to always improve those models is something that we're doing here.
Another interesting thing that we're doing for fire blight specifically,
Carrick Cox, a faculty researcher up at Geneva,
and I think some of the great folks up there too, working on UV seed light,
(09:14):
instead of a spray application, actually a bright UV light that you can drive through the orchard
and expose the trees and fruit and the blossoms to, and it will destroy that bacteria.
And so we're building one of these things this year, really interesting potential application.
So we're going to try it out.
We're going to see how it works in Hudson Valley.
(09:34):
We're going to try it during the day where we're actually going to turn the lights up really bright
because we've been doing it at night for a bunch of reasons,
but we're going to try to add more power during the day.
And hopefully that doesn't damage the fruit, but also achieves the result of killing that fire blight.
Well, that's why you're able to test those things out in your lab before they go to the farm.
(09:55):
Like you said, could this damage the tree or the fruit?
You kind of want to find that out on your end before the farmers find it out on their end.
And I'm assuming that's one important component of your research
is that you can be a little more risky and take chances.
And if you lose something, it doesn't affect your livelihood, so to speak, like it would for a farmer.
(10:16):
Yeah, exactly.
You know, risk is the right term there.
You know, we're the risk capital.
Not a lot of growers have the opportunity to do a whole lot of experiments and spend the money to do that.
Whereas we can do that here.
We get money for publicly funded research and we can be pretty rough on our trees.
And we are, or it could be through, but I think it was when you came, there wasn't a whole lot on,
(10:39):
but come back in the summer, you'll see we let the pressure build pretty high.
It's good. You can take those chances.
Yeah, like you were saying that with the weather stations,
you can better predict when the tree is most at risk of fire blight.
And I'm assuming years ago, decades ago, you know, if farmers didn't have that information,
(11:04):
they may just say, well, you know what, I'm going to go out and spray today just in case when now it's more targeted.
So maybe that means less spraying, less use of chemicals.
It's just it and it's all grounded in science.
So ultimately that helps everybody.
It saves the farmers money.
It's less chemicals being used.
Is that one of the benefits of the research that you're doing?
(11:27):
Absolutely. It has to save the growers time and more money or it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for us to do.
That's what we mean when we say the applied research.
One of our growers, I think, says it best and I quote him all the time.
Ken McGreally said, you know, now more than ever, we need timely, more timely and precise recommendations.
You know, a lot of the protections, a lot of the the chemistries that were used are much less effective or powerful than they were before,
(11:53):
but they're much better for the environment.
So there's that balance.
So, yeah, just got to find out what what chemistry has worked with what we have now and and you know, how much less can we actually spray?
I think that's the goal for everybody is is using less, being more efficient and and and finding things that work better,
(12:13):
that have less of an impact.
It's just it's not getting any cheaper.
The farmer's job is so difficult as it is.
You add inflation and labor costs and there's very little margin out there for any of that.
So we're really trying to find those things.
They're going to save that.
You know, it's a game of inches.
We're going to try to find those things that save save the small percentages here or there.
And that adds up and keeps farmers farming.
(12:37):
Kind of going what Ken said.
I mean, there's always new things to coming along and we've got to find new ways of attacking them invasive species with a warmer climate.
We're seeing more things move northward.
Ottered lanternfly.
They came over from from Asia.
That's that's now risking some of the populations of our orchards and what have you.
(12:59):
I know there's a lot of work going on on the entomology side.
And can you talk a little bit about that work?
Yes.
So, you know, case in point for why there's a Hudson Valley research land is the spotted lanternfly started in Pennsylvania.
It's been growing out of their North Jersey, New York City, the lower Hudson Valley.
It's been it's I don't know if you've been in the city in a while, but it's pretty serious and significant everywhere you go.
(13:21):
And that's slowly marching north.
So being here in the mid Hudson Valley, it's coming our way.
It's already up and around us.
So we were able to start a colony before anybody else in the Cornell system because we're the further south and it was already here.
So it was easy to get those permissions to start a colony and to start look at what we can do to combat this and control the pest.
(13:41):
So, yeah, one of the reasons why you need to have these stations spread out and the spotted lanternfly is a serious threat.
I think its favorite things are in addition to it's the there's a native invasive tree that it also tends to stand,
which is called the Tree of Heaven, a lamp this and a lamp this.
Besides that, it likes apples, hops, maple grapes, which is a lot of Hudson Valley agriculture.
(14:07):
So key past for us.
And it's just spreading by the day.
We see it all the time.
And this is some of the I don't know if I showed you this when you were here.
Do you see this is a 3D printed?
Wow.
How did lanternfly that are some of the instars?
Those are the different life cycles of the lanternfly.
You can see it looks like three different insects.
Really hard to track, really hard to manage.
(14:28):
And so, yeah, so we've got some of these in a laboratory now.
They're hatching, waking up for the season and we'll be doing a couple experiments with them and tracking them in the Hudson Valley this year.
And do they kill the plants?
I mean, what kind of devastation do they pose?
They can before we really knew what was happening.
You know, there's been some horror stories in Pennsylvania like vineyards going out.
(14:49):
It's not that bad now that you can spray them.
What we're concerned about is, you know, if you're treating your farm and let's say the the tree of heaven in a forest next to your farm,
you know, there could be 10,000 of these per tree and they go to the highest point.
And so you can clear your field.
You might be able to find some chemistries that spray them.
There's some recommendations out there.
(15:11):
But then they're just coming from the forest like a like a wave.
And so we're we're wondering how much of an impact that is going to be.
But yeah, they're economically dangerous past.
So it's important that we find ways to deal with them.
And that's again, relying on the work that you and your team do.
There's also, you know, traditional research that goes on with plant breeding.
(15:36):
And Amy mentioned obviously apple and grapes.
You know, we walk through your orchards.
You have vineyards where you're able to try different things.
What is some of the work that's happening on that end of the spectrum?
Yes, so we have what the vineyard block that was the for the signature grape,
the Hudson Valley Cabernet front.
They wanted to see what grew well in Hudson Valley and what would be a good,
(15:58):
you know, wine grape, what would draw people and have like a signature name
for marketing for the Hudson Valley.
So that started here and we have some clones up on the hill.
And so we're maintaining that vineyard in partnership with our friends at Eastern
New York Commercial Horticulture Program, part of extension and harvesting
and seeing what the wine tastes like.
So we'll have some science wine for you to come and try soon to see which of
(16:20):
those clones and root stocks are best, which tastes good.
But the Cabernet Frank Coalition, which is a group of growers in the Hudson
Valley really help us maintain that.
And they're actually on site because they want, they want it grown to their
standard and not necessarily have all the disease pressure that we normally
do here.
So they want to grow to their standard so that they're getting a good idea of
(16:43):
what clones and root stocks taste the best because that's what they're going
to turn around and plant.
So we've got a lot going on like that, not just in viticulture, but also in
apples.
We're looking at a new variety trial for newer apple species.
We're turning over a lot of the blocks and pulling things out and really look
into the next, what's the next, what are the next big crops for the Hudson Valley?
What's going to grow well here?
(17:04):
Another thing that's kind of, you know, that's a big buzz in the agricultural
world is solar development.
And a lot of farms use it for on-farm energy, but there's also growing
so large-scale solar developments and some concern about, you know, loss of
farmland and what could that mean?
And you're looking to do a really interesting project with solar and
(17:25):
agri-faltaics.
I always feel like I'm saying that word wrong, but maybe I just did.
But yeah, talk a little bit about that research because it's fascinating what
you may be able to do and say in an apple orchard and incorporate solar use
along with the fruit trees.
And I thought it was fascinating when we were down there hearing you talk
(17:46):
about this.
Yeah, so yeah, agri-faltaics is the term which just means combining solar
and food production on the exact same location, like one on top of the other.
I think in Massachusetts, they're calling it dual use.
So it's so new.
It hasn't really arrived at what may be the final name, but some parts of
the world, Europe's been doing this for just over a decade and have tried
(18:07):
multiple crops and it turns out that a lot of fruit crops do pretty well
with a small amount of additional shade.
And we've seen apples and other things, berries, some other tree fruit,
actually increase yield with about an increase of 15% shade.
And it really depends on where you are and what your other conditions are.
(18:31):
But for us, what we're planning to do is put solar panels over top of the
tree rows for a high density apple orchard.
So picture the small trees that are close together and over top of those,
you've got solar panels that actually originally were made to track the
sun to be more efficient in power generation.
But what we can do is anti-track the sun where we let the sunlight into
(18:53):
the plant by aiming the solar panel away.
And so even if you have a high coverage of these panels over top of
your apple orchard, you can actually allow most of the light, 90% of the
light through depending on what the farmer wants to do with the crop.
And that's really interesting now because we might be able to do things
like hail protection where we close the panels, call it table the panels,
(19:16):
and maybe keep some of that hail from coming down onto the fruit.
Another thing we can do is early season frost where if we close the panels,
we see that underneath that daytime temperature gets trapped overnight.
We can actually increase the temperature under the panel by a few degrees.
Last May, when we had that statewide freeze, this would have been huge as
something that we could have done to save a lot of crop.
(19:38):
But other things too that we might be able to do in terms of growing these
things where culturally we know that apple trees under the hottest part of
the day and the hottest part of the season, especially these or if high
density trees have very small root stops, they get pretty water-stressed
easily and require a lot of irrigation.
They stop transpiring during the middle of the day, the hottest parts of
the day, and we're not sure what that does to the fruit.
(20:00):
It might be beneficial, it might not be, but what we're going to be able to
do is actually manipulate that with the panels to see if we can provide some
shade to these trees during the middle of the hottest part of the day to
keep either the fruit growing or not, depends on what you want to do.
Nobody wants a honeycrisp this big, but these are the kind of experiments
that we're going to do on the experiment station with this.
(20:21):
So we're looking at putting in about an acre of orchard with these panels over top.
Now, it's quite expensive, of course.
It's more expensive when you put these things up this high, and then we're
going to try to run farm operations underneath them.
But in a place like the Hudson Valley where we're constrained land-wise,
there's a lot of demand for clean energy and local foods and demand, land
(20:43):
isn't high demand, something like this stack might make sense where we can
sell the power, the growers could hopefully sell the power, and it changes
the economics of an orchard because when you plant, you don't have to wait
three, four years for five years for your yield to come in.
You can start selling power immediately as your trees are growing in.
So some really interesting things that we're going to be able to do from here,
(21:06):
and this is going to be part of a larger network within Cornell.
We're looking at different crop types, so field crops, vegetables, berries.
We're going to do specialty crops and apples here.
Fascinating.
And it's interesting how it's more than just finding ways to get power.
It's literally there could be actual benefits to the trees as well that you may find out.
So I think that's pretty cool.
(21:27):
Yeah.
So we've touched on a lot.
Anything else just in terms of the applied research that you're doing that
you want to talk about or you think, you know what, this is really cool.
People need to know about this.
No, what I'd like to do is say if there are growers out there that want to see
something, they've got an idea, you know, we're in touch with your extension agent,
(21:49):
get in touch with us.
If there's an experiment to be done, we will try it and we're interested to know
what growers want to do.
We've got a lot of innovators out there who are trying stuff and that's the kind of
stuff we want to support.
We'll help you do that and then we'll spread the word on whether it works or not.
And, you know, hopefully we'll keep the fruit industry really strong for the next
hundred years.
Absolutely.
(22:09):
Well, so I mean research in general from New York Farm Bureau's perspective is always
a priority to advocate for funding, whether at the state level or at the federal level.
And, you know, so many people don't understand all that goes into farming.
All the changes and why, you know, we always have to keep up with doing better, being
better.
And, you know, other countries are investing more in research now than the United States.
(22:34):
And so if you had to tell someone why it's so important to invest in research, what
does that sound like to you?
What how do you really want to convince someone that we need to keep up with supporting
efforts like yours in the lab?
Yeah, it's only 2% of the farm bill is as research.
(22:56):
And we're trying to get that to 4%.
It's not a whole lot when you talk about the grand scheme of things, but it's critically
important.
If you go to every year in February in Albany, all of the growers in Eastern New York,
fruits, vegetables, berries, grapes, they get together in Albany and they meet with
the scientists who've been working all year and what they're planning for the next
(23:18):
year.
And it's amazing to see how science-based this industry is and how it is critical to
growing in the modern world.
And it's just it's foundational to agriculture.
I see research.
It's just being a part of it.
Come to the Eastern New York Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Albany and Fibra and
you will you too will see it.
(23:40):
I mean, if we're going to keep up with with all the changes that are happening, it's
we have to have the information.
We have to know we have to have the tools available to change as well.
And that's what you're providing.
Yeah, and it's changing faster than you know, maybe we could keep up with before, you
know, growers could potentially keep up with something that changed over a few
(24:01):
seasons.
Now with our temperature swings, we're seeing cold hardiness in apple trees.
Jason Blondo is a professor at Abri Tech is looking at a lot of our apple trees aren't
surviving when it gets warm in February like it has for the last few years.
We get that warm spell in February.
The trees start to wake up and then it goes, you know, super cold again.
(24:22):
We're going to have hard time potentially keeping these trees going.
And that's the kind of research we need to be.
That's that's what investing in research will give us is what's that next tree
species that next Apple orchard that's going to be able to survive these changes.
So you're looking ahead.
What do you see as the future for agriculture in the Hudson Valley and obviously
(24:44):
greater interest in food production and the diversity of farms that we have not
only in the Hudson Valley, but across the state.
There are challenges many challenges facing our farms, but also a lot of great
opportunities out there.
You know, where do you see the future of agriculture in your region?
The future is bright.
Actually the latest ag census showed an increase in a certain segment of
(25:07):
farms, you know, the last the 2017 ag census showed that, you know, for the
first time in a generation, there was an increase in young farmers.
You know, farming was cool.
Again, people want to do it.
And this was before the pandemic.
And then during the pandemic, you know, a lot of the fruit growers here with cold
store rooms were opening them up to feed New York City and our local communities.
(25:27):
And people made those connections and realized, oh, we need farms for a
Brazilian food systems, resilient communities.
We need these farms.
May you know, so I see a lot of those connections being made.
Now the with the farm schoolwork farm at the institution, things that are
happening, we had a map during the pandemic that showed the general public
(25:48):
where you could go, which farms you could actually go to folks who had farms who
had never done retail before.
But during that spring of the pandemic, they were selling what they had or
were just open and it was incredible.
The amount of traffic that went to it.
This is what we had always wanted.
Right.
Now, literally 1% of the people in the US are growing the food for the rest of us.
(26:10):
You know, to be able to have those connections feels like we've got that
opportunity right now in the Hudson Valley.
People, people from all over the, you know, New York and New Jersey and
everyone else come up to the Hudson Valley to just be on farms.
Try to drive through New Paltz on a fall day where they're directing traffic
like out in the farm fields and up on the mountains, because there's just so
(26:33):
many people who want to be, you know, connected to farms and pick those
pumpkins.
And so it's an exciting time.
It is.
And hopefully with the work that you're doing at the lab, it will continue to be
exciting for many years to come.
Jared, thanks so much for chatting with us today.
And again, if people want to find out more about your work, where should
(26:55):
they go to learn that?
Go to the Cornell Agrotech website.
Very good.
Cornell Agrotech.
Yeah.
Jared, thanks so much.
And we wish you the best of luck in the upcoming season as everything is
starting to pop out soon.
So best of luck and we're all counting on you.
Don't let us down, Jared.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I'm going to get up in the orchard now.
(27:16):
I got some implements to put on some tractors.
So come back and visit.
Stop by anytime.
Anybody's welcome.
So we're right here in Highland, New York.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it, Jared.
Have a good day.
Yeah.
It really is amazing the research that's happening right here in New York State.
That's helping our farmers be better, do better, and really helping them put
their best foot forward and making sure that they're ready to address the
(27:38):
environmental, the economic challenges, all kinds of things that are going to
be coming down the pike in the coming years.
And we're fortunate to have a lot of great researchers doing a lot of great
work right here in New York State.
And we're going to be exploring more of this technology and research and
innovation in coming weeks here on News Bites as we visit Agrotech in Geneva
(28:00):
and explore more of what research means to New York farmers and why it really
does matter to all of us to have a strong, sustainable, and viable food
system here in New York State.
So, you know, it's not just New York Farm Bureau advocating for this.
We would encourage everybody who's listening to let your lawmakers know,
both at the state and the federal levels, that we need more investment
into research and we need to make sure that our farmers have the tools that
(28:23):
they need to be successful for whatever comes their way in the coming years.
It's really important for all of us to invest in our food system and in our
farmers, not only in the Hudson Valley, but across the state.
Well, we appreciate you listening today.
I'd like to thank Seth Mozer-Katz for editing today's podcast.
And as always, make sure you thank a farmer for all that they do.
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