Our Four Grand Challenges

Plants, their ecosystems, the soils in which they grow, and their associated microbes are foundational to our health and the health of our planet. In the face of a changing climate and growing pressure on natural and agricultural ecosystems, our research, teaching and outreach address these critical Grand Challenges.

Sustainable crop production and food security

Safeguarding future food security for all with sustainably managed nutritious crops in diverse production systems, under a changing climate, with minimal loss to weeds and pathogens.

Plants and ecosystem health

Integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation to secure ecosystem and human health and foster climate justice in diverse environments.

Biodiversity, evolution, and molecular mechanisms

Understanding plant processes from molecular to ecosystem levels, and harnessing fundamental knowledge of plants, their associated microbes, and their relationships with the environment.

Urban plants and ecosystem services

Enhancing food access and ecosystem services for equitable human and ecosystem health in high population areas.

tissue culture plants
measuring chlorophyll
field day

School of Integrative Plant Science News

Learn how our research in plant and soil sciences is advancing our knowledge and securing food security and environmental sustainability. Stories from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences newsroom.

Grower Humberto Hernandez evaluating a seed production field of Ursa Alta for Condor Seed on his farm in Yuma, Arizona.

News

New low-THC hemp fiber cultivar flourishes in NYS climate

Ursa Alta will supply material for multiple product streams, including textiles such as denim, animal bedding and wall insulation.

  • Cornell AgriTech
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
Students walk on the Ag Quad

News

With the end of another academic year in sight, we’d like to recognize the CALS class of 2026. Throughout their Cornell journey, our students explored purpose‑driven science, cultivated their passions and built meaningful connections. Guided by...
  • Agriculture Sciences Major
  • Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
  • Animal Science
hand holding grape cluster with rot

Field Note

Sour rot is a potentially devastating, late-season bunch rot of particular concern on tight clustered grapevine varieties in warm, wet years. This causes the disease to have sporadic effects on grape harvests, with some years showing only small...
  • Cornell Integrated Pest Management
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
  • Viticulture and Enology

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership. Learn more from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program website.