Featured profiles:

Learn how faculty in the School of Integrative Plant Science are improving the lives of urban residents

• A dose of nature can cure winter blues - Don Rakow has the prescription for better mental health by spending time with nature in the city.
• Meg McGrath battles the 'pesto pest' basil downy mildew - This plant pathologist is protecting a favorite herb at farmers markets and for windowsill and patio gardeners.
• New gardening curriculum sows the seeds of justice - Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) educators around New York are pilot tested a new curriculum that aims to teach youth gardening, leadership, and teamwork skills. Now available here.
• Virtual reality farm tour expands access to urban agriculture - Cornell researchers have created the most advanced virtual reality (VR) urban farm tour ever made – an online learning experience that promises to transport urban – and rural – farmers to New York City’s Red Hook Farms without ever leaving home.
• Reaping the benefits of city trees - Nina Bassuk has dedicated her career helping trees thrive in tough urban landscapes. See also Nina Bassuk's favorite trees

More Cornell resources:

• Urban Horticulture Institute - The Institute's mission is to improve quality of life by enhancing the functions of plants within urban ecosystems. Visit the Woody Plant Database to find trees that can thrive under tough urban conditions and help cool the urban heat island. (Includes Recommended Urban Trees publication.)  Learn about CU-Structural Soil®, which helps trees thrive in tough urban environments. Community Forestry website helps municipalities develop street tree plans.  Find other resources to help you plant, maintain and prune trees and shrubs.
• Cornell Turfgrass - Learn how you can reap the benefits of your turf areas with few, if any, pesticides in Lawn Care: The Easiest Steps to an Attractive Environmental Asset. A good lawn cools temperatures, provides a safe and fun place for outdoor play for people and pets of all ages, can catch, filter and conserve surface water and provide a host of other benefits. Includes resources, webinars for professional golf and sports turf managers.
• Nature Rx - Learn how a dose of nature can improve your mental health with this program that is spreading from the Cornell University campus to colleges around the country.
• Garden-based Learning - Whether for food, aesthetics, or ecosystem services gardens bring vitality to urban environments.  Cornell Garden-Based Learning brings you how-to information and well as curricula to help you engage children and youth in gardening activities. (See especially the new curriculum, Project SOW: Food Gardening with Justice in Mind.) Online courses are also available to help you refine your skills in organic gardening, garden design, permaculture and botanical illustration.
• Controlled Environment Agriculture - Cornell researchers are pioneering the hydroponic and lighting systems needed for vertical farms to grow high-value crops in close proximity to urban consumers. They also lead the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) public-private partnership with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that's integrating advanced energy-efficient LED lighting with improved environmental controls for more efficient and sustainable greenhouse production, and the NSF-funded CEA Viability in Metro Areas project.
• Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities - Research and education partnership with New York’s urban gardeners and others interested in healthy gardening. We help people make more informed decisions to address concerns about lead and other contaminants in gardens, farms, and other community spaces. 
• Dyce Lab Pollinator and Beekeeping Resoources - Considering becoming an urban beekeeper? Or wanting to aid pollinators of all sorts in urban environments? A good place to start is Cornell's Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies and the Pollinator Network@Cornell.
• Cornell Small Farms Program - Thinking of starting an urban or peri-urban farm? A good place to start fleshing out your ideas is through the onlline courses for aspiring, new, and experienced  farmers offered by the Cornell Small Farms Program. In addition to farming guides, the proram website includes other resouces (some en Español)  including a directory of organization in New York serving refugees in agriculture.
• Produce Safety Allliance - Collaboration between Cornell, FDA, and USDA to prepare fresh produce growers to meet the regulatory requirements included in the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule.
• Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development - Helps farms and agribusinesses build committed and effective teams who will carry out the important work of feeding the world, making agricultural work engaging and rewarding for everyone involved.