Complimenting our teaching excellence, Stockbridge faculty collaborate with the Center for Agriculture, Food & the Environment (CAFE), a focused UMass Extension unit doing research to develop environmentally and economically sustainable production practices in agriculture and the green-industries, and extending that knowledge through public-facing educational programs.
Stockbridge collaborates on research using specialized science facilities:
The Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Laboratory offers comprehensive analyses of soil, plant tissue, compost, and soilless greenhouse media. It serves homeowners and backyard gardeners, commercial growers, landscaping professionals, and golf course managers, as well as engineers, consultants, and researcher scientists.
The Plant Diagnostics Laboratory offers a wide array of diagnostic services covering trees, shrubs, and pinewood nematode assays, fruits and vegetables, turfgrass disease, hemp disease and nematode assays, weed and invasive plant identification, and irrigation water testing.
Our community service programs reach out to educators and the general public:
Outreach efforts through CAFÉ affect all aspects of agriculture, including farmers, homeowners, landscape managers, golf course superintendents, sports turf managers, pesticide applicators, etc., whom we invite to share in our knowledge and resources.
Through CAFÉ we provide extensive Agriculture and Commercial Horticulture Resources for producers across these industries, including evidence-supported best practices, food safety and agricultural data, and a Green Directory of additional resources.
The CAFÉ Agriculture Research Program supports around 8000 farms in Massachusetts, stimulating innovation and research into farm techniques that reduce chemical inputs, increase yield, and keep our farmlands open and vibrant. The research agenda includes a Cranberry Station, and programs focused on dairy, livestock, fruits and vegetables, food safety, pesticide education, and crop risk management.
The CAFÉ Commercial Horticulture Research Program connects 35,000 personnel of the green industries in Massachusetts with the most up-to-date research on successful, practical, sustainable, and environmentally sound landscape and plant care. The research agenda includes programs in greenhouse crops and floriculture, landscape, nurseries, and urban forestry, turfgrass science, and integrated pest management.
We support pre-college youth programs in agriculture and the green industries:
The UMass Extension 4H Youth Development Program, open to young people ages five through 18, teaches skills for life and for work through local community 4-H clubs. 4H offers a full year of scheduled events, including short programs, summer camps, community service opportunities, and public speaking contests. Through the Massachusetts Envirothon, teams of high school students explore a common environmental topic for a school year and then, in the springtime, come together in a good-natured competition to make presentations and hear the responses from judges drawn from environmental fields.
We offer international opportunities for exchange and collaborative research:
The Stockbridge School of Agriculture (SSA) has a strong commitment to international agricultural education and experience. SSA students have opportunities to travel and study overseas and foreign students come to SSA for academic degrees every year. Members of our faculty and students participate regularly in international exchanges, research projects, and educational programs, providing a wonderful array of opportunities for our students to gain world-wide experiences. All international opportunities are managed by the UMass Amherst International Programs Office (IPO).