MN Researchers to Receive $10M For Development of Disease-Resistant Grapes

October 11, 2022 University of Minnesota

A University of Minnesota-led team of researchers received the first round of funding from a $10 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to follow up on their work with VitisGen2, a multi-disciplinary, collaborative project focused on cultivating disease-resistant grapes that can be grown sustainably with reduced pesticide and fossil fuel use.

What Are Grape Varietal Innovations Worth? Julian Alston Ph.D. Of UC Davis Paints The Picture

We have carefully followed the VitisGen and VitisGen2 project for a long time. It is a multi-institution research collaboration, funded by the USDA-NIFA Specialty Crop Research Initiative and focused on enabling the production of new grape varieties. Now the Global Grape Summit, to be held in Bakersfield, California, will continue this exploration with a presentation by Julian Alston, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Director of the Center for Wine Economics within the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California, Davis.