March 26, 2026
Penn State students from the College of Agricultural Sciences and the School of International Affairs traveled to Costa Rica for an experiential spring break program exploring sustainable agroforestry, local food systems, and community development.
March 4, 2026
Penn State is celebrating global cocoa heritage and its own research legacy through "The Spirit of Chocolate," a multimedia art installation that connects ancient Indigenous cacao traditions to modern agricultural science.
February 26, 2026
Penn State highlighted the intersection of agricultural science, history, and sensory experience at the Palmer Museum of Art through "The Spirit of Chocolate" installation and tasting event, celebrating cacao's ancient roots and modern global impact.
February 25, 2026
Penn State’s "The Spirit of Chocolate" installation and tasting event brought together science, art, and storytelling to honor over 5,000 years of cacao history, celebrate university research, and amplify the voices of Indigenous cacao farmers.
January 5, 2026
Learn about how cacao is cultivated, highlighting the crucial role that tiny midges play in pollinating cacao blossoms and the multi-step fermentation process required to turn raw cacao beans into chocolate.
October 23, 2025
Penn State researchers used CRISPR gene-editing technology to disable a suppressor gene in cacao plants, successfully boosting their natural resistance to black pod disease and offering a regulatory-friendly approach to protecting global chocolate supplies.
October 6, 2025
Penn State researchers used CRISPR gene-editing technology to modify a specific gene in cacao plants, boosting their natural defenses against black pod disease without leaving foreign DNA and offering a regulatory-friendly solution to protect global chocolate supplies.
September 23, 2025
Penn State researchers combined CRISPR gene editing with traditional crossbreeding to develop disease-resistant cacao plants free of foreign DNA, offering a regulatory-friendly approach to protect global chocolate supplies from black pod disease.
July 2, 2025
Faculty and students from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences collaborated with international partners in Bogotá, Colombia, for the landmark Páramos 2025 Symposium, uniting nearly 60 global scientists, artists, and leaders to advance climate resilience and conservation strategies for high-altitude Andean ecosystems.
September 16, 2024
Nine Penn State researchers have been named fellows of the Institute of Energy and the Environment for 2024. The program recognizes and assists the exceptional achievements and unparalleled research impacts of highly successful researchers in the areas of energy and the environment. Nominees for the fellowship were submitted by the University community.
June 26, 2024
Cacao, the chocolate tree, is one of the world’s most important economic crops, generating hundreds of billions of dollars annually. However, cocoa is affected by a range of pests and diseases, with some estimates putting losses as high as 30% to 40% of global production. Now, a team led by researchers at Penn State has created a genetic information resource to help plant breeders develop resistant strains of cacao that can be grown sustainably in its native Amazon and elsewhere, such as the tropical latitudes of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
June 7, 2024
A collaborative effort between Penn State University and the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE) inspired a successful workshop that charted future interdisciplinary activities on developing agroforestry systems for sustainable and climate-resilient solutions and ecosystem conservation in Latin America.
October 16, 2023
Three projects have been awarded seed grants as part of the Penn State-Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education initiative. Faculty and students from Penn State will research agricultural and ecological sustainability, preservation of tropical rainforest ecosystems, and sustainable development in Belize.
October 2, 2023
Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that poses a threat to food safety via the ingestion of food products with Cd. The uptake of Cd by the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) has gained attention after the European Union set limits for Cd in chocolate products, the main commodity produced from cacao beans. In this study, we analyzed levels of Cd in soils and plant tissues across five cacao farms in the Piura region of Peru to identify the origins of Cd accumulation, and the natural and human factors controlling its concentration
October 2, 2023
Identifying the effectiveness of agricultural interventions is a challenge faced by many international aid initiatives. This article reports on our efforts to document the success of agricultural aid interventions.
September 14, 2023
A Penn State-led international team received a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant to investigate how climate change affects soil microbes and carbon storage in Colombia's high-altitude Páramos ecosystem.
August 26, 2021
An exhaustive and painstaking comparison of the genomes of multiple strains of the cacao tree by a team of researchers has provided insights into the role genomic structural variants play in the regulation of gene expression and chromosome evolution, giving rise to the differences within populations of the plant.
