The Eastern Broccoli Project began in 2010 with the goal of growing a $100 million broccoli industry in the Eastern U.S. in 10 years. Currently, the industry is valued at around $90 million and, with two remaining years of funding, Cornell researchers say they are on schedule to meet their goal.
"I think we're going to hit it," said Thomas Björkman, Cornell professor of horticulture and the project's principal investigator.
Between 2012 and 2017, the number of New York state broccoli farms increased from 290 to 535, and the number of Eastern Seaboard broccoli farms doubled. Yet about 85% of the broccoli consumed annually on the East Coast is shipped from California and Mexico, even with widespread enthusiasm for locally grown foods.
Hannah Swegarden, a graduate student at Cornell AgriTech holds an eastern variety of broccoli in the research field of Thomas Bjorkman, professor of horticulture.
