USDA Grants

Objective

The investigators will pursue seven related research and extension objectives focused on mushrooms, integrated pest management, and education/ outreach:

Objective 1: Detect and manage virus diseases in mushrooms.

Objective 2: Design and facilitate the adoption of IPM tools to control mushroom fly populations on mushroom farms.

Objective 3: Bacterial blotch management and impact on cap and substrate microbiomes.

Objective 4: Determine precise thermal death points for fungal and viral pathogens during the post-crop steaming process.

Objective 5: Novel broad-spectrum flavonoids from Sorghum bicolor to control fungal pathogens and insect pests of mushrooms.

Objective 6: Continued design, development, integration, and usability testing of the Cropsmarts web and mobile apps for monitoring environmental variables, pests, and diseases on mushroom farms.

Objective 7: Increase awareness, implementation, and economic impact of novel IPM solutions for mushroom growers.

The four-year study is part of a $7 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to assist American farmers. Lehigh's College of Business is taking part in a project that was awarded a $7 million Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture titled “Focusing on Novel Pest and Disease Management Strategies for U.S. Mushroom Farms.”

Lehigh Business will be represented by Phil Coles, teaching associate professor, decision and data analytics department—Coles has worked in the mushroom industry for over 40 years—and Todd Watkins, professor of economics and executive director of the Martindale Center for the Study of Private Enterprise.

“We are the only business economics researchers on the team,” said Coles. “Nobody’s tried to model the whole ecosystem from an economic optimization point-of-view. The goal is to provide a clear path to the solutions that are economically feasible.”

In this episode of Lehigh University’s College of Business ilLUminate podcast, we are speaking with Phil Coles and Todd Watkins about their roles as economists on an ambitious $7 million, multi-university and multidisciplinary U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant titled, “Focusing on Novel Pest and Disease Management Strategies for U.S. Mushroom Farms.”

Coles is a teaching associate professor in the decision and data analytics (DATA) department, who has worked in the mushroom industry for more than 40 years. Watkins is a professor of economics and has served as executive director of the Martindale Center for the Study of Private Enterprise at Lehigh since 2015.

They spoke with Jack Croft, host of the ilLUminate podcast. Listen to the podcast here and subscribe and download Lehigh Business on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.