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Virginia Farmer Advancing Edible Winter Pea Breeding to Expand Grain Versatility
KEEZLETOWN, Virginia – On a shelf at Tangly Woods, a 6-acre homesteading farm at the base of the Shenandoah Mountains, sits the 1982 land survey map book for Rockingham County with a description of the farm property’s soil stating, “Not suitable for agriculture.” But for the past two decades, Jason Myers-Benner and his family have […]
Vanilla Could Be the Next Big Crop for Small Farmers in Southern Florida
HOMESTEAD, Florida – Florida is on the cusp of a new agricultural crop that could give small farmers in the southern region of the state a high-value alternative to vegetable and fruit production. University of Florida researchers at the Tropical Research and Education Center have embarked on a comprehensive evaluation of vanilla – from developing […]
Breeding a Better Butternut
LOUISA, Virginia – Virginia farmer Edmund Frost is on a mission to develop the ideal butternut squash: a disease-resistant prolific producer of consistent shape and size with unparalleled taste. Or maybe a few ideal varieties. Since 2013, Frost, who started the seed company Common Wealth Seed Growers in 2014, has received funding from the Southern […]
Breeding Organic Corn Varieties to Resist GMO Contamination
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee – Breeders with the University of Tennessee are developing organic corn varieties that cannot be contaminated by GMO corn (genetically modified organisms) via cross-pollination. A corn ear from a Ga1s line pollinated with pollen from a GMO corn hybrid (upper ear with no seeds) and the same line pollinated with pollen from a […]