March 10, 2017
CapitalPress.com
9
Network aims to link plant breeders, chefs
By MARGARETT WATERBURY
For the Capital Press
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velopment of a new open-pol-
linated variety called Stocky
Red Roaster from Wild Gar-
den Seed in Philomath, Ore.
Selman has spent the last
three years scaling that strat-
egy. She formed an organi-
zation called the Culinary
Breeding Network with the
mission of creating stronger
links between plant breed-
ers and the consumers who
depend on them. The orga-
nization focuses on breeding
open-pollinated varieties for
organic systems, but Selman
says the benefits extend well
beyond the organic market.
“When we say, ‘varieties
bred for organic systems,’ it
just means they’re able to per-
form well without a lot of in-
puts, and that saves money for
conventional farmers. Con-
ventional farmers are impact-
ed by hybrid churn, too. More
resilience, better flavor, these
are things all farmers want,”
Selman says.
Another benefit of the
project has been an increased
interest in, and understanding
of, plant breeding among the
public. Selman says, “When
I went to the North American
Plant Breeders’ Association
meeting last year, they talked
a lot about how important it
is to engage and educate the
general public about plant
breeding and the misconcep-
tions behind it. What’s GE?
What’s a hybrid? The CBN
has become very friendly way
to put plant breeding on the
general public’s radar.”
One of the ways the CBN
has reached out to the public
is through its annual Vari-
ety Showcase. The showcase
pairs seed breeders with one
or more chefs who prepare
dishes that showcase current
breeding projects. Held in
Portland, the event sells out
each year, and has attracted
national sponsorship.
Moving forward, Selman
hopes to expand her model
to other regions of the Unit-
ed States. Organizations in
Wisconsin, New York and
Maine have all expressed in-
terest in replicating the Cu-
linary Breeding Network’s
strategy.
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Oregon State University
Lane Selman, an agricultural
researcher at Oregon State
University, has established a
network that allows breeders
to talk directly with users to
develop vegetable varieties
that best suit their needs.
Oregon State University
agricultural researcher Lane
Selman wants to see more
chefs and produce buyers step
out of the kitchen and onto the
farm.
During the course of her
career, Selman observed that
seed breeders’ decisions di-
rectly impact growers, mar-
keters and buyers. Yet few of
those downstream stakehold-
ers knew about current breed-
ing projects, and fewer still
understood the enormous im-
pact seed breeding has on the
landscape of the agricultural
and food system.
Would connecting breed-
ers with downstream crop
consumers result in better,
more useful plant breeding
projects? she wondered.
She held a tasting event in
Portland, and invited several
local chefs to evaluate sweet
peppers from a current variety
trial in fresh, roasted and sau-
téed form.
Not only did they provide
excellent flavor feedback,
they volunteered important
information previously not
considered in the project.
For example, peppers with
a sunken stem yield more
waste than smooth-shoul-
dered peppers. Crinkled pep-
pers are harder to de-seed and
process.
Their input guided the de-
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