Some recent articles of interest:
The orchard of the future: Higher tree densities, more automation [Fruit Grower News 2015-11-02] – “If asked what commercial fruit orchards might look like in the future – even up to a century from now – those who’ve studied orchards closely will give you a wide range of answers. The speculation begins below. Greg Peck, assistant professor of horticulture at Virginia Tech [now assistant professor in the Horticulture Section in Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science], tackled this question with graduate students Ashley Thompson and Candace DeLong.” Read more.
Making a Meal That’s Bred-to-Order [The Atlantic 2015-11-10] – “Michael Mazourek and Dan Barber can trace the roots of their unusual partnership to a winter squash. A few years ago, Mazourek, a vegetable breeder and professor of plant science at Cornell University, went to the Blue Hill restaurant in New York to sample the dishes that Barber, the chef, had made from the some of Mazourek’s newly bred organic vegetables. He was expecting a good meal, he recalls—after all, he could vouch for the quality of the raw ingredients—but he was blown away by the flavor that Barber and his colleagues had coaxed from the vegetables, particularly a tiny, tan variety of butternut squash called ‘Honeynut.'” Read more.
Plant scientists tackle big data problems at workshop [Cornell Chronicle 2015-11-13] – Participants at the first Genomic and Open source Breeding Informatics Initiative (GOBII) workshop at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) the week of Nov. 2 attempted to plan a one-size-fits-all solution to handling big data in plant research programs.Read more.