Richard Ha writes:
I have been appointed to a national, 25-person Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee. It’s the revival of an old committee.
I’ve been asked for two or three topics of interest; let me know if you have any thoughts. We’re being asked to present ideas ahead of time so they can prepare for any necessary speakers in advance of our first meeting at the end of September. I welcome your thoughts.
Aloha Richard,
We need more work on developing new varieties for Hawaii, especially vegetables. UH stopped this work in the early 1980’s. With climate change, we could be the leaders in this kind of research. I’ve been working with some Oregon seed growers in developing heat tolerant lettuce. They breed for disease resistance and we select for heat tolerance, including tip burn tolerance and bolt tolerance. The latest is Manoa Leopard, a spotted Manoa lettuce. This is only the beginning! I was talking to a tomato grower in Long Island NY and she grows for a high-end market in the city, but she deals with super wet conditions. The crop is soaking wet until 11 each morning. I asked her what was the best variety and she told me Anahu, a variety developed by Dr. Jim Gilbert of UH in the 1970’s. We don’t realize the impact of our research in Hawaii and its impact in the US and also the tropical world. Conventional breeding is still needed, and Hawaii is the best place to do it because we can do it faster than anywhere else. I hope you can push this agenda at you fruit and vegetable meetings. Mahalo, Glenn Teves
Mahalo Glenn
I was thinking about just what you mention. I will inquire and lend my support to this initiative. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Aloha
Richard