Plant Breeding Innovation: Super-Powering Our Salads
- On September 14, 2022
Americans love lettuce. In fact, the average American eats about 30 pounds of it every year – five times more than what we ate in the early 1900s – making lettuce the second most popular fresh vegetable in the U.S. But lettuce doesn’t grow just anywhere. It thrives in moderate climates, where it doesn’t get too hot or too cold. More than 90 percent of U.S. lettuce production is located in California and Arizona. University of Florida plant breeder Germán Sandoya-Miranda is working to expand the possibilities.
“Plant breeders feed the world, and in a way, we also contribute to regional economic stability,” Sandoya-Miranda explains. “While lettuce is not a fundamental food that would end hunger, it can have a huge impact on regional economies.” That makes sense when you consider the crop in the U.S. alone is worth about 3 billion dollars.
