July 2019 - 1

Ag census: Greenhouse
tomato space soars
Cold spring, California
rains, set up 2019
harvest
8
14
16
Modern irrigation
practices shaped by
new tools
July 2019 | Volume 53 |
Issue 7
Joyce Van Eck of the Boyce Thompson Institute is researching ways to make ground cherries and goldenberries easier to grow commercially. Photo: Mike Carroll/Boyce Thompson Institute
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Talking to researchers and companies
about their genetically-engineered projects
for specialty crops is a little bit like a trip to
a grower's dream world.
Imagine ground cherries that stay on the
plant until harvest, potatoes that are more
nutritious and disease-resistant, apples that
genetically dodge browning after slicing,
industrial hemp varieties fine-tuned for
growers and microbes that help protect
crops from diseases and pests.
These projects are in various stages of
completion - and their place in the market
in some cases hasn't yet been determined.
Public attitudes - and those of growers
- on genetically modified organisms
(GMOs) and organisms engineered with
next-generation technologies are not yet
universally accepted.
Genetically-engineered specialty crops
will find a niche of some kind in future
markets. Researchers and industry leaders
say it's up to growers and consumers to
decide how they're used.
Grower confidence
The amount of confidence growers put
in genome editing varies widely. Joyce
Van Eck of the Boyce Thompson Institute
at Cornell University is overjoyed to
have a few organic
growers open to
accepting
disease-resistant
plants from her
genetics research,
which includes
CRISPR-edited potatoes, goldenberries
and ground cherries.
High-Tech Tools
2019
See GENETICS, page 5
Survey: U-pick strawberries take top dollar
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Pick your price.
Farm marketers across the country
this spring again participated in a
Vegetable Growers News survey of
what they charge for commodities and
food items.
More than 180 marketers from 34
states voted multiple-choice-style,
picking the price in the survey that was
closest to the price at their market.
For an example of how this works,
take that standby of summer, U-pick
strawberries.
Fifty-four percent of marketers chose
$3 per pound, the highest price reported
by participants last year for that
category. Strawberries must be selling
well - there were only the few items in
the survey where the high price got the
most votes.
Search through the chart on Page 7
to compare notes with your colleagues
across the country.
The product, the process and the
region's clientele all play a role in
pricing. An organic, pick-your-own
SweeTango apple will sell for more
in the suburbs of New York City
than a bagged Granny Smith will in
Wenatchee, Washington. That's why, this
year, again VGN asked people how they
went about picking their prices.
Making markup
For most farm market managers,
prices are the product of much looking
about: Checking out competing
See MARKETS, page 6

July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2019