September 2020 - 6

EC: In the U.S., Rijk Zwaan's " home
base " is in Salinas, where we have
a warehouse and research farm for
conducting seed trials and breeding
selections. In addition to Salinas, we
have a research farm in Florida where
we conduct early material screening
and seed production research farms in
Oregon and Washington.
With our distributors and seed
Salinas
spinach specialist
A Q&A with Rijk Zwaan's Eric Christianson
Eric Christianson works as a crop specialist. Photo: Rijk Zwaaan
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Well-known for its nutritional qualities,
growers cultivated 66,800 acres of spinach
in 2019, according to the USDA.
Eric Christianson works as a spinach
crop specialist for international seed
company Rijk Zwaan in Salinas,
California. He was recently named
one of SeedWorld's " Top 10 Next Gen
Leaders " - leaders who are influencing
the U.S. and global seed industry.
Vegetable Growers News recently
caught up to Christianson to get to know
him and his work a bit better:
Vegetable Growers News: Tell me a bit
about your job.
Eric Christianson: As a crop specialist
at Rijk Zwaan, my job centers in
several aspects of the crop itself. This
involves making decisions to bring
varieties from the pre-commercial
stage to the commercial stage in the
U.S. portfolio, forecasting sales of said
varieties, providing technical advice to
growers and distributors and managing
customers' needs in regards to the crop.
As a crop coordinator, my job is to work
more strategically with several countries
in my cluster to investigate needs in the
markets, take those needs to R&D and
plan variety launches with local crop
specialists and customers. At times, we
estimate variety crop, or product form
potential to drive investment into certain
segments/projects.
VGN: What sorts of requests do you get?
EC: We work with our distributors
when developing new varieties. As a small
team in the U.S., we depend a lot on the
product development teams of our dealers
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By Gary Pullano
Managing Editor
The global cider market size was
estimated at $4.33 billion in 2018, and
is anticipated to register an annual
growth rate of 3.1% through 2025.
Fruit growers remain intrigued by
the prospect of expanded outlets for
their products in the cider-making
market, but processes involved in
Food production
industry entering era of
automation expansion
10
14
New grower shares
struggles, successes in
starting new farm
22
Two generations of
Georgia's Dickey Farms
honored by peers
February 2020 | Volume 59 |
Issue 2
to provide the data needed to make best
decisions on varieties in our market.
Occasionally, we will have a product that
is so different from existing products in
the market that we will need one-on-one
feedback from growers/shippers/retailers
about potential.
The requests for new products range
from mechanical harvest types to different
color and leaf/bulb/head/fruit shape or
texture. We also get a lot of requests for
value-added traits like added nutrition and
longer shelf life. In the end, the requests
fall under a central theme: " Show us
something different! " I like to think that we
fulfill this request more often than not.
VGN: Salinas growers have struck me
as a tight-knit group.
EC: Yes, there is an " everybodyknows-everybody "
feeling among
Salinas growers. There is a good bit of
collaboration and stewardship amongst
Salinas growers when it comes to land
swaps and crop cycle breaks (to help
with phytopathology issues).
Additionally, there are both organic
and conventional growers in the Salinas
valley. Those on the outside see these two
growing systems as being at odds with
each other. From what I see in this valley,
there is a mutual respect between the two
systems with several growers having both
an organic and conventional operation.
VGN: What sort of seed varieties are in
due diligence
Doing
Ground-harvested fruit,
with care, OK for cider use
Bri Ewing Valliere, clinical assistant professor, Washington State University's School of Food Science, outlines the guidelines for using ground-harvested cider apples. Photos: Bri Ewing Valliere
harvesting and marketing the fruit
require special care.
Using ground-harvested fruit for
cider production must be done in
compliance with the Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce
Safety Rule. Apples that have come
in contact with the ground outside of
normal harvesting methods may be
used for human consumption only if
there has been adequate processing to
reduce food safety concerns.
Bri Ewing Valliere, clinical
assistant professor, Washington State
University's School of Food Science,
stressed the importance of following
proper procedures in a presentation
to growers and hard cider producers
at the Northwest Michigan Orchard &
Vineyard Show in Acme, Michigan.
Cider can be made from any apple.
" Cider apples " refers to cider-specific
cultivars that are typically considered
either bittersweet or bittersharp.
These apples serve no alternative
purpose and are destined for alcoholic
fermentation for cider.
Because they are unlikely to be
consumed raw, as of January 2019,
cider apples, winegrapes and hops
were considered " raw produce destined
See KANTOR, page 6
Technology is on the move for growers
By Christine Corbett Conklin
FGN Correspondent
It sounds like science fiction:
Robotic vehicles moving up and down
orchard and vineyard rows, gathering
information to guide growers in
everything from harvesting to disease
detection and pruning.
Yet, that technology is under
development right now, according to
George Kantor, senior systems scientist
with Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Addressing the
Washington State Tree Fruit Association's
Annual Meeting & Horticultural Expo
in December in Wenatchee, Washington,
Kantor outlined how this cutting-edge
technology will help growers.
For a number of years, automated
vehicles have existed, sometimes
rigged with cameras and large lighting
equipment to take pictures of fruit.
A camera card would then be taken
back to the research lab for processing.
However, rapid advances in computer
technology now make it possible to
produce sophisticated 3D models, with
information directly available from
the field, said Kantor who works in
the Robotics Institute, a division of the
university's School of Computer Science.
" There's a special kind of computer
system - GPU (Graphics Processing
Unit) - that makes computer games
work so well, " he said. It's also really
good for work in the field because it is
See CIDER, page 8
GEORGE KANTOR
the Rijk Zwaan catalog?
EC: Rijk Zwaan works in the fruit and
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6 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
vegetable market. We do not breed or
produce any agronomic crops like corn,
soybean, wheat, etc. Historically, we
have excelled in greenhouse crops like
cucumber, pepper, eggplant and tomato.
However, our open field crops like lettuce,
spinach, melons, cauliflower and pickling
cucumbers are also incredibly important
crops for Rijk Zwaan right now with a
couple making it in the top five of our most
important crops at RZ. Our most popular
crops in the U.S. are lettuce and spinach.
VGN: Tell me about Rijk Zwaan's
presence in the U.S.
treatment partners, we try to fulfill
all customers' needs when it comes to
anything related to seed. Whether it is
new seed treatments/coatings or technical
advice related to a variety or disease, we
like to think we can help any grower out.
I worked on a few small projects
with Rijk Zwaan while I was a graduate
student at Washington State University
working for (professor) Lindsey du Toit.
After graduating with a master's in plant
pathology, the Rijk Zwaan representative
I worked with in graduate school referred
me to the technical sales position and I
guess I fit the bill.
VGN: The USDA's Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) several months
ago made a big splash about releasing
what they said was the first true red
spinach variety. As someone who works
with new spinach varieties, do you think
red spinach will become a new category
for seed providers?
EC: The USDA ARS provides many
crucial services to the industry and have
done so for several decades. Concerning
the red spinach, I have seen the press
release but I have not seen the variety
perform in the field so I cannot comment
on any potential it may have. Rijk Zwaan
has provided red-vein spinach varieties
for over a decade now with our varieties
Red Deer, Red Cardinal, Red Kitten and
now, Red Tabby. The segment remains
highly specialized. It is possible that
another niche segment is possible with
red leaf types but in the end, the market
will need to decide if it is more special
than red leaf Swiss chard or lettuce.
VGN: You told Seed World about
your love of the challenges of red
radishes, including the interaction of
the genetics with environments. Can
you explain how this works?
EC: To clarify, I mentioned my love
of both spinach and radish. I don't
want to make my spinach colleagues
jealous! As a new crop to me, radish
is very interesting since it has a quick
turnaround and very specific genetic by
environmental interactions. It is difficult
to find a variety with an incredible
amount of what we call " adaptability "
where the variety performs at an elite
level in several different locations, with
different environmental conditions.
From a breeding standpoint, it is possible
to find a variety that performs at an elite
level in one area. For profitability, seed
production and portfolio management
reasons, we must have a variety that
performs well in many locations.
A variety that has perfect round
shape, deep white internal color and
appropriate tops in one location in the
U.S. could have elongated, uneven, and
red " bleeding " roots with a too-short top
in another location. The list of challenges
mixed with the fast pace makes the crop
fun to work with. VGN

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September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2020