Most of us think new crop horticulture cultivars are invented behind closed doors, then handed to farmers as a finished product. We wanted to explore that assumption, so we sat down with Dr. Ambar Carvallo Lopez, currently a Post Doctoral Research Associate at the University of British Columbia and an ASHS award-winning author and plant breeder whose work shows how research progresses when growers and consumers Participate in the science. If you care about better-tasting tomatoes, resilient organic agriculture, and the future of local food systems, this conversation connects the dots from seed to plate. 

In this episode we walk through the concept of participatory plant breeding, where farmers are involved early to define breeding objectives and then help shape selection by trialing lines on their farms. This is a unique form of citizen-science.  

Ambar shares how the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Where she completed her PhD, tomato breeding program uses iterative seed exchange and real-world feedback to shorten the “will this work on my farm?” gap that often slows adoption. Along the way, we talk about genotype by environment interactions, high tunnel production, and why building trust with stakeholders can be as important as collecting data. 

Ambar explains why tomato flavor may have declined over time as breeding programs prioritized yield, disease resistance, and plant structure, and how accessing heirloom tomato diversity can help recover the genes and volatile compounds tied to better aroma and taste. In the conversation also digs into practical breeding targets for organic systems, including foliar diseases like Septoria leaf spot and early blight, plus the behind-the-scenes reality of deciding when a line is ready to release and how to handle credit and IP when farmers are true co-creators. 

If you finish this episode thinking differently about what’s behind a great tomato, share it with a friend, subscribe for more horticultural science, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Read "Improved Tomato Breeding Lines Adapted to Organic Farming Systems Have Enhanced Flavor, Yield, and Disease Resistance", winner of the 2025 ASHS Outstanding Vegetable Publication Award. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI17799-24

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Learn more about the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) at  https://ashs.org/.
HortTechnology, HortScience and the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science are all open-access and peer-reviewed journals, published by the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS). Find them at journals.ashs.org.

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Podcast transcripts are available at https://plantspeoplescience.buzzsprout.com.

On LinkedIn find Sam Humphrey at linkedin.com/in/samson-humphrey. Curt Rom is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-rom-611085134/. Lena Wilson is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-wilson-2531a5141/.

Thank you for listening!

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