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INFORMATION FOR MEDIA WORKERS
"Eleven U.S.
vegetable farmers will use sustainable practices to
perform the first multi-year garlic variety trial ever
done. We will determine how 10 garlic types respond
to cultural practices across the U.S. and then recommend
types that excel."
- Gayle Volk, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
"We will
publish grower recommendations with a goal to increase
yields for more than 2,800 existing growers and introduce
at least 160 new growers to this profitable crop."
- Gayle Volk, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
"Without
research and knowledge it gives us we find ourselves
living in the 'public domain' between common belief,
fraud, informal observations, and ancient wisdom. This
has been the world of garlic for the past couple of
thousand of years."
- David Stern, Key Project Leader
"It wasn't
until 2003 when Dr. Gayle Volk of the USDA/ARS ran DNA
analysis on several large collections and determined
that, while there are many cultivars of garlic, they
can be classified into 10 major types based on their
genetic diversity. It isn't perfect but its close enough.
Now that we know there are differences, we can go on
to the next step and study them."
- David Stern, Key Project Leader
"This garlic
is a strange plant for a couple of reasons. It has a
biological elasticity - the same variety will express
itself differently in different latitudes, altitudes,
climates, and soils. The same garlic can look and taste
very different."
- David Stern, Key Project Leader
"Garlic
is a rewarding and a profitable crop. The renewed interest
in garlic as an "East coast crop" makes this grant even
more exciting. The research will aid growers in distinguishing
different varieties of garlic, which up until now has
been the subject of much debate. The decreased yields
in California, coupled with imported garlic is encouraging
the agricultural community to rethink how and where
garlic is grown in the United States. I am grateful
to be part of this project. I hope the results provide
practical information for the scientist and farmer alike."
- Noah Gress, Participating Grower
/ Pennsylvania
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