Rogers / Syngenta Seeds, Inc.


	EATING YOUR VEGETABLES NEVER TASTED SO GOOD Lined with deep green zucchinis, bright red tomatoes and perfect-shaped bell peppers, a grocery store’s fresh produce section is filled with tantalizing, healthful fruits and vegetables. While shoppers give little consideration to the plants that produce this bountiful harvest, for more than a century, one company – Syngenta Seeds – Vegetables – has been working behind the scenes to improve their flavor, texture, shelf life and yield. Today, that company provides the genetics for more than 25 percent of the bell peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet corn, squash and tomatoes consumed in the U.S. And while names like Silver Queen, Jubilee, Sangria and PureHeart may not roll off the tongue of the average consumer, within the food production and distribution industry, those names are synonymous with quality. Fit for a Queen Since the hybrid was introduced in 1955, sweet corn connoisseurs have insisted that Silver Queen was the only game in town. Even today, walk through farmers’ markets and roadside stands throughout the southeastern U.S., and you’ll still find growers promoting their Silver Queen ears of corn. “It was quality that captured home-garden and roadside growers’ attention,” recalls Doug Plaisted, the company’s manager of sweet corn breeding. “The sweetness and tenderness of Silver Queen kernels was unsurpassed, and consumers came to ask for the hybrid by name.” After almost five decades on top, Silver Queen’s reign is slowly ebbing, as a new generation of sweeter hybrids replaces the long-time leader. Still Silver Queen’s achievement remains unequaled. For a hybrid to stay on top for 10 years is considered great success, for one to remain the industry standard for nearly half-a-century is a feat unlikely to be replicated. But while Silver Queen may have been first, another hybrid claims the company’s honor of most seed sold. For 35 years, Jubilee was the choice of food processors for both canned and frozen sweet corn. Major commercial sales of the hybrid began in 1965 – and for its time, it was a huge leap forward in quality. Jubilee was sweeter than anything on the market, and its pleasing aroma, smooth texture and tender hull are still unmatched. Jubilee gained such a following that processors like [WHO] proudly touted it on their packaging labels. Even fast food giants like Kentucky Fried Chicken recognized the hybrid’s superiority and made it part of their specifications. A Snappy Development But it’s not just great hybrids that Syngenta Seeds - Vegetables is known for, the company’s also been responsible for popularizing a whole new class of vegetable – the Sugar Snap Pea. In the late sixties, company plant breeder Calvin Lamborn was trying to develop plants that produced straighter, flatter snow pea pods. He found a rogue – an undesirable, off-type plant – amidst his breeding stock and out of curiosity, crossed that thick-podded plant with a traditional snow pea, thinking it might help take the distortion out of the snow pea pods. But instead of snow peas, Lamborn ended up with a whole new kind of pea – Sugar Snap Peas, a tasty pea with an edible pod that remained juicy into full maturity. “It wasn’t easy, creating a market for Sugar Snap Peas,” Lamborn recalls. “In fact, it took nearly a decade from when that first cross was made to when we finally introduced Sugar Snap Peas to the public in 1979.” But the wait proved worthwhile. That same year, All-American Selections, an internationally known, independent flower and vegetable testing organization, honored Lamborn’s Sugar Snap Peas with its prestigious Gold Medal award. The ensuing publicity from garden and food writers propelled the Sugar Snap Pea from novelty to mainstream seemingly overnight. Today, thanks to Lamborn’s experiment, Sugar Snap Peas are a staple in frozen vegetable mixes – and nearly every snap pea consumed in the U.S. – fresh or frozen – comes from Syngenta Seeds – Vegetables. The Heart of the Matter Watermelon also owes much to the company’s talented breeders. Seventeen years ago, watermelon breeder Tom Williams released his first hybrid, Sangria. It went on to become the industry standard, with its dark red flesh and full sweet flavor. Today, that variety remains the top-selling seeded hybrid. But it’s PureHeart®, the personal-sized watermelon sold under the Dulcinea® brand, that perhaps best illustrates the Syngenta Seeds – Vegetables of today. Developed by Xingping Zhang and Williams, PureHeart is winning consumers across the country. The size and shape of a PureHeart is reminiscent of a cantaloupe – but the fruit color and flavor is watermelon at its best. “The problem with traditional watermelons,” says Zhang, “is they’re too big to fit in the refrigerator. So in developing a new product, we wanted to reduce the size from the traditional 18-to-20 pound melon.” The two breeders ended up with a plant that produced a three-to-six pound fruit – the perfect size for consumers to either eat all at once, or store more easily in their refrigerator. At the same time, PureHeart has a very small rind, similar to that of a cantaloupe, so there’s still a lot of fruit. It’s a package that has proved extremely popular with consumers and earned accolades from national media like the New York Times and “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. The Tradition Continues At Syngenta Seeds – Vegetables, the quest to find the next plant superstar never ends. Each year, the company’s talented plant breeders make thousands of new crosses, searching for the rare hybrid who can stand up to the realities of today’s food production system, yet still deliver the flavor, texture and convenience that consumers demand. Though much of the work takes place far from the grocery-store shelf, it’s the consumer who ultimately benefits as more flavorful tomatoes, longer-lasting peppers and more aromatic melons may soon find their way into a shopping basket near you.

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