Flavor is challenging to target because different people have different preferences—plus, even under the best conditions, flavor quality is more complex than something like yield. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money figuring out what flavor is, and most breeding programs don’t have the capacity to measure those things,” [horticulture professor Harry] Klee says.
But interest in prioritizing flavor is starting to build, thanks in part to new genetic technology such as the gene-snipping technique CRISPR and DNA sequencing that is cheap enough to use liberally. “There’s never been a better time to be a fruit breeder or a vegetable breeder because we have more tools and techniques,” says Susan Brown, an apple breeder at Cornell University.
All these vegetable growers hope that more flavorful products on store shelves will convince people to consume the recommended allowances of fruits and vegetables—and do so better than decades of nutritional guidance have.
“Don’t waste your time talking about trying to educate people to eat better,” says Klee, the tomato breeding researcher. “Just give them products that taste better, that they want to eat.”
