The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the University of California, Davis, teamed up to tackle an important topic: food safety. At the Breeding Crops for Enhanced Food Safety Conference, Alex Martin sat down with Marilyn Warburton, a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service’s (USDA-ARS) Corn Host Plant Resistance Research Unit. Together, they chatted about Warburton’s research into Aspergillus flavus, and how the USDA-ARS is investing in research to help improve food safety in corn. While most people wouldn’t like working with green, moldy corn, Warburton says it’s been a fun transition into the work. Her main goal is to learn how to breed Aspergillus flavus resistant corn, while maintaining yield and other agronomic traits.
