JANUARY 2019 GERMINATION.CA 19 because individual people were much more engaged in the whole breed- ing process, saving seed from what they enjoyed. But, as agriculture has gone to its global model and we have developed these commodity classes, that’s constraining the diversity that’s there,” says Michael Mazourek, vegeta- ble breeder at Cornell University who sat on the scientific committee for Cucurbitaceae 2018. “Once you constrain the diversity, there is only so many things you can select for in a breeding project. If you remove those constraints — not worry so much about size or shape or shelf life — you’re free to focus on other things, like flavour.” That philosophy has led to the creation of Row 7 Seeds, a partner- ship between Mazourek, seedsman Matthew Goldfarb and chef Dan Barber (author of The Third Plate), which bills itself as “a seed company built by chefs and breeders striving to make ingredients taste better before they ever hit a plate.” Seven years ago, Barber chal- lenged Mazourek to build a better butternut squash. For Mazourek, it was the first time that someone had asked him to breed for flavour. For Barber, it was the discovery of a new kind of recipe — one that begins with the seed. New Tools Mazourek is active in the Cucurbit Coordinated Agricultural Project (CucCAP), which was a big focus of Cucurbitaceae 2018. The CucCAP is a U.S. group that works to leverage applied genomics to increase disease resistance in cucurbit crops. Most recently, CucCAP research identified a cucumber gene for resistances to downy mildew, angular leaf spot and anthracnose. The CucCAP involves 21 different research groups working to improve disease resistance in watermelon, melon, cucumber and squash using the latest tools. They do this by scouring the globe for germplasm that contains disease resistance that From left: Matthew Goldfarb, Michael Mazourek and chef Dan Barber are the founders of Row 7 Seeds. Rebecca Grumet of Michigan State University. can be used to breed new varieties that producers want to grow and consumers want to eat. “One thing that new genomic tools can help us do is identify regions of the genome that have the genes with resistance and make use of those regions, and not the others with traits we don’t want,” says Rebecca Grumet, horticulture profes- sor at Michigan State University and Puerto Rico's Angela Linares.