b'Make Sure to Get Your Hands Dirty!Irwin Goldman, professor at the University of Wisconsin, says its imperative to get in the field and get down and dirty when learning about crop breeding.Seed World (SW): Do you have a favorite podcast to listen to?Irwin Goldman (IG): My favorite podcast is Shakespeare Unlimited, from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. Over the last two years, Ive come to appreciate the power of his artistry and the way he can pierce the deepest corners of the human condition through language. The podcast is one of my best companions on long car trips and during extended sessions threshing and packeting seed. SW: No. 1 favorite vegetable to work with?IG: The table beet. I wasnt a huge fan as a kid, but back then I thought of beets as a huddled-masses throwback from another era. My own relationship with this vegetable traces the arc of the modern beet renaissance, which has been on an upward trajectory for the past 30 years.PHOTO CREDIT: MATTHEW DILLONSW: Got a lab motto to keep yourselfcontinue this work. All three crops areSW: Whats the No. 1 thing you hope and your research students going? important to Wisconsins agriculture,to learn from your research?IG: Chance favors the prepared mind. Weand as biennial root and bulb crops, theyIG: Wed like to understand how some of try to plan well ahead of time and stayshare certain biological commonalities.the key horticultural traits that farmers, organized so that were poised to takeseed growers, chefs, and consumers advantage of opportunities as they arise.SW: Do you have any specificwant are controlled and influenced by So much of plant breeding dependsbreeding goals in mind whilegenes and the environment. on organization and yet so many ofworking? its best moments depend on chanceIG: Yes. In certain parts of our breedingSW: What would be your advice for occurrences.program, we are focusing on a particularstudents interested in vegetable disease resistance or a specific horti- breeding?SW: Why did you choose to specialcultural attribute like shape or flavor. InIG: Get your hands dirty! There is no your lab in onion, carrot and tableothers, we are advancing populationssubstitute for in-the-field learning, beet research? through a certain number of genera- where you are working with the crop in IG: My predecessor, Warren Bucktions or backcrosses in order to achieveits growing environment. This requires Gabelman, selected these three cropsa desired objective. We do, however,a commitment to being outside in all to breed when he came to Wisconsinreserve a small portion of the programconditions and to understanding how the in 1949. By the time I started in 1992, hefor evaluation of progeny from crossescrop is grown, how it looks and tastes, had very successful breeding programswhere no one particular objective was inand how it is influenced by different developed, and it seemed reasonable tomind when the cross was made.practices.SWINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /69'