From June 5-6, 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 Maeli Melotto, one of the creators and organizers of the event and an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. Melotto’s lab focuses partly on food safety-related issues — in particular, how human pathogens like E. Coli and Salmonella can live and survive on plants (specifically, lettuce). Melotto was excited to participate and organize this conference because, while we aren’t ready to breed for food safety, it allowed plant breeders and the food safety side to come together to brainstorm solutions for this topic.
