Research from the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS), ranked No. 1 in the United States, plays a substantial, leading role in making healthy, abundant food available in Oregon and beyond.
* OSU's vegetable breeding program has provided generations of Oregonians with the best possible vegetables. Vegetable breeding has been a part of OSU's Agricultural Experiment Stations for generations and is responsible for 90 percent of the commercial green bean varieties and 75 percent of the commercial potato varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest. College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) breeders have developed healthier tomatoes with added phytonutrients and several hardy varieties for the booming organic fruit market.
* The OSU Seafood Laboratory worked with Oregon seafood companies in the 1990s to create a shore-based surimi industry to produce and market quality Pacific whiting as surimi. Today, the Pacific whiting industry is one of Oregon's largest fisheries, contributing some $20 million annually to the Oregon economy. The Seafood Lab conducts annual surimi schools in Oregon, Asia and Europe, showing industry representatives from around the world how to use this Oregon product to make better surimi products.
* The Willamette Valley produces 98 percent of the nation's hazelnuts, an industry that has been protected and strengthened by CAS research. In the 1970s, a fungal disease was killing trees and contaminating orchards, threatening hazelnut production around the state. Twenty years of CAS research and Extension work has developed disease-resistant varieties and helped to save the industry, today worth more than $65 million annually.
* At the top of OSU's historic contributions to Oregon's wheat industry is the work of Warren Kronstad, who for 40 years bred the varieties that dominated Oregon production, including high-yield Stephens. Today, Jim Peterson continues that legacy through OSU-bred varieties grown on hundreds of thousands of acres in the Pacific Northwest.