Lane Selman

Lane Selman grew up on a citrus farm on Florida's space coast where her Sicilian great-grandparents settled in the 1920s.  She has a Bachelors degree in Agronomy and a Masters in Entomology, both from the University of Florida.  She moved to Oregon in 2001 and since 2005 has been an agricultural researcher at Oregon State University working with dozens of organic vegetable farmers in the PNW on collaborative research projects. In 2012, Lane created the Culinary Breeding Network to increase communication and collaboration between plant breeders, seed growers, fresh market vegetable farmers, produce buyers and chefs to improve quality in vegetables with a focus on public and independent open-source organic breeding work. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Culinary Breeding Network

Culinary Breeding Network (CBN) is comprised of plant breeders, seed growers, fresh market farmers, chefs and produce buyers engaged in developing and identifying varieties and traits of culinary excellence for vegetable crops in the Pacific Northwest region.  The goals are to:

• identify varieties of superior flavor, texture, culinary attributes and nutritional value through agronomic trials on collaborating farms and culinary evaluations with partnering chefs
• promote and expand awareness of new breeding lines created by public and independent plant breeders using traditional plant breeding processes (i.e. non-biotechnology)
• increase communication and collaboration between plant breeders, farmers and chefs in order to develop varieties desirable to all parties
• provide greater access to organic seed and open-pollinated varieties
• create venues for knowledge transfer between plant breeders, farmers and chefs

Northern Organic Variety Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC)

The NOVIC project brings together researchers and organic farmers in Northern US states to address their seed and plant breeding needs. The collaborative includes researchers and educators from Oregon State University, University of Wisconsin (Madison), Cornell University, Organic Seed Alliance, and the USDA.  NOVIC partners with organic farmers to breed new varieties, identify the best performing existing varieties for organic agriculture, and educate farmers on organic seed production and plant variety improvement. NOVIC looks for traits conducive to fresh markets with a focus on season extension. Breeding goals include (1) an OP broccoli with traditional F1 attributes and heat-tolerance; (2) a weed-competitive, cold-tolerant ‘Nantes’ carrot; (3) a disease-resistant, heat-tolerant stringless snap pea; (4) a cold-tolerant, sugary-enhanced sweet corn; (5) a butternut squash with good storability; and (6) the "farmers' choice" crop (the Oregon "farmer choice" crops have included sweet peppers, overwintering kale and chicories, including treviso, castelfrancos and grumolos).  PHOTOS and VIDEO

eOrganic

eOrganic is the organic agriculture community of practice with eXtension. The mission is to foster a research and outreach community, engage farmers and ag professionals through trainings and publications, and support research and outreach projects.  I developed the "Learn to Make a Video with eOrganic" online course and produce research project videos for eOrganic collaborators.

Organic Broccoli and Onion Trials (OBOT)

Variety trials for spring planted onions and broccoli were conducted using a mother-baby experimental design with the mother trials on organic ground at the OSU Lewis Brown Farm and baby trials on fresh market organic farms in western Oregon. Our objectives are to: 1) Identify onion and broccoli varieties which are available as certified organic seed, 2) Establish selection criteria for organic fresh market broccoli and onions, 3) Compare varietal performance using the criteria established in collaboration with farmers, and 4) Disseminate results to farmers, breeders, seed companies and certifying agencies. PHOTOS

Ospud:  Participatory Organic Potato Project

During the Ospud project, eleven organic farmers in Oregon and Washington collaborated with Oregon State University faculty to improve potato quality and profitability through a participatory learning process and on-farm, farmer-directed research. This project, affectionately known as Ospud, encouraged an exchange of existing integrated management knowledge & promoted farmer innovation. It was our aspiration that, in working collectively, we may learn more about the wide variety of management issues facing small organic farmers, including soils, nutrients, insects, diseases, weeds, tuber quality & profitability. The first two years of OSPUD were supported by Western SARE Grant SW05-091. In October 2008, Ospud was awarded the James and Mildred Oldfield - E.R. Jackman Team Award for collaborative research by OSU’s College of Agriculture. PHOTOS