Science Spotlight with Dr. Devin Peterson
May is National Strawberry Month, a time to celebrate the health benefits and versatility of this popular fruit. You are currently leading a project funded by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) to develop premium strawberry flavors for indoor growth. How does a controlled environment influence flavor, quality, and consistency of strawberries?
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) enables optimal growing conditions for fruit flavor (e.g., fruity aroma, sweetness, sourness), quality (firmness, color, shape), and year-round consistency. If you've ever purchased off-season strawberries in winter, you've likely noticed how poor growing conditions negatively impact consumer acceptance and overall taste. By regulating lighting, soil nutrients, and water, controlled environments help maintain ideal conditions for growth. Additionally, because cultivation occurs indoors, pest management can be more effectively controlled without pesticides. Unlike field-grown strawberries, which are subject to unpredictable weather, CEA ensures uniform growth, resulting in consistent fruit size, texture, and flavor throughout the year.
This project involves a collaboration between Food Science & Technology, Horticulture and Crop Science, the Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, as well as USDA researchers. How do these collaborations strengthen your research?
While researchers typically specialize in distinct fields, multidisciplinary collaboration fosters more comprehensive approaches, accelerating advancements in premium-flavored CEA strawberries. Our team integrates expertise from flavor chemistry (examining compounds that shape flavor), sensory sciences (evaluating consumer perception), horticultural sciences (studying how growing conditions impact fruit quality), and genetics (investigating genetic influences on flavor and quality), among other specialties.
How do you see this research shaping the future of fruit farming?
This project exemplifies how science can drive advancements in agriculture and food systems, demonstrating the potential to enhance both quality and sustainability. Developing technology to produce premium-flavored CEA strawberries would not only strengthen agricultural markets but also encourage fruit consumption, supporting healthier dietary habits.
Crops are often bred for traits like yield, sustainability, and nutritional quality. How does this project balance those needs with optimizing taste?
Agricultural research has traditionally prioritized agronomic traits like yield, as it directly influences farmers' livelihoods. However, as efforts to improve flavor and quality progress, it remains crucial to balance these advancements with yield optimization, ensuring the production of affordable, abundant fruit that aligns with both consumer preferences and agricultural sustainability.
What broader impact do you hope this project will have on local food systems and human health?
For decades, U.S. agriculture has prioritized a commodity-based system, emphasizing the production of abundant and affordable food ingredients. This project highlights how academic leadership can drive meaningful transformation, advancing the development of higher-quality agricultural products with enhanced nutritional and sensory benefits. Through innovation, agriculture can produce premium, health-forward foods that consumers actively seek and enjoy year-round—shifting the paradigm from obligation to preference. Given that poor dietary patterns, such as low fruit consumption, remain the leading risk factor for poor health, rethinking the commodity system presents an opportunity for food to contribute far more to public well-being.
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