Public-private partnership results in new broccoli hybrid, ‘NorthStar’

Broccoli is a staple vegetable in many U.S. households and is growing in popularity worldwide, but it's picky - a temperate crop, it likes cooler nights and predictable weather, both harder to come by as the climate warms.

A new variety called "NorthStar," a co-hybrid between parents developed at Cornell and the global seed company Bejo Zaden, can withstand warmer, more unpredictable conditions such as the ones in the Northeast growing region. The hybrid greatly expands the regions where broccoli can be grown, increasing food security, sustainability and access, while reducing the carbon and financial costs of shipping.

"With broccoli, you're typically restricted to temperate areas with more moderate growing conditions and cooler nights," said Phillip Griffiths, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and at Cornell AgriTech. "Improving broccoli varieties that are more resilient to heat and environmental stress can drastically expand the agroecological zones for production."

Ninety percent of broccoli in the U.S. is grown in California, and with more frequent fires and extreme weather, that concentration puts sustainable production at risk. The new variety - bred to thrive in areas such as New York, New England and as far north as Quebec - would broaden the range in the U.S. and in other global regions with similar climates.

Broccoli grows well in warmer climates, but commercial varieties have had trouble producing commercial-quality heads, a roadblock for growers looking to fill regional demands. Griffiths said NorthStar is a significant step towards filling this gap.

The variety also provides a new model for collaboration. It's not typical, Griffiths said, for breeders in the public and private sectors to work together in the breeding process by combining "parental materials." He likened breeders to chefs, each with their own breeding approach and desire to put their own stamp on the final product.

In the case of NorthStar, Cornell and Bejo each contributed a parent, with Griffiths sending the Cornell breeding line to Bejo breeder Cees Sintenie in 2012. This was after 12 years of developing the line at Cornell AgriTech, in variable New York growing conditions, and selecting for genetics that allow for normal development despite warm nights - traits absent in commercial breeding programs. With the Cornell line in hand, Sintenie and others at Bejo then worked for another 12 years to identify the promising new combination and are now bringing it to market.

"It represents a fusion of longer term, public breeding efforts with the private sector efforts," Griffiths said. "The Cornell parent was more focused on environmental resilience and theirs on commercial quality, but in the end, the combination of these efforts resulted in something that will benefit people in the Northeast, the East Coast and beyond."

Bejo, based in the Netherlands, tested the NorthStar variety at the company's research facility in Geneva, New York, where there's close collaboration with researchers at Cornell AgriTech. Now a trial with growers from southern New Jersey through the northernmost counties of Maine is wrapping up, with the broccoli headed to market.

Jay Collier, vegetable crop manager for Kludt Brothers Farms in Kendall, New York, said their test crop has held up, even in an exceptionally hot and dry year, and that NorthStar's longer stem makes it easier to harvest and produces a higher-grade bunch. He also said he hasn't seen any hollow stems, a variation that makes broccoli unmarketable. He plans to plant it again next year, possibly on a larger scale.

"It's a learning experience for everyone involved," Collier said. "None of us know how it will respond until we try."

Sintenie said he anticipates NorthStar will be a commercial success. "It's a variety with a good adaptability to heat stress, it makes a vigorous, healthy frame and produces a nice head," he said. "It especially stands out in warmer years … it's a unique variety."

The development of NorthStar originated prior to Cornell's Eastern Broccoli Project, an effort started in 2010 and directed by Thomas Björkman, professor of horticulture at Cornell AgriTech, and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crops Research Initiative. But the new variety dovetails with the project's mission to develop and support a broccoli industry in the eastern U.S.

"This variety release represents the first case of a global seed company developing a broccoli variety for our moderate-sized growing region by incorporating Cornell-developed genetics that Northeast growers need," Björkman said. "Bejo had to invest a decade in selection and testing, which is a big commitment."

Griffiths said it's rewarding to see the results, especially as NorthStar incorporates efforts initiated 25 years ago. He also said the project illustrates the crucial role that universities like Cornell play in vegetable breeding, enabling the "long game" of experimentation and development, without a rush to market. Griffiths is currently working on a golden variety of broccoli that's sweeter and more tender, and Tuscan broccoli varieties with wrinkled, savoy leaves for harvest of both crown and leaves, among other brassicas in the kale and cabbage market classes.

"We lack the resources for finessing and commercialization that companies have, and they don't typically have resources for incubation of longer-term, higher risk breeding efforts," Griffiths said. "With vegetable breeding, we are looking not just at what people are eating today, but what they're going to be eating 10, 15, 20 years from now. We're looking at how we can best influence the foods of the future."

The development of NorthStar was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.