GAINESVILLE Fla.
On a muggy Friday afternoon, Paul Lyrene peers across a greenhouse on the University of Florida campus.
Row upon row of blueberry cuttings, each of them genetically unique, sprout up from small pots. Among these huddled masses, it’s possible Lyrene will find the next unique blueberry variety to come out of Florida.
Once Lyrene selects a blueberry, it will be cloned over and over again and then sold on the streets of London, New York and other destinations far more exotic than this humble greenhouse.
But building the better berry one that tastes good, keeps well and travels well takes time, and lots of it.
“Any berry you buy at Publix probably started out as a seed 20 years ago,” he said.
That decades-long process of research is worth it, according to officials with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The money UF earns from royalties off the sale of “cultivars” genetically unique agricultural varieties is fed back into the labs of breeders like Lyrene who keep working to grow better and better crops.
