The SCOPE student-led organic breeding program is aiming for the release of new flower and crop varieties in the next year or two. Farmers interested in collaborating with field trials now are encouraged to contact the program.

Early career scientists are wrapping up a summer of research in the PEAS program -- the Plant, Environmental and Agroecology Sciences Fellowship. Their work links their undergraduate academic studies with real-world problems in service to California farmers.

Ardeshir Damania has won the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. A longtime scientist collecting and evaluating wheat genetic resources, he became a research associate in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences -- but not before saving the world's wheat genebank.