Tip of the Tongue Episode 223: Foreign Seed

Allison Alsup has written a fascinating novel. It stems from the factual disappearance of Frank Meyer, of Meyer lemon fame, while an agricultural explorer for the US Department of Agriculture in China. The book is definitely worth reading, but I also think that the conversation with Allison about the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction, a part of the US Department of Agriculture, is also worth listening too. We have been adding to the agricultural diversity of the US through agricultural explorers for decades. And ironically it has led to Big Ag using this diversity to cherry pick the characteristics it was and allowing all of the genetic traits of the plants to recede. Today we have less diversity. An interesting and ironic turn of fate. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.