Breeding Mashua, Babaco and Passionfruit with Chuck Chan

About this episode

Chuck Chan discusses his experiences as an amateur crop breeder in California, focusing on rare crops and community engagement.

Chuck Chan is an accomplished amateur crop breeder from the humid cloud forests of California, adapting plants to his little pocket of Andean climate. He has made the most of his challenges by breeding a host of rare crops which struggle in other places, particularly the root crop Mashua, and papaya relative Vasconcellea along with numerous other projects. We also delve into how he manages his diverse plant collection and his experiences sharing the breeding work with the wider community. You can check out glimpses of his successes through his regular posts: https://www.facebook.com/chuck.chan.562019 Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

People in this episode

Host: Shane Simonsen

Guest: Chuck Chan

Topics covered

• crop breeding
• rare crops
• plant adaptation
• community sharing
• agriculture

Keywords

• Mashua
• Babaco
• Passionfruit
• crop breeding
• Vasconcellea
• plant collection
• Andean climate

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Recombination Nation

Books & works: Taming the Apocalypse

Places: California, Andean

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