Jim Myers

Oregon State University
Professor, Plant Breeding and Genetics
Corvallis, OR

Jim holds the Baggett-Frazier Endowed Chair of Vegetable Breeding & Genetics at OSU. He works on crops both for processing (snap beans & broccoli) and fresh market (tomato, broccoli, snap pea, winter & summer squash and pepper). His main interest is to improve vegetable varieties for disease resistance and human nutrition while maintaining quality and productivity.

In recent years, he has been breeding for organic production and in collaborations with growers and chefs for culinary quality and flavor. Jim is the project director of the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative, a national project to increase the number of vegetable varieties adapted to organic systems. He has recently released a Peruano (yellow) dry bean with resistance to two major bean viruses. He is the originator of the Indigo (high anthocyanin) tomato class and his latest variety releases are ‘Indigo Rose’, ‘Indigo Cherry Drops’, and ‘Indigo Pear Drops’.