Halloween is here again; pumpkins, costumes, AND of course, Trick or Treating! There is no doubt that parents and kids alike weed through buckets, pillow cases and bags, in search of M & M’s, Snickers, or fruity Skittles perhaps! What is your favorite Halloween candy or candy bar? When is the last time you considered it NOT being stocked on the shelves when your sweet tooth is talking?
Enjoy this bonus trick or treating episode with Matt, Joy and Ashley DuVal as they dive into a REAL piece of work; CHOCOLATE! Not only will you learn how plants can help shape our culture or about the decades of research that have taken place to sustain cocoa for generations to come… but you will hear about a really cool job that may just have you wanting to work on another planet!
Ashley DuVal is a Senior Scientist with the Mars Genetics and Breeding Team based in Davis, CA where her responsibilities include cacao breeding and development of greenhouse research to advance understanding of resilience to abiotic stresses and rootstock development. She also teaches the UC Davis course “Chocolate Covered: the past, present and future of cacao”. She holds a BS in Conservation and Resource Studies from UC Berkeley, a Masters of Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry, and a PhD in Horticulture and Breeding from University of Florida.
