Plant Breeding Reviews presents state-of-the-art reviews on plant genetics and the breeding of all types of crops by both traditional means and molecular methods. Many of the crops widely grown today stem from a very narrow genetic base; understanding and preserving crop genetic resources is vital to the security of food systems worldwide. The emphasis of the series is on methodology, a fundamental understanding of crop genetics, and applications to major crops.

D.A. Cooke and R.K. Scott Sugar beet is one of just two crops (the other being sugar cane) which constitute the only important sources of sucrose - a product with sweeten ing and preserving properties that make it a major component of, or additive to, a vast range of foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals. Sugar, as sucrose is almost invariably called, has been a valued compo nent of the human diet for thousands of years. For the great majority of that time the only source of pure sucrose was the sugar-cane plant, varieties of which are all species or hybrids within the genus Saccharum. The sugar-cane crop was, and is, restricted to tropical and subtropical regions, and until the eighteenth century the sugar produced from it was available in Europe only to the privileged few. However, the expansion of cane production, particularly in the Caribbean area, in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, and the new sugar-beet crop in Europe in the nineteenth century, meant that sugar became available to an increasing proportion of the world's population.

Savor your best tomato harvest ever! Craig LeHoullier provides everything a tomato enthusiast needs to know about growing more than 200 varieties of tomatoes, from planting to cultivating and collecting seeds at the end of the season. He also offers a comprehensive guide to various pests and tomato diseases, explaining how best to avoid them. With beautiful photographs and intriguing tomato profiles throughout, Epic Tomatoes celebrates one of the most versatile and delicious crops in your garden.

Feeding our globally expanding population is one of the most critical challenges of our time and improving food and agricultural production efficiencies is a key factor in solving this problem. Currently, one-third of food produced for humans is wasted, and for every pound of food produced, roughly an equal amount of nonfood by-product is also generated, creating a significant environmental impact. In Integrated Processing Technologies for Food and Agricultural By-Products experts from around the world present latest developments, recognizing that while some by-products have found use as animal feed or are combusted for energy, new technologies which integrate conversion of production and processing by-products into higher-value food or nonfood products, nutraceuticals, chemicals, and energy resources will be a critical part of the transition to a more sustainable food system. Organized by agricultural crop, and focusing on those crops with maximum economic impact, each chapter describes technologies for value-added processing of by-products which can be integrated into current food production systems. Integrated Processing Technologies for Food and Agricultural By-Products is a valuable resource for industry professionals, academics, and policy-makers alike. - Provides production-through-processing coverage of key agricultural crops for a thorough understanding and translational inspiration - Describes and discusses major by-product sources, including physical and chemical biomass characterizations and associated variability in detail - Highlights conversions accomplished through physical, biological, chemical, or thermal methods and demonstrates examples of those technologies