The 24-carrot man

"Some people look at it and say `that's one ugly carrot,'" says Leonard Pike, Ph.D. "But then other people think it's the most beautiful thing they've ever seen." Pike is referring to his latest creation: Maroon in color, apple-like in texture and sugary in flavor, it's known as the BetaSweet carrot. For traditionalists who like their carrots to look and taste like, well, carrots, the BetaSweet can be off-putting. But that's the way it goes in the field of vegetable enhancement--a field that Pike pioneered back in 1992 as director and founder of the Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A&M University in College Station.

This quirky enclave of researchers is the birthplace of the Texas 1015 onion. Introduced back in 1994, this kinder, gentler bulb was the first not to bring tears to our eyes. That onion won Pike national attention and several awards, including Southwest Man of the Year for Agriculture. Not nearly as eccentric as it sounds, the center churns out products the old-fashioned way--through hybridization. You won't find any salmon genes injected into tomatoes here.

"We're in the science of developing foods for health," explains Pike. "We used to breed for color and size and things you could visually select. Now we're breeding for nutritional benefits." This change in mission fostered a close working relationship between Pike and scientists at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The two organizations work as an assembly line of sorts, with researchers analyzing cancer-fighting compounds in specific foods and Pike using that research to determine which vegetables to overhaul. His goal: change attitudes, improve health and impact the world, one vegetable at a time. "To eat a wide range of vegetables is far more beneficial than eating hamburgers and French fries and relying on supplements," says Pike. He also points to the benefits his work can offer underdeveloped countries. "The people living in those countries are not going to take supplements, but they are going to grow and eat crops."

Enter the maroon carrot. Pike engineered the BetaSweet to have 50 percent more beta-carotene (a potent cancer fighting antioxidant) than your garden-variety carrot. And its curious color comes from anthocyanin, another antioxidant that preliminary studies show effectively fights disease-causing bacteria in humans.

The idea for developing this funky veggie actually came about before the center was even in existence, and for reasons that had nothing to do with health. Pike thought it would be fun for A&M graduates, whose school colors happen to be maroon and white, to cultivate some school spirit. But as he set to work, the notion of fortifying them grew instead. "We began to think about the health benefits and our ideas got a lot bigger. It grew from a novelty for home gardeners to a full-blown improved carrot." The irony here is that Pike has actually put back what growers, in the name of aesthetics, took out years ago. "Naturally, carrots are either white or white with a purple rim," explains Pike. "But the breeders before my time selected for the orange carrot."

One bite is usually enough, says Pike, to quell any initial hesitation over BetaSweet's unconventional coloring. "When I first gave my 5-year-old grandson a BetaSweet, he turned his nose up at it. But when I cut it into slices and he tasted it, he just ran off with the whole carrot," says a proud Pike. Similarly, children taking field trips through the center seem wholly uninterested--until the platter of "BetaBites" (sliced BetaSweets) arrives in all its maroon glory. Then there's hardly enough to go around. "The kids get so excited about `this new carrot thing.' And that's why we're pushing this for them, so they'll snack on these instead of potato chips."

While not a vegetarian himself, this good ol' boy from Texas cattle country practices what he preaches. "I eat a lot of vegetables," he says. "And I consume even more as I see the research that's coming out." And as long as those studies continue, Pike will keep right on lending Mother Nature a helping hand. On deck for the future are sweet potatoes packed with vitamins A and C, beta-carotene and potassium. And with preliminary plans to "improve" peaches and melons on the horizon, Pike's place of business will most likely come to be known as the Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center.

He acknowledges that these plans will probably garner him a few more awards for his office wall, but to Leonard Pike, plaques are but a small part of a much greater picture. "If we could reduce disease by 10 or even 2 percent because of these vegetables, that would be a great contribution." Indeed.

RELATED ARTICLE: Carrot & Stick

A carrot to Farm Sanctuary, an animal advocacy group based in Orland, Calif., for its efforts to block ranchers and dairy farmers from ridding their stockyards of downed cattle (those that cannot stand) by sending them to slaughter. Although the law says that diseased animals cannot be used for human consumption, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not define a downed animals as diseased. Farm sanctuary vehemently disagrees. The group recently filed a petition with the FDA asking for the practice to be outlawed, stating that downed animals often suffer from bovine leukemia virus, bovine immunodeficiency virus and may suffer from a form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease). In other words, yesterday's deathly ill cow may be today's burger. Pass those veggie burgers, please.