Leonard M. Pike (February 1, 1940 – January 12, 2019) was an American agricultural scientist who established the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center at Texas A&M University in 1992 and created the 1015

sweet onion A sweet onion is a variety of onion that is not pungent. Their mildness is attributable to their low sulfur content and high water content when compared to other onion varieties. Origins in the United States United States sweet onions origin ...

and the BetaSweet maroon carrot. Pike was born and raised in Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas, where he received a master's degree in 1964. Three years later, he was granted a Ph.D. from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. Shortly after graduation, he joined the faculty at Texas A&M University. At A&M, Pike focused his research on cucumbers, onions, and carrots, using selective cross-breeding techniques to create new or hardier varieties. His research led to cucumbers that would ripen on the vine simultaneously, and that were stronger and better able to survive the machine picking process. He then created a variety of seedless cucumber. In 1977, Texas onion growers asked him to help them to create a variety of onion that would better withstand disease and that they would be able to harvest in winter, a typically barren time of year for the Texas onion crops. Over the next four years, Pike was able to create hardier versions. He then turned his focus to creating single-centered onions, which would be easier to use to make onion rings. Pike and his graduate students tested their onions by frying them up as onion rings. The research results in the 1015 variety of

s, which became one of the most popular varieties of onion sold in the United States. Pike's onion was named the official Texas state vegetable in 1997 and is estimated to provide $350 million per year to the Texas economy, as of 2013. The onion became a staple in the blooming onions sold by

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. The Outback restaurant in College Station, Texas hung a picture of Pike on the wall to thank him for his efforts. For his creation of the 1015 onion, Pike won the Southwest Man of the Year in Agriculture Award. In 1992, Pike founded the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center at Texas A&M. He served as the director of the center until his retirement in 2006. The center focused on developing foods that are healthier for humans, not just prettier or stronger and often partnered with the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

to determine which varieties had more cancer-fighting compounds. One of the results was the BetaSweet carrot, a maroon carrot (to match the Texas A&M school color) which has fifty percent more beta-carotene than a typical carrot.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pike, Leonard M. 1940 births 2019 deaths Texas A&M University faculty University of Arkansas alumni Michigan State University alumni American agriculturalists