The Swink Family owns and operates the McCall Farms Cannery and contracts with South Carolina farmers to grow produce for that facility. But with changes in climate, especially nighttime temperatures of seventy-five degrees or more, many staple crops will not set fruit. Clemson and the Swink family are joining forces to combat this problem. This family has made a gift of three million dollars to develop vegetables with resistance to higher temperatures and other factors that limit yield. The research done will greatly expand a heat-tolerant butterbean project started seven years ago by now retired Clemson specialist Tony Melton. This gift will support vegetable researchers working with geneticists, pathologists, and other Clemson experts to develop new vegetable varieties able to produce with the quality and quantity necessary for the cannery and for its farmers to stay profitable.
A step forward in developing heat-tolerant vegetables
