Kids Explore Traditional Tomatoes – TRADITOM teaching children at UPV summer school

TRADITOM Kids Summer School delivered a series of fun workshops for children, to make them aware of the importance of biodiversity and genetic variation for tomato as a crop. The workshop took place from July 20-22, 2016; about 200 children participated in altogether eight 1.5 hour sessions.

Hosted at the UPV (Polytechnic University of Valencia) and joint with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), researchers of the EU-funded project TRADITOM showed children the huge variety of traditional tomatoes compared to those commercially grown. The kids played first to classify tomatoes of different shapes and colours and then had blind tasting sessions to compare textures and flavours.

TRADITOM scientists explained how the differences in tomatoes has to do with their nutritional components and how important biodiversity is for having crops that can adapt to climate change or new diseases.

"When people see that there are traditional tomato varieties which are bottle-shaped or yellow, purple or brown and more, people are surprised, because it is not what we are used to seeing on the market" said Antonio Granell.

Short video clips are accessible here and here (Spanish).
A collection of the pictures can be accessed here.