Purdue News

December 1998 New Crop CD puts volumes of info at your fingertips WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Farmers, food processors and researchers looking for alternatives to soybeans, corn, cotton or other traditional crops now can glean reams of information at the click of a mouse. The New Crop Compendium, a $75 CD-ROM produced by Purdue University Professor Jules Janick and NewCrop Webmaster Anna Whipkey, lets you sort out all the references to crops such as ginger or kenaf from three books on new crops. "The three books on the CD constitute the most up-to-date and comprehensive reference on underexploited, neglected, new and specialty crops," said Janick, director of the Center for New Crops & Plant Products, "and if you bought the books, you'd pay a list price of $295." Researchers in the New Crops Center identify, adapt and commercialize new crops. As part of that mission they've held three National New Crops Symposia where scientists, food processors and growers presented information that has been compiled into the three books now on the CD: "Advances in New Crops," 1990 by Janick and Purdue horticulturist Jim Simon; "New Crops," 1993, by Janick and Simon; and "Progress in New Crops," 1996, by Janick. "In many ways,the CD-ROM is a vast improvement over owning the three volumes separately, because any word mentioned in any of the books is available through the search engine," Janick said. The CD also has a dictionary, links to the NewCrop Web site, and links to on-line help. You can order the New Crop Compendium for $75 plus shipping ($5 in the United States, $10 outside) from Purdue's Distance Education Services, 1586 Stewart Center, Room 116, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1586, phone: (800) 830-0269 or (765) 494-2748. More information and an order form are at https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/compendium/order.html If you want to see the new CD before you buy, you'll find it at the Fourth National New Crops Symposium, Nov. 8-11 in Phoenix, Ariz. For more information on the conference, visit https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop (the NewCrop home page), or write to the Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops, 1998 Conference, c/o U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory, 4331 East Broadway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85040-8832. CONTACT: Janick (765) 494-1329; e-mail, jjanick@hort.purdue.edu Compiled by Chris Sigurdson, (765) 494-8415; E-mail, sig@ecn.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page