Shaun Townsend Oral History Interview #2, November 3, 2014

Partial Transcript: So let's start with the easy, when were you born and where were you born?

Segment Synopsis: Townsend was born December 13, 1962 in Albuquerque, New Mexico- dad was stationed there for the air force, sister also born there. Moved back to central Illinois when Townsend was 3, where extended family is located. Family primarily farmed corn and soybeans, as well as livestock for personal use- had alfalfa occasionally. Had 640 acres at the time, owned 100 acres of it and sharecropped with related families. Parents were both from central Illinois, met in high school. Paternal grandparents also from Illinois near Shelbyville, maternal grandfather’s family emigrated from Germany and grandmother from Tennessee- part Cherokee. Townsend tracks the family genealogy, fascinating hobby. Grandparents met in central Illinois, most of family still live in that state- one of his sisters is a professor at Oklahoma University. First childhood memories were in Decatur during Christmas, most of growing up on the farm.
Father worked on the main frame computers at the air force base in New Mexico, got a job at Firestone in Decatur after leaving the force- ascended to complex supervisor by time of his retirement. Mother is very artistic and good with plants, worked in local greenhouse.

Partial Transcript: We all pitched in on the farm, there was a lot to do.

Segment Synopsis: Mother also spent a lot of time working on the farm. Became a nurse for the hospital in Decatur, worked there until retirement. Townsend always was interested in air planes and life sciences/archaeology as a child- played Indiana Jones imagination games. Preferred archaeology over plant/life sciences, showed more affinity for the latter as he got older- intuitive. Growing up on the farm helped shape his career interest in plants- always involved in plant cultivation, family had a huge garden.

Townsend and family lived in a small farming community, could see town from the farm- Townsend would ride his John Deere bike to the farm after school and work. Also worked on weekends. Remembers the cold war from growing up at that time- plastered on the news, had to learn the duck and cover at school. Also remembers the end of the Vietnam war, Nixon traveling to China, doesn’t remember music festivals of the time- political events stuck with him.

Partial Transcript: I wasn't sure what I wanted to do

Segment Synopsis: While on county fair royal court, went to fancy restaurant and accidentally spilled coke on the queen’s new dress. Most of his memories of high school were in being outside with his friends afterward- school not super eventful. Townsend played basketball, baseball and track in school, couldn’t play football because of the overlap with harvest season. Had rheumatic fever in junior high, kept him out of sports till the end of high school.
Had to take aptitude and IQ tests in school- scored a zero on the IQ test because he filled the form out wrong. Aptitude tests came back with career affinities for animal science, plant science, wildlife science and house painting- generally always biological, looking more into wildlife management for college studies. Didn’t feel ready to go to college, so Townsend and some friends went to Richland Community College in Decatur- felt similar to high school, didn’t do well there.

Knew he wanted to go to college eventually, needed to decide on something else first. Grandparents wanted him to take over the family farm, also worked on neighboring farms. One of his best friends had family in Montana, and buddies were inviting Townsend to come find work there the following spring- felt kinda lost. Talked to his elderly neighbor about the dilemma, helped Townsend decide to go to Montana with friends- left in March 1983, drove there in broken down car.
Worked with friends in Dutton, Montana- friend got seasonal job again making grain bins, Townsend stuck with nothing. Lucked out that landlord was a farmer whose relative needed a farm hand; had to help manage 6000 acres of small grain land. Worked for $50 a day, 6 days a week- drove a tractor 12 hours a day. Also got hired for grain bin construction during the winter, got to work there full time the following year- small enough to crawl around work space with damaging machinery/bins.

Partial Transcript: Fall of '84 I enrolled at Montana State University

Segment Synopsis: Started college at MSU Bozeman in the fall 1984- had in-state tuition from being a working resident. Started his undergrad research in agronomic crops, moved around through majors- started in geology, then moved to animal/range sciences before settling in agronomy (farm sciences), animal sciences had no jobs. Had work study and Pell grants, got to work in Pete Fay’s crop research lab. Knew for sure that he wanted to be in research, not sure what crop he wanted to focus on. Had an internship until junior/senior year with Dow Chemical working on herbicide trials over the summer and decided that he wasn’t interested in spraying pesticides for his career- more interested in biology involved.
Townsend later signed on into Ray Bitterline’s alfalfa program, worked for Pete and Ray concurrently- really liked forage crops, breeding and genetics. Originally afraid of genetics before being exposed to it by his introductory biology professor- intuitive. Ended up going towards forage crop breeding program. Townsend feels that his educational/professional journey was filled with serendipity- recognizing opportunity. Townsend was offered Masters Assistantship from New Mexico State and from Ray Bitterline in agronomy, decided he wanted to stay in Montana for his Masters and go to New Mexico for the PhD.

Partial Transcript: The west is certainly different than Illinois

Segment Synopsis: Didn’t feel out of place being involved with agriculture in Montana because the culture was similar to Illinois- ag culture homogeneous across the US. Liked the outdoor activities available in Montana, only really had to adjust to the climates- had a hard time leaving the state. Education in Montana a meaningful time.
Moved to New Mexico during the summer, felt like an outsider originally because of the primarily Hispanic culture in Las Cruces. New Mexico has high quality alfalfa, the university there being prestigious for their breeding program. The renowned director, Billy Melton, had just retired when Townsend came to the program. Worked full time as alfalfa technician, part time as student, so it took Townsend eight years to complete his PhD- university rules on class load for students working full-time. He was one of the first students to have policies changed to support working students.

Townsend participated in national agronomy events, never left the country for them. Program found it important to send students to conferences each year for practice in public speaking about their field. Went to Atlanta and elsewhere. Did actual work in experiment station plots close to the universities, would time heading out there to see changing of day and seasons. Research work was applied to techniques used by growers within the state, similar to Townsend’s current work with hops. Didn’t interact much with local growers other than giving a talk at the state conference. This distance between researchers and growers still remains today on a national level, specifics depend on the program. Townsend still did a lot of hunting and fishing when he moved to New Mexico.

Partial Transcript: So when I started, he brought me on up to here to do some genetic work.

Segment Synopsis: Colleague John Henning ended up in hops due to his experience with essential oils from alfalfa during his graduate research. Henning brought Townsend up to OSU to help with hop genetics, looking at DNA and gene expression with RNA. DNA work helped Henning’s program while teaching Townsend about the new genetic technology being used.
Around 2000, the hop lab lost its field technician and faced budget cuts, so Townsend was asked to run the experiment fields- already had experience with farming field work from school and growing up. The first few years of his post-doc experience involved a lot of learning through reading and talking with growers. USDA hop facility separate from OSU’s when it used to be connected together, hasn’t expanded since Townsend arrived. USDA hop pathologist took over some of the experimental fields in the early 2000s. When Townsend started his hop breeding program, Henning had started to cut back on his plot amount due to budget cuts. Townsend then took up extra space using his funding from Indie Hops.
When Townsend joined the OSU hops program, John Henning was running the genetics lab and Gail Nickerson was running the hop chemistry lab. Thomas Shellhammer had started in the food sciences department in 1996 and Cindy Oakham worked on hop pathology.

Dave Gent and John Henning both employed by the USDA and both have courtesy appointments with OSU in their respective fields.
Townsend has and had positive interactions with the local hop growers once he joined the field work. Growers’ primary concerns was in Powdery Mildew, which had just arrived as a disease and OSU was working to breed resistant cultivars. Townsend’s role in mitigating the disease was to find DNA markers to make breeding resistant hops more efficient. The biggest between traditional breeding methods and what Townsend learned in his post-docs is the genetic tools available- same principles, different perspective.
Oregon beer scene was certainly different in the late 90s because the market was still dominated by big beer at that time. From a plant breeding perspective, it was hard to pick traits to select for because brewing companies were secretive about which hop varieties they used- no meaningful feedback to why brewers liked certain types.

Partial Transcript: Was your prime customer at that point on the hop growing side?

Segment Synopsis: Brewers didn’t talk about flavor all that much, potentially more to Henning than Townsend. Both were frustrated that they would do tons of research into breeding options without getting brewing feedback on the results. Breeding program has two sets of clients, and therefore two kinds of criteria tests: agronomic and brewing factors. Program serves both growers and brewers, agronomics comes first. They use a process of elimination to pick the best varieties for each client type.
Townsend made an effort to interact with Alfred Haunold and Gail Nickerson as much as possible in the beginning to get their knowledge- still has coffee with Haunold. He really enjoys talking and learning from them. Townsend would often ask them questions based on his research reading, and he wishes in retrospect that he had recorded their conversations like in an oral history. Local growers also have a lot of knowledge because many are multiple-generation family farmers. Townsend works primarily with the Goschie and Coleman farms.

Townsend’s hop breeding program began in 2009, following major shift in the local brewing industry- purchase of Anheuser-Busch and loss of cultivar development by USDA. He lost funding for his research at the time because of the shift, and had to find more work. Indie hops wanted to start an OSU research program focusing on production for craft brewing, so they hired Townsend and donated a million dollars to start it.

Partial Transcript: Talk about how that company came to be.

Segment Synopsis: Founders of Indie Hops from the PNW and they wanted to build something for the local community- one was a home brewer, and both had an interest in hops. They started the company during the shift of the hop industry, and so there was a high demand in craft brewing for aroma hops. The company philosophy includes development of new hop varieties for the craft market, hence funding the OSU breeding program. Townsend designs hop cultivars for agronomic benefits and then sends the best varieties to Indie Hops for sensory testing in brewing. He thinks it’s important to involve craft brewers early in the breeding cycle so that they can give feedback for decisions and promote marketing of new varieties- personalized marketing. It’s a big collaborative effort.

Townsend does a similar collaboration with Thomas Shellhammer on hop chemistry, as well as informal sensory analysis. A formal analysis panel is set up right before a variety is released to finalize any breeding choices. The breeding program is now through its third growing season with mature plants, and Townsend uses extra hop varieties in the field for home brewing projects with his primary grad student. This was his first fall season experimenting with hops from the yards, some test brews quite successful. For some batches, they use a one-gallon system in case the hop is bad. Running it like an experiment: all mash ingredients and conditions kept constant, the hop is the only variable. Will share with his colleagues for sensory data. Less about science, more about community feedback.

Townsend doesn’t have a super sensitive palette for beer, but he is aware of his preferences based on his research career in the industry- he enjoys the variety of beer choice.
Townsend is not in the hop research business to receive acclaim, but he’s happy to contribute to good beer product- feels that his education is paying off. He feels his impact is more visible than when he was working with alfalfa because hops are a niche crop, and knew that he would have to adjust to being in the spotlight for his work. Townsend hopes that the hop breeding program continues to receive funding so that it can keep going beyond him, and he hopes that it has a legacy of positive contribution to the hop and craft brew industries.

Partial Transcript: Whats your favorite part?

Segment Synopsis: His favorite part of working in the hop research industry is working with and mentoring students- considers it a privilege. Feels satisfied to work with plants, and enjoys the job overall. His favorite time of year in relation to his research is the harvest season because it’s the culmination of all the work they put in- enjoys smelling and seeing the hops. Lots of people visit the fields to see what’s going on.
Townsend is most surprised to share his research with the master gardeners on growing hops in your backyard. It’s becoming increasingly common for people to ask how to grow hops at home- Townsend set up his research website to answer some of those questions. He, Dave Gent and Henning get lots of questions now because they don’t have an extension specialist to do it. Having an extension agent would be helpful- lots of questions come from out of state.

Washington hop research programs have an extension service since there’s higher production there.
Townsend doesn’t currently have a research collaboration with hops research in Yakima and Idaho. He focuses more on plant breeding, so as funding and this program gets stronger, he may extend the reach of his collaboration. Most of his teamwork has been local and through the university. He’s fond of all sorts of hops, would consider Cascade a favorite variety because it’s central to the production of craft beer- spends a lot of research time with it.
When John Henning and Al Haunold were major members of the hop research program, the focus was on breeding hops with better agronomic properties to replace those currently on the market. This was aimed at big beers that didn’t want to change the hop chemistry of their products, needed replacements for disease resistance. Now, Townsend has a completely different focus in developing new varieties to provide more diverse flavors to brew with.

Partial Transcript: what is exciting, is to work with some wild American types.

Segment Synopsis: What’s exciting for him is to work with wild American hop varieties or rarely used cultivars for how unique they are- gets to work with exotic plants and their crossed progenies. He hasn’t looked through old records of hop crosses from 1950s in depth because he has so many options available now to focus on- lots of genetic details. Townsend currently has about 2000 different hop types in the field, with more coming in winter with cold treatment. His first nursery is done, and the next batch is almost done. Most likely will have an ornamental dwarf released commercially next year- will get feedback from local nurseries. Dwarf acts as a ground cover and doesn’t produce cones, also resistant to Downy and Powdery Mildew. Also has a bright yellow ornamental that has yet to be named or released.

The program also has the possibility of working in livestock nutrition and pharmaceuticals, but there’s nothing concrete yet- Townsend talking to faculty in animal sciences. Focus is still on traditional uses in brewing and breeding techniques.