Leonard Pike, renowned for developing supersweet onion, dead at 78

Leonard Pike, a renowned Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist who invented one of the nation’s most popular and sweetest onions, has died. He was 78. Pike, who died Saturday, was known for his 1015 onion as well as developing the Aggie maroon Beta Sweet carrot and multiple other vegetables. The supersweet onion has brought in around $350 million per year to Texas’ economy, and has been the official state vegetable since 1997, Texas Monthly reported in 2013. “Dr. Pike&rsquo