by Bryant Haskins, NC Biotech — December 11, 2020 . Most of us never consider where we get vanilla, that ubiquitous flavor found in everything from ice cream to over-the-counter medicines. Elo Life Systems does. The Durham food and agriculture company is applying the power of genomics to improve the plant that supplies the most widely used extract in the consumer products industry. And it’s none too soon for the long list of multinational companies that use vanilla – close to 18,000 products contain natural or artificial vanilla flavoring. Or for farmers in some of the poorest countries in the world who count on the crop to feed their families.