ARTICLE: Biofortification: New ‘Green Revolution’ for more nutritious crops

The following is an excerpt of an article by XiaoZhi Lim via The Genetic Literacy Project.

The Green Revolution that began in the 1940s and 50s brought about large increases in crop yields and saved millions of people from mass famine. Yet malnutrition remains widely prevalent around the globe. And, while many people eat enough calories, many do not get enough nutrients.

Now, plant breeders and biotechnologists are working on a new Green Revolution to make crops produce more nutrients, a process called biofortification. Recently, several new biofortified crops have been in the news: an orange ‘super banana’ genetically engineered to produce elevated levels of beta-carotene currently undergoing human testing in Iowa; pearl millet bred to contain large amounts of zinc and iron in India; beta-carotene-enriched cassava recently released in Nigeria and iron-fortified beans in Rwanda.

Hidden hunger

Some 870 million suffer from hunger, but almost a third of the world’s population still do not get enough essential nutrients and suffer from hidden hunger, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Hidden hunger is more prevalent in poorer countries in Asia and Africa, but it also exists in wealthy countries like America.

“Many Americans can get enough calories, but not enough nutrients,” said Mary Lee Chin, a registered dietician.

Nutrition is a complex issue, Chin says, and there are many factors that can contribute to malnutrition. In rich countries like America, staple foods that are consumed regularly are fortified with vitamins and micronutrients in order to provide Americans with enough nutrition. Some common examples include fortifying milk and orange juice with vitamin D and bread with folate, a very important nutrient for fetal neurological development. But because of poor food choices or lifestyle habits, many Americans still do not get enough calcium, vitamin D and potassium, according to Chin.

In poor countries, many people don’t have access to such large varieties of food and instead rely on one or two staples. In many parts of Asia, the staple is rice; in African countries, it’s tubers like cassava or fruit like cooking bananas. These staple foods fill people’s bellies, but they often do not have enough essential vitamins and micronutrients. Two billion people in the world are anemic because they do not get enough iron, according to Chin, and children under the age of five who don’t have enough vitamin A and live in places that are susceptible to diseases are ten times more likely to die from diarrhea or pneumonia.

Many nutritional deficiencies are complex problems, but vitamin A deficiency worldwide had been identified as a “simple” problem with a “simple” answer. In 1992, scientists from John Hopkins University calculated that 1.3 to 2.5 million deaths among infants and preschoolers could be prevented every year if they just received enough vitamin A; no other nutritional interventions or improvements were needed.

Read the full article here.