FEEDING FUTURE POPULATIONS WITH NUTRITIONALLY COMPLETE CROPS

Imagine a world in which no one goes hungry and no one is malnourished. It sounds too much to hope for when we look around the real world and see that up to half the population lacks access to a balanced diet.1,2 The best way to provide adequate supplies of essential vitamins and minerals is to eat a varied diet, including fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, and dairy products. In the West, an adequate diet can be achieved by visiting the supermarket or grocery store, but in developing countries many people subsist on monotonous diets of staple cereals, such as rice, corn, and wheat. Although they provide calories, cereal grains are poor sources of most vitamins and minerals; a diet comprised mostly from cereals will address hunger, but not malnutrition. Micronutrient deficiency diseases are therefore rife in the developing world, causing millions of needless deaths and adding to miserable socio-economic conditions.3 Many strategies have been proposed to address nutrient deficiencies, including supplement distribution, fortification programs, and attempts to make crops more inherently nutritious.4 Unfortunately, such programs have had limited success: first, because they require significant funds and a good organizational infrastructure, both of which tend to be lacking in developing countries; and second, because they rely on compliance from farmers and consumers. Fortification programs have been successful in some cases, e.g., salt iodization, but these are rare exceptions and merely shift the problem onto the remaining nutrient deficiencies. Biofortification is the most ambitious approach, as it attempts to address the problem at the source. For example, the levels of several mineral nutrients in crops can be improved by including mineral salts in fertilizers. As above, however, there has only been limited success, and only when there is a good infrastructure an