Category: Nutrition

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Is nutrition research any use without genetics & genomics?

That’s the question Keith Grimaldi of the Eurogene project asks in the latest post on his newish blog. By “genetics” he means human genetics.

His answer?

Without genetics & nutrigenomics, epidemiological nutritional research will remain “mostly harmless”. Or to paraphrase a less amusing person maybe it’s like trying to govern the Italians — “not difficult, just a waste of time”

We’ve suggested something similar here a couple of times, albeit it much less eloquently than Dr Grimaldi. Are the people designing projects aiming to improve the nutritional status of communities, whether based on biofortification through genetic modification or diversity-based approaches, listening?

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Online forum on agrobiodiversity for nutrition

I’m not sure if we made a big enough deal of our friend Danny’s new venture, a Yahoo Group on Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition:

Currently we live in a world where a growing number of people suffer the consequences of a lack of vital nutrients due to dietary simplification and neglect of more nutritious options. This list is run by a small group of people associated with the UNEP/GEF supported “Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition” project who are dedicated to reversing this situation. The list is specifically designed to bring people together who have a common interest in the use of biodiversity, wild and cultivated, for improving nutrition, health and wellbeing.

The latest post looks at a paper on fortification:

This paper was shared by a colleague and may be of interest to some. Although it deals with fortified blended foods and in emergency or food aid situations targetting largely children it does raise a few very important issues relevant to agrobiodiverse food and diets and nutrition and health. Most importantly, it highlights the general lack of evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of the interventions described in the paper for improving nutritional and health outcomes and just how few interventions plan for undertaking such impact studies. Further, it demonstrates how complex a challenge it is to try and demonstrate such linkages between food intervention and nutrition and health outcomes.

Well worth joining.

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Nibbles: Rice conservation and use, Tunisian genebank, Buno, Popcorn, Sustainability, Brazilian social networking, Strawberry breeding, Sunflower genomics, Climate change and fisheries

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Diverse points of view on feeding Africa

We like to embrace different points of view here ourselves, though we also like to think there’s a certain consistency to most of what we say and do. Maybe that’s why I find it strange that a single blog, on a single day 1 can feature two such divergent posts. One — Homegrown Solutions to Alleviating Hunger and Poverty — is a thorough look at the role of indigenous fruit and vegetable crops in delivering a healthy and nutritious diet. The other — Breeding for Climate Change — links, almost without comment, to a report on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s project to deliver just two (one conventionally bred, one genetically engineered) drought-resistant maize varieties to sub Saharan Africa.

I have no doubt that genetic engineering, precision farming and other high-tech tools of modern intensive farming can supply all the calories the world will need even when it hosts 9 billion people. I do doubt that the 9 billion will actually get those calories. And I know that calories alone are not enough. People need nourishment, not merely calories.