Tag Archives: nutrition

Biofortified GM bananas

Posted on June 22, 2014 by argylesock

James Dale is a scientist at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT, Australia). His lab has developed a genetically modified (GM, genetically engineered) banana (Musa × paradisiaca) rich in ‘pro-vitamin A’. Here’s the QUT report. This is the ‘super banana’ … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, food, horticulture, knowledge transfer | Tagged Africa, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, America, Asia, banana, banana Cavendish, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, biodiversity, biofortification, biotechnology, breeding, carotenoid, child, conservation, cotton, crop diversity, crop variety, development, East African cooking banana, food security, food sovereignty, fruit, fruit variety, gene, gene gun, genetic modification, iron, land grab, local variety, marker assisted backcrossing, micronutrient, Monsanto, nutrition, patent, plantain, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, poverty, pro-vitamin A, Provit Banana, research, rice, Scuba rice, seed, soya, staple food, super banana, tissue culture, trade, Vitamin A | 2 Comments

The new scramble for Africa (part 1)

Posted on June 20, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on ECO-opia:
. With the African continent home to the majority of the world’s fastest-growing economies, urban consumer markets and a wealth of natural resources, it’s perhaps not surprising that some of the world’s largest corporations, from Monsanto…

Posted in agriculture, food, horticulture, knowledge transfer, money and trade | Tagged Africa, aid, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, Asia, breeding, development, DuPont, Europe, farmer, fertiliser, finance, food security, food sovereignty, G8, history, knowledge, local variety, Monsanto, New Alliance, nutrition, pesticide, politics, prosperity, seed, smallholder, Syngenta, trade, tradition, World Development Movement, Yara | Leave a comment

Special bananas: Africa’s answer to Golden Rice?

Posted on June 18, 2014 by argylesock

Oluwabusayo Sotunde (writing as Busayo in Ventures Africa) tells us about a ‘special banana’ (Musa × paradisiaca) rich in alpha-carotene and beta-carotene. After eating those carotenes, the body converts them to Vitamin A. So they’re ‘provitamins’. This new genetically modified … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, horticulture, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged Africa, America, Asia, banana, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, biodiversity, biofortification, biotechnology, child, development, food sovereignty, fruit, fruit variety, genetic modification, Golden Rice, grain, Green Revolution, nutrition, plantain, plant_monocot, Provit Banana, research, rice, staple food, tree, Vitamin A, woman | 6 Comments

Call for articles: Nutritional values and family farming

Posted on June 16, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on AGRICULTURE BLOG…..:
Farming Matters | 30.2 | June 2014 We are told of the great advances that have been made in ‘modern’ agriculture in the last 60 years. Yet there are more hungry and malnourished people on…

Posted in agriculture, food, horticulture, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged access to food, agroecology, biotechnology, cash crop, conservation, crop, development, family farm, farmer, fertiliser, finance, food, food availability, food loss, food quality, food security, food sovereignty, food waste, forest, genetic modification, Green Revolution, intensive, iron, knowledge, land use, local community, nutrition, obesity, poverty, rural, smallholder, trade, tradition, Vitamin A, woodland, yield, young person | Leave a comment

Achievements and controversy surrounding rice, vitamins, and GM crops

Posted on May 22, 2014 by argylesock

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the world’s great staple foods. I recommend Oryza for information about rice. For example, here’s an Oryza article about rice, vitamins, and GM crops.

Posted in food, knowledge transfer | Tagged beriberi, biotechnology, bird, breeding, brown rice, chicken, crop variety, development, disease, food processing, genetic modification, Golden Rice, grain, history, knowledge, lab animal, nutrition, plant_monocot, poultry, research, rice, staple food, vertebrate, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin E | Leave a comment

Rising levels of CO2 could exacerbate malnutrition

Posted on May 16, 2014 by argylesock

argylesock says… Climate change is happening. We humans caused it. Here’s yet another way that climate change threatens people, especially poor people. [Edit] I looked up the original paper (behind a paywall, but my University library has a subscription) and … Continue reading →

Posted in food, human health, weather and climate | Tagged America, Asia, biofortification, carbon dioxide, child, climate, corn, crop variety, field pea, food quality, grain, iron, legume, maize, nutrition, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, poverty, research, rice, selective breeding, sorghum, soya, staple food, vegetable, wheat, zinc | 2 Comments

Breast milk, indigenous food: A mother’s recipe for healthy children

Posted on May 12, 2014 by argylesock

Here’s Velvet Escario Roxas, a Filipino mother, telling us that children in the Philippines need breast milk and indigenous foods, not Golden Rice. Mrs Roxas says that Filipino women should breastfeed as she did. After weaning, she says these women … Continue reading →

Posted in food, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged Asia, biotechnology, child, crop diversity, food availability, food sovereignty, fruit, genetic modification, Golden Rice, grain, leaf, local variety, mango, milk, moringa, nutrition, papaya, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, rice, sweet potato, tradition, vegetable, Vitamin A, woman | 2 Comments

The homogenisation and globalisation of diets

Posted on April 25, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that some 75% of the diversity of cultivated crops was lost during the 20th Century and, by 2050, we could lose…

Posted in agriculture, food, horticulture, human health, money and trade | Tagged Africa, America, Asia, cassava, city, climate, conservation, crop, crop diversity, crop variety, development, disease, Europe, Food and Agriculture Organization, food safety, genetic diversity, grain, human, iodine, iron, law, micronutrient, millet, neglected crop, nutrition, pest, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, population, potato, prosperity, research, rice, rye, seedbank, staple food, sugar beet, sugar cane, sweet potato, trade, tuber, Vitamin A, wheat | 6 Comments

Paterson’s curse: rival for a GM crop?

Posted on March 27, 2014 by argylesock

Scientists asked human volunteers to take oil from the purple viper’s bugloss (Paterson’s curse, Echium plantagineum). The team, led by Katrin Kuhnt at Friedrich Schiller University, hoped that this plant oil would be a good substitute for fish oil in … Continue reading →

Posted in human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged Atlantic salmon, biotechnology, brassica, crop, Europe, fatty acid, finfish, fish oil, genetic modification, human, nutrition, oilseed Omega Camelina, Paterson_Owen, plant_dicot, purple viper's bugloss, research, selective breeding | Leave a comment

Monsanto Admits: 1. We Don’t Need Genetic Engineering, 2. We Don’t Need Monsanto

Posted on March 26, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on Volatility:
> Recently Wired magazine ran a Monsanto infomercial touting its alleged change of strategic course on vegetables. Monsanto, through its subsidiaries Seminis and others, is selling a line of high-end conventional vegetables dolled up as some kind of high-tech breakthrough. Contrary…

Posted in agriculture, horticulture, human health, knowledge transfer, money and trade | Tagged allergy, America, Asia, biofortification, biotechnology, brassica, breeding, broccoli, Bt crop, commodity crop, corn, cotton, crop, crop variety, DNA, drought, Europe, evolution, farmer, feed, fruit, fruit variety, genetic modification, germplasm, glucoraphanin, glyphosate, Golden Rice, grain, grocery, herbicide, herbicide resistance, history, human, insecticide, knowledge, label, lettuce, maize, marker assisted selection, melon, Monsanto, nitrogen, nutrition, onion, organic, pepper, pesticide, pesticide resistance, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, potato, research, rice, Roundup, Roundup Ready crop, salt, seed, selective breeding, Seminis, soya, tomato, trade, transport, vegetable, vegetable variety, watermelon, weed, wild vegetable | Leave a comment