Ensuring broccoli sprouts retain their cancer-fighting compounds

Raw broccoli sprouts, a rich source of potential cancer-fighting compounds, have become a popular health food in recent years. But conventional heat treatment used to kill bacteria on produce can reduce levels of the broccoli sprouts' helpful phytochemicals. Now researchers report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistrythat high pressure processing could wipe out harmful bacteria while maintaining high concentrations of its health-promoting ingredients.

Research has found that broccoli sprouts contain anywhere from 10 to 100 times more glucosinolates than their mature counterparts. Glucosinolates are the main compounds in broccoli and its sprouts that are transformed into isothiocyanates when chopped or chewed. Studies suggest that isothiocyanates have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory activity. To help prevent bacterial contamination, the sprouts can be heated, but high temperatures can affect the conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates. So Volker Böhm and colleagues wanted to explore an alternative method for getting rid of broccoli sprouts' microbial contamination.

The researchers treated sprouts with high pressure, a method that is sometimes used to ensure the safety of seeds, fruits and vegetables while preserving heat-sensitive nutrients. Results showed that processing broccoli sprouts at 400 to 600 megapascals increased the amount of glucosinolates that turned into isothiocyanates. Up to 85 percent of glucosinolates were converted under high pressure processing, boosting the plants' potential health-promoting compounds. The rate of conversion for mild heat treatment at 60 degrees Celsius was 69 percent. Isothiocyanate levels in boiled samples were undetectable or not quantifiable. Thus, the researchers say high pressure could be a preferred method over heating for processing broccoli sprouts.

Story Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com

Plant geneticists develop a new application of CRISPR to break yield barriers in crops

Mutating regulatory regions varies yield traits 'the way a dimmer switch controls a light bulb'

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have harnessed the still untapped power of genome editing to improve agricultural crops. Using tomato as an example, they have mobilized CRISPR/Cas9 technology to rapidly generate variants of the plant that display a broad continuum of three separate, agriculturally important traits: fruit size, branching architecture and overall plant shape. All are major components in determining how much a plant will yield. The method is designed to work in all food, feed, and fuel crops, including the staples rice, maize, sorghum and wheat.

"Current rates of crop yield increases won't meet the planet's future agricultural demands as the human population grows," says CSHL Professor Zachary Lippman, who led the research. "One of the most severe limitations is that nature hasn't provided enough genetic variation for breeders to work with, especially for the major yield traits that can involve dozens of genes. Our lab has now used CRISPR technology to generate novel genetic variation that can accelerate crop improvement while making its outcomes more predictable."

The team's experiments, published today in Cell, involve using CRISPR "scissors" to make multiple cuts within three tomato genome sequences known as a promoters -- areas of DNA near associated genes which help regulate when, where, and at what level these "yield" genes are active during growth. In this way generating multiple sets of mutations within each of these regulatory regions, the scientists were able to induce a wide range of changes in each of the three targeted traits.

"What we demonstrated with each of the traits," explains Lippman, "was the ability to use CRISPR to generate new genetic and trait variation that breeders can use to tailor a plant to suit conditions. Each trait can now be controlled in the way a dimmer switch controls a light bulb."

By using CRISPR to mutate regulatory sequences -- the promoters of relevant "yield" genes rather than the genes themselves -- the CSHL team finds that they can achieve a much subtler impact on quantitative traits. Fine-tuning gene expression rather than deleting or inactivating the proteins they encode is most likely to benefit commercial agriculture because of the flexibility such genetic variation provides for improving yield traits.

"Traditional breeding involves great time and effort to adapt beneficial variants of relevant genes to the best varieties, which must continuously be improved every year," says Lippman. "Our approach can help bypass this constraint by directly generating and selecting for the most desirable variants controlling gene activity in the context of other natural mutations that benefit breeding. We can now work with the native DNA and enhance what nature has provided, which we believe can help break yield barriers."

Each of the mutated areas creates what are known as quantitative trait loci (QTL). In any given plant, QTL have arisen naturally over thousands of years, the result of spontaneous mutations that caused subtle changes in yield traits. Searching for and exploiting QTL from nature has been an objective of plant breeders for centuries, but the most valuable QTL -- those that cause subtle changes in traits -- are rare. Lippman and his team have now shown that CRISPR-generated QTL can be combined with existing QTL to create "toolkits" of genetic variation that exceed what is found in nature.

Story Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com 

Phenological growth stages of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) based on the BBCH scale

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is a pseudocereal native from the Andean region of South America that has increased in importance worldwide. Quinoa is now considered an alternative to traditional crops in a climate change scenario, considering its ability to adapt to marginal soils, droughts and frosts. Despite the interesting agronomic and nutritional features of this crop, research into quinoa is characterised by individual attempts to define its phenological stages without an international consensus. A unique criterion to quantify the phenology of quinoa could become a useful tool for researchers and plant breeders in future work by standardising this information for international cooperation. In this article, a proposed scale of the phenological growth stages of quinoa based on the BBCH coding system (Biologische Bundesanstalt Bundessortenamt und CHemische Industrie) was developed. Growth stages were described utilising the decimal code of the BBCH system, and figures were included for the most representative stages.

Reference: http://ow.ly/616w30bF3tl

Why insect pests love monocultures, and how plant diversity could change that

Left to its own defenses, a farm field growing a variety of plants tends to attract fewer insect pests than a field growing just one type of crop. While scientists and farmers have noted that difference for years, the reasons behind it have been poorly understood. A new study explains that much of it may have to do with the nutritional needs of insects. Returning plant diversity to farmland could be a key step toward sustainable pest control.

A study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Oct. 12 in the journal Nature explains that much of it may have to do with the nutritional needs of insects. Returning plant diversity to farmland could be a key step toward sustainable pest control.

"Insects have a perfect nutrient level that they really like," said lead author William Wetzel, a doctoral student in Population Biology at UC Davis at the time of the study and currently an assistant professor at Michigan State University. "When it's too high or too low, they do poorly."

The Problem With Monocultures

The problem with monocultures, Wetzel said, is that if an insect likes the crop, that insect has a large food supply to draw from all in one place. Conversely, a field containing a variety of plants does not offer a large block of food for the insect, so it will not get the nutrients it needs to survive and thrive.

"A monoculture is like a buffet for plant-eating insects where every dish is delicious," Wetzel said. "A variable crop is like a buffet where every other dish is nasty."

Many small farms around the world already include a diverse mixture of plants. But in most monocultures, the plants are bred to be as identical as possible. How can larger growers introduce more diversity while maintaining their same level of production?

Mixing It Up

One way, the study suggests, is to introduce a mixture of genotypes of the same crop species with different nutrient levels. For example, the parts consumers eat, such as the ear of corn or head of broccoli, could be identical; but the parts insects eat, like the leaves, could vary. This would allow for consistency in what is sent to market while introducing diversity to the crop.

Wetzel said this sort of genotype mixing for plants is already being done on some rice and wheat fields to reduce the spread of disease among the crops.

"So far people haven't done that in ways to reduce insects," Wetzel said. "But it shows that it's possible to mix varieties and genotypes together. Now we need to think about how to do that to control insects."

Background

For the study, researchers examined 53 species of insects -- mostly caterpillars, as well as grasshoppers, beetles, aphids and flies. They applied a universal mathematical law called Jensen's Inequality to the data collected to calculate how plant diversity influences plant-eating insects.

Source

https://www.sciencedaily.com 

Journal Reference

William C. Wetzel, Heather M. Kharouba, Moria Robinson, Marcel Holyoak, Richard Karban. Variability in plant nutrients reduces insect herbivore performance. Nature, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/nature20140

Enzymes with potential to increase wheat yields

Wheat yields could be significantly increased thanks to varieties with a superior form of a common enzyme, according to new research. Models suggest that incorporating the new enzymes into wheat could increase photosynthesis by up 20% under some field conditions.

Plant scientists at Lancaster University, Rothamsted Research, and The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been investigating a naturally occurring plant enzyme known as Rubisco to explore its ability to boost photosynthesis and increase crop yields.
In a new paper published this month, the team measured photosynthesis in 25 genotypes of wheat--including wild relatives of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum)--and found variation exists even amongst closely related genotypes.
Each type was surveyed to identify superior Rubisco enzymes for improving photosynthesis.
Two of the most efficient were Rubisco from plants known as Aegilops cylindrica (jointed goatgrass) and Hordeum vulgare (barley), which both showed promising Rubisco catalytic properties that should be explored in the context of improving photosynthesis, and ultimately grain yield, in wheat.
Models suggest that incorporating the new enzymes into wheat could increase photosynthesis by up 20% under some field conditions.
Wheat is a crucial source of food, providing more than 20 per cent of the calories consumed worldwide. And with projections that the world population will rise to over nine billion by the year 2050, the pressure is on to meet global demand for food.
Professor Martin A. J. Parry of the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) said: "Improving the efficiency of photosynthesis--the way crops turn carbon dioxide in our atmosphere into everything we can eat--may seem ambitious but for us it offers the best opportunity for producing the scale of change in crop yield that we need to feed a growing global population in a changing world climate."
Elizabete Carmo-Silva, LEC lecturer in plant sciences for food security, said: "Both jointed grass and barley are regarded as valuable genetic resources for improving wheat disease resistance, our research suggests that they can also be used to improve biomass production."
Research associates Anneke Prins and Doug Orr conducted the experimental work which was jointly funded by CIMMYT (W4031.11 Global Wheat Program) and by Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and led by the University of Illinois at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.
"This is an exciting piece of work showing that Rubisco catalytic properties vary in close relatives of wheat," Orr said. "As part of the RIPE project, we are screening a wide range of species from across the globe, and aim to identify variation that will enable improving photosynthesis and biomass production in rice, cassava and soybean."

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/ 

International Year of Pulses 2016

The 68th UN General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses (IYP) (A/RES/68/231)
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been nominated to facilitate the implementation of the Year in collaboration with Governments, relevant organizations, non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders.
The IYP 2016 aims to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. The Year will create a unique opportunity to encourage connections throughout the food chain that would better utilize pulse-based proteins, further global production of pulses, better utilize crop rotations and address the challenges in the trade of pulses.

What are pulses and why are they important?Pulses are annual leguminous crops yielding between one and 12 grains or seeds of variable size, shape and colour within a pod, used for both food and feed. The term “pulses” is limited to crops harvested solely for dry grain, thereby excluding crops harvested green for food, which are classified as vegetable crops, as well as those crops used mainly for oil extraction and leguminous crops that are used exclusively for sowing purposes (based on the definition of “pulses and derived products” of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).
Pulse crops such as lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas are a critical part of the general food basket. Pulses are a vital source of plant-based proteins and amino acids for people around the globe and should be eaten as part of a healthy diet to address obesity, as well as to prevent and help manage chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary conditions and cancer; they are also an important source of plant-based protein for animals.
In addition, pulses are leguminous plants that have nitrogen-fixing properties which can contribute to increasing soil fertility and have a positive impact on the environment.
The IYP website will be the main platform to share information and relevant resources with different partners. The current version will be updated soon, please come back for more information.

Source:

http://www.fao.org/

Aumenta la producción y el consumo de quinua en Asia

En los últimos años, uno de los cultivos más antiguos y representativos de la cultura andina, valorado por su alto valor nutritivo, comenzó a sembrarse de manera creciente del otro lado del planeta. Se trata de la quinua, que está siendo incluida con éxito en los sistemas productivos del China. Actualmente, sus agrónomos se capacitan en la Argentina para conocer más sobre su manejo y los factores que determinan su adaptación a distintos ambientes.

"Desde hace algunos años, en China están produciendo comercialmente quinua. Hay empresas que consiguieron semillas, las seleccionaron, las adaptaron a sus ambientes productivos y avanzaron en toda la cadena de valor, desde el procesamiento de las semillas para el consumo humano, hasta el desarrollo de distintos tipos de alimentos y su inserción en el mercado local", explicó Daniel Bertero, investigador de la cátedra de Producción Vegetal de la Facultad de Agronomía de la UBA (FAUBA), quien es especialista en quinua, y destacó que algunos de los productos más vendidos en ese país, generados a partir del cultivo, además de granos y harinas son los fideos, conocidos popularmente como noodles.

La expectativa de crecimiento es auspiciosa. Estas empresas ya están montando nuevas plantas con capacidad para procesar 7000 toneladas de quinua al año. "Eso da una idea de las expectativas de expansión, en un país con 1300 millones de habitantes y donde la quinua hoy se está vendiendo a unos 20 dólares el kilo", dijo Bertero al sitio de divulgación científica Sobre la Tierra.

El aumento de la demanda asiática por este alimento también podría significar una oportunidad para los países de Sudamérica, algunos de los cuales, como Bolivia y Perú, ya están exportando granos no sólo a China, sino también a Francia, Dinamarca, Estados Unidos, Canadá, India y Pakistán. Se calcula que existen unas 100.000 hectáreas cultivadas con quinua en el mundo.

¿Por qué el interés de los chinos por un cultivo milenario de Sudamérica? La principal razón es comercial, por las perspectivas de expansión y buenos precios. Otro aspecto destacado es la capacidad de la quinua para adaptarse a los ambientes más rigurosos, marginales para la agricultura por su altitud, variabilidad climática y tipos de suelo.

Desde el punto de vista del consumidor, otra de las razones tiene que ver con el valor nutricional de la quinua, fundamentalmente porque posee una alta calidad proteica y por ser una fuente importante de vitaminas y minerales. Además, no contiene gluten y puede ayudar a reducir el colesterol.

Adaptación local

Invitado por empresas productoras locales, durante 2014 y 2015 Bertero visitó diferentes regiones de China para interiorizarse sobre la siembra del cultivo de quinua en el gigante asiático y su adaptación a las condiciones ambientales de ese país.

"Una de las regiones productoras es Qinghai, al norte de Tíbet, de donde vino la delegación que visitó la Argentina en noviembre de 2015. En esta zona llueven 150 mm al año, así que la quinua se cultiva bajo riego a 3000 metros de altura, en un paisaje muy parecido a la Quebrada de Humahuaca".

La quinua también se siembra en otros ambientes como el de la provincia de Taiyuanuan, al norte del país, donde llueven unos 400 mm al año y se cultiva a 2000 metros de altura. Allí, la altitud no permite sembrar maíz, por ejemplo, y en cambio se implanta tradicionalmente papa, trigo, cebada, y ahora, como novedad, quinua. Aquí los ambientes son más favorables para la agricultura, pero las lluvias de fin de ciclo representan un riesgo para la calidad de la semilla cosechada.

"El material genético que están usando deriva de Chile, porque se adapta a una mayor variedad de ambientes. Las semillas habrían sido mejoradas en Estados Unidos y sembradas primero en el Tíbet. Luego fueron llevadas hasta las provincias de Taiyuan y Qinghai, para producirlas comercialmente. Hoy también están probando variedades de tipo boliviano, mientras aumentan la superficie sembrada",señaló el profesor de la FAUBA. Una de esas empresas visitadas por Bertero, por ejemplo, está produciendo más de 100 toneladas de quinua al año para el mercado local.

Encontrarle la vuelta al cultivo

Como parte de esfuerzos de cooperación entre los agrónomos chinos y argentinos, recientemente la FAUBA recibió la visita de una delegación de la Academia de Ciencias de la Agricultura de la provincia de Qinghai, localizada en la ciudad de Xining, quienes estaban interesados en conocer la Argentina y capacitarse en temas relacionados con la agricultura local.

La comitiva asistió a una serie de charlas en la Facultad de Agronomía de la UBA con diferentes docentes sobre temas generales de la agricultura argentina y recibió capacitación sobre cultivos particulares como cebada, trigo y nuevas alternativas productivas para zonas áridas. La quinua significó uno de los aspectos que concentraron el mayor interés de los investigadores chinos.

"Ellos todavía están en una fase de encontrarle la vuelta al cultivo y les preocupan algunos de los aspectos de manejo que siguen generándoles inconvenientes, como las malezas y el brotado de las semillas (que germinan antes de tiempo)", detalló el investigador de la FAUBA. Además, destacó: "También les sorprende cómo en China en pocos años aumentó el interés de los productores y el apoyo desde el Gobierno para producir quinua, y les llama la atención que esto no suceda en la Argentina, donde pese a ser un cultivo que se produce desde hace al menos 2000 años, no se logra aumentar el área de siembra".

Fuente:

http://www.pregonagropecuario.com/

Sergio Núñez De Arco: Creating a New Staple

In November 2013, Time magazine devoted a cover story to “thirteen gods of food... people who influence what (and how) you eat.” Among the top-flight chefs, food activists, and cookbook authors was Sergio Núñez de Arco, an energetic, 40-year-old Bolivian-born entrepreneur who makes his home in the Bay Area. Time grandly dubbed him the “king of quinoa,” but Núñez prefers a broader identification. Although he makes his living as a distributor of this ancient pseudo-grain (it is in the goosefoot plant family, which includes beetroot and spinach), he is also, and more proudly, a champion of the indigenous people of his homeland who have raised this ultranutritious, gluten-free, biodiverse crop for centuries. And now their traditional knowledge, boosted by modern technology and market forces, is providing 45,000 Bolivian farm families a better life.

Source:

https://nature.berkeley.edu

Journal of Agronomy - Current Issue

Journal of Agronomy - Current Issue

• Quantitative Analysis of Induced Phenotypic Diversity in Chickpea Using Physical and Chemical Mutagenesis
• Effect of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizers on Growth, Yield and Yield Components of Black Cumin (Nigella sativa L.) at Konta District, South West Ethiopia
• Relationship Between some Growth Parameters, Dry Matter Content and Yield of Some Sweet Potato Genotypes Grown under Rainfed Weathered Ultisols in the Humid Tropics
• Aerial Ramet Dynamics and General Clonal Growth Patterns of Scirpus grossus in Grown at Different Water Depths and Fertilizer Regimes in Paddy Soils
• Seeder Performance under Different Speeds and its Relation to Soybean Cultivars Yield
• Study on the Potential of Land Utilization for Energy Plantation as Biodiesel Feedstock: Case Study of Andalas University Campus at Limau Manis
• Yield Response of Maize to Integrated Soil Fertility Management on Acidic Nitosol of Southwestern Ethiopia
• Character Association and Path Coefficient Analysis of Maize (Zea mays L.) Grown under Incorporated Legumes and Nitrogen
• Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Varieties Evaluated with Respect to Growth Parameters at Jimma in Southwestern Ethiopia
• Effects of Water Ozonated and Salinity on Some Properties of Cucumber
• Agronomic Performance and Genetic Variability among Common Bean Genotypes in Savanna/Pantanal Ecotone

The impact of the Quinoa boom on Bolivian family farmers

New findings based on survey results from 100 households located in southern Bolivia. 81% of farmers interviewed between December 2012 and March 2013 say quinoa is their primary source of income. Benefits of the increase in Quinoa prices:

• Guarantees improved incomes and access to credit 
• Access to additional labour and machinery
• Increased productivity 

Challenges:

• Land degradation
• Reduction of cultivated varieties

Source:

http://www.fao.org/

Cómase a los feos ! El movimiento ‘ugly food’ lucha contra el derroche de alimentos

El movimiento ‘ugly food’ lucha contra el derroche de alimentos y gana adeptos en Europa

Calabacines gigantes, naranjas abultadas, berenjenas con doble punta. Algo difícil de encontrar en la mayoría de las estanterías de los supermercados, donde abundan productos geométricamente perfectos y de aspecto reluciente. En un mundo en el que una de cada nueve personas sufre hambre a diario y se desperdicia un tercio de los alimentos producidos cada año —1.300 millones de toneladas, de acuerdo con la FAO—, el movimiento bautizado ugly food (comida fea) o ugly veggies (vegetales feos) intenta propiciar el consumo de frutas y hortalizas que, de otra manera, acabarían desperdiciándose por no respetar los “cánones estéticos” exigidos por los establecimientos comerciales. La idea es cambiar la mentalidad del consumidor y ayudarle en la cesta de la compra con alimentos a precio rebajado.

“Si las frutas se han chocado en el árbol, tienen un puntito o un roce, ya no valen. La central hortofrutícola o las cooperativas hacen una selección y lo que no sirve suele destinarse a alimentación animal”, explica Lorenzo Ramos, secretario general de la Unión de Pequeños Agricultores y Ganaderos (UPA). Ramos explica que, en épocas de superproducción, los estándares de calidad exigidos para la comercialización se endurecen aún más. El año pasado, cuando una abundante cosecha se juntó con el veto de Rusia a las exportaciones, “fue difícil porque no había suficiente demanda”, recuerda el productor. “Normalmente hay convenios con la industria para convertir los productos en almíbares o conservas. Pero hay casos donde no es suficiente”, explica.

Aunque en España el movimiento de la comida fea no haya despegado todavía, sí que en Europa —en particular en Alemania, Francia y Reino Unido—, han nacido varias iniciativas relacionadas con esta corriente para sensibilizar al consumidor. Desde la cooperativa portuguesa Frutafeia, que opera desde finales de 2013 para salvar toneladas de frutas y hortalizas que no respetan la estética “común”, hasta la campaña Inglorious fruit and vegetables lanzada por los supermercados franceses Intermarché, que ofrecen productos “imperfectos” con un 30% de descuento. En Alemania, Culinary Misfits —cuyo eslogan es Come toda la cosecha— recupera y revende los productos que no serían aprovechados por presentar características “anómalas”, mientras Ugly Fruits persuade a los consumidores para que los vegetales con formas no convencionales entren a formar parte de su dieta. Hasta uno de los cocineros más mediáticos de Reino Unido, Jamie Oliver, se ha sumado a la campaña a favor de los “vegetales torcidos”, iniciativa que ha sido recogida por la segunda cadena de supermercados británicos.

En los países industrializados, una gruesa parte de la pérdida de alimentos —hasta un 40%— se produce en la venta minorista y en el consumo, según detalla la FAO. La agencia de la ONU calcula que el derroche de comida propiciado por los ciudadanos procedentes de estas áreas geográficas llega a rebosar los 220 millones de toneladas por año, casi la misma cantidad de alimentos producida por África subsahariana. La situación es tan alarmante que la Unión Europea decidió declarar 2014 como Año contra el desperdicio de alimentos y programar una hoja de ruta para poner un freno a esta sangría constante de comestibles y reducirla a la mitad para 2025.

“Es una cuestión de congruencia, ya que hay personas que pasan hambre”, mantiene Inma Cid de la asociación de vecinos Zoes de Salamanca. Junto a 300 niños de un colegio local organizó, el mes pasado, un mercadillo para regalar “frutas y verduras feas” a los consumidores y poner su granito de arena en la lucha contra el desperdicio de alimentos. “Las fruterías del barrio nos reservaron los productos con peor aspecto y los niños se encargaron de explicar que, pese a la apariencia, tenían las mismas características que los demás”, cuenta. “La acogida fue muy buena, tenemos pensado repetir la experiencia. Hay que cambiar la mentalidad”, añade.

“Si una persona no se adecua a los estándares de la moda no significa que no sea rica por dentro”, bromea el dietista-nutricionista Eduard Baladia, miembro del Colegio y de la Fundación Española de Dietistas-Nutricionistas: “Con las frutas y hortalizas es igual: los productos que no son homogéneos se eliminan del mercado sin razón, porque tienen el mismo poder nutricional”. Baladia cree que la única manera para revertir la tendencia es insistir en una educación alimentaria que haga hincapié en el desperdicio de comida desde un punto de vista medio ambiental y de seguridad alimentaria.

Para Lorenzo Ramos, hay que buscar más fórmulas para salir del bucle, ya que el hortofrutícola es “un sector muy perverso”, que perjudica tanto al productor, por los pocos márgenes de beneficio que tiene, como al consumidor, que paga precios elevados cuando la oferta no es abundante. "El movimiento ugly food es una buena iniciativa que habría que desarrollar en nuestro país”, comenta el productor. El objetivo no es solo reducir el derroche de comida, sino a la vez beneficiar a toda la cadena de suministro. Por un lado, el cliente final consigue ahorrar en sus compras gracias a los precios rebajados, por el otro los productores y vendedores aumentan su productividad y beneficios. Y, por último, el medio ambiente agradece el aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales y la reducción de la huella de carbono causada por el desperdicio de alimentos. "Hay que entender que los productos que estéticamente no se adecuan a los estándares son tan buenos como los demás", concluye Ramos.

Fuente:

http://www.agroalimentando.com/

Slow Food and FAO launch “Quinoa in the Kitchen”

Recipe book is the first fruit of a partnership that aims to make quinoa a staple of the world’s kitchens
The Slow Food movement and FAO officially launched the book, “Quinoa in the Kitchen,” today to continue to promote awareness about the super-food’s potential as the International Year of Quinoa draws to a close.
The book gives an overview of quinoa’s roots in the history and culture of the central Andean high plateau, geographically extending across the borders of Peru and Bolivia, which together account for the vast majority of quinoa production in the world.
Since quinoa is still new to many beyond the Andes, the book includes a selection of quinoa recipes created by some of the world’s top chefs. The aim is to bring quinoa to kitchens across the world, where it may someday be as commonplace as pasta or rice.
Quinoa is exceptionally versatile, which has drawn it attention as a potential alternative crop that could be an added tool to be able to produce sufficient food for the world’s growing population – expected to grow by 2 billion people by 2050 – as the climate shifts. Different varieties of quinoa can be grown from sea level to 4000 metres in altitude, it can withstand temperatures from below freezing to 38 degrees Celsius, in both humid and arid climates and in a variety of soil conditions.
"Quinoa is part of the effort to recover these lost foods and to promote traditional and forgotten crops. It is also part of the idea that food is not only a commodity. It is a lot more than that. It is also culture, it is also taste, it is also a lot of things that are closely related to our history,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
Slow Food President Carlo Petrini said that the book draws inspiration from the two organizations “shared vision of a sustainable world free from hunger and that safeguards biodiversity for future generations.”
“Central to the process is gastronomy itself and the idea that this holistic, multidisciplinary science, which encompasses everything from agriculture to history, from economics to anthropology, from botany to culinary art, can be a liberating force of the communities most hit by malnutrition,” he added.
Quinoa is higher in protein than grains such as wheat, corn or rice, and it packs in vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids that are important to human nutrition but which many foods lack in just one source.
FAO is currently overseeing a programme in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru for the sustainable intensification of quinoa farming and food production systems in the Andean region. FAO is assisting countries to respond to a rising demand for quinoa so farmers can benefit from high prices while preserving the environment and biodiversity. Helping farmers to access the organic and fair trade sectors on international markets is one important element of the programme.
FAO is planning a regional project in arid and semi-arid areas of the Near East, where quinoa could prove useful to provide sufficient nutritious food even under extreme climactic conditions. In Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen, varieties will be selected and field tested to gauge which types of quinoa have the highest yields and nutritional values even under stress, such as drought.
Similar projects are being developed for Bhutan, Brunei and Sri Lanka , as well as for Kygryzstan and Tajikistan.
The United Nations has declared 2013 the “International Year of Quinoa.”

Source:

http://www.fao.org/ 

What the world eats

Source:
http://www.fao.org/ 

New insights into origins of agriculture could help shape future of food

Agricultural decisions made by our ancestors more than 10,000 years ago could hold the key to food security in the future, according to new research by the University of Sheffield.

Scientists, looking at why the first arable farmers chose to domesticate some cereal crops and not others, studied those that originated in the Fertile Crescent, an arc of land in western Asia from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.
They grew wild versions of what are now staple foods like wheat and barley along with other grasses from the region to identify the traits that make some plants suitable for agriculture, including how much edible seed the grasses produced and their architecture.
Dr Catherine Preece, who worked on the study with colleagues from the University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences and Department of Archaeology, said: "Our results surprised us because numerous other grasses that our ancestors ate, but we do not, can produce just as much seed as wild wheat and barley. It is only when these plants are grown at high densities, similar to what we would find in fields, that the advantage of wild wheat and barley is revealed."
The study identified two key characteristics shared by the wild relatives of current crop plants. Firstly they have bigger seeds, which means they grow into bigger seedlings and are able to get more than their fair share of light and nutrients, and secondly, as adult plants they are less bushy than other grasses and package their big seeds onto fewer stems. This means crop wild relatives perform better than the other wild grasses that they are competing with and are better at growing close together in fields, making them ideal for using in agriculture.
"The results are important because our expanding human population is putting increasing demands on food production," said Dr Preece.
"Before humans learnt how to farm, our ancestors ate a much wider variety of grasses. If we can understand what traits have made some grasses into good crops then we can look for those characteristics in other plants and perhaps identify good candidates for future domestication."
She added: "To shape the future we must understand the past, so the more we can discover about the origins of agriculture, the more information we will have to help us tackle the challenges that face modern day food production."
So far the researchers have been conducting their experiments in greenhouses and their results indicate that the traits affecting how plants compete with each other are crucial factors to determining the success of a crop.
The team now plan to observe how the plants interact in their natural environment by growing them in experimental fields in Turkey, the heart of the Fertile Crescent. They hope that their experiments will yield another crop of important results.
"Cereal breeders are taking an increasing interest in modern crops' wild relatives as a source of useful traits that may help to increase yields or increase resilience to climate change, and our work should help in this process," said Dr Preece.
Dr Preece presented the results of this study to the joint British Ecological Society and the French Ecological Society 11 December 2014 in the Grand Palais, Lille.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/

More holistic approach needed when studying diets of our ancestors

Researchers have long debated how and what our ancestors ate. Charles Darwin hypothesized that the hunting of game animals was a defining feature of early hominids, one that was linked with both upright walking and advanced tool use and that isolated these species from their closest relatives (such as ancestors of chimpanzees); modified versions of this hypothesis exist to this day. Other scholars insist that while our ancestors' diets did include meat, it was predominantly scavenged and not hunted. Still others argue that particular plant foods such as roots and tubers were of greater importance than meat in the diets of these species.

Research technology has come a long way since Darwin's time, making possible the kind of analysis early scholars could only have imagined. Recent work has presented reconstructions of early hominid diets on the basis of chemical makeups of fossil tooth enamel, evidence of microscopic wear on teeth, and advanced studies of craniodental anatomy, to name a few.
However, according to Ken Sayers (Georgia State University) and C. Owen Lovejoy (Kent State University) in an article published in the December 2014 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, although modern-day technology provides valuable insight, such tools alone cannot provide a complete picture of the diet of early hominids. Instead, they should be included -- alongside other methodologies -- in holistic studies grounded in the fundamentals of modern evolutionary ecology.
Sayers and Lovejoy suggest that researchers should examine a species' particular habitat and "whole-body" anatomy, including digestion, locomotion, and possible cognitive abilities. In particular, foraging theory -- a branch of evolutionary ecology that investigates animal feeding decisions through the lens of efficiency principles -- is especially important to consider, as it demonstrates that diet is regulated by the potential value and costs of exploiting individual food items (whether plant, animal, or other) and by the relative abundance of the most profitable foods. In the case of the earliest-known hominids, evidence about their morphology and likely cognitive abilities -- in addition to data obtained from modern technologies -- provide little support for a reliance on any one particular food type. Rather, these species likely had a broadly omnivorous diet that became increasingly generalized over time.
According to Sayers and Lovejoy, the early hominid diet can best be elucidated by considering the entire habitat-specific resource base and by quantifying the potential profitability and abundance of likely available foods. Furthermore, they warn that hypotheses focusing too narrowly on any one food type or foraging strategy -- such as hunting or scavenging or any one particular plant category -- are too restrictive and should be viewed with caution. Modeling these species' diets instead "requires a holistic, interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond merely what we can observe chemically or through a microscope, and draws from ecology, anatomy and physiology, cognitive science, and behavior."

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
Ken Sayers, C. Owen Lovejoy. Blood, Bulbs, and Bunodonts: On Evolutionary Ecology and the Diets ofArdipithecus,Australopithecus, and EarlyHomo. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 2014; 89 (4): 319 DOI: 10.1086/678568

Can organic crops compete with industrial agriculture?

A systematic overview of more than 100 studies comparing organic and conventional farming finds that the crop yields of organic agriculture are higher than previously thought. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, also found that certain practices could further shrink the productivity gap between organic crops and conventional farming.

The study, to be published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, tackles the lingering perception that organic farming, while offering an environmentally sustainable alternative to chemically intensive agriculture, cannot produce enough food to satisfy the world's appetite.
"In terms of comparing productivity among the two techniques, this paper sets the record straight on the comparison between organic and conventional agriculture," said the study's senior author, Claire Kremen, professor of environmental science, policy and management and co-director of the Berkeley Food Institute. "With global food needs predicted to greatly increase in the next 50 years, it's critical to look more closely at organic farming because, aside from the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture, the ability of synthetic fertilizers to increase crop yields has been declining."
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 115 studies -- a dataset three times greater than previously published work -- comparing organic and conventional agriculture. They found that organic yields are about 19.2 percent lower than conventional ones, a smaller difference than in previous estimates.
The researchers pointed out that the available studies comparing farming methods were often biased in favor of conventional agriculture, so this estimate of the yield gap is likely overestimated. They also found that taking into account methods that optimize the productivity of organic agriculture could minimize the yield gap. They specifically highlighted two agricultural practices -- multi-cropping (growing several crops together on the same field) and crop rotation -- that would substantially reduce the organic-to-conventional yield gap to 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
The yields also depended upon the type of crop grown, the researchers found. There were no significant differences in organic and conventional yields for leguminous crops, such as beans, peas and lentils.
"Our study suggests that through appropriate investment in agroecological research to improve organic management and in breeding cultivars for organic farming systems, the yield gap could be reduced or even eliminated for some crops or regions," said the study's lead author, Lauren Ponisio, a graduate student in environmental science, policy and management. "This is especially true if we mimic nature by creating ecologically diverse farms that harness important ecological interactions like the nitrogen-fixing benefits of intercropping or cover-cropping with legumes."
The researchers suggest that organic farming can be a very competitive alternative to industrial agriculture when it comes to food production.
"It's important to remember that our current agricultural system produces far more food than is needed to provide for everyone on the planet," said Kremen. "Eradicating world hunger requires increasing the access to food, not simply the production. Also, increasing the proportion of agriculture that uses sustainable, organic methods of farming is not a choice, it's a necessity. We simply can't continue to produce food far into the future without taking care of our soils, water and biodiversity."

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
Lauren C. Ponisio, Leithen K. M'Gonigle, Kevi C. Mace, Jenny Palomino, Perry de Valpine, Claire Kremen. Diversification practices reduce organic to conventional yield gap. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, December 2014 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1396

Symphony of the Soil

WATCH Symphony of the Soil on streaming VOD, here or click the “Purchase” button above to rent the video, or buy a DVD.

Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource. The film also examines our human relationship with soil, the use and misuse of soil in agriculture, deforestation and development, and the latest scientific research on soil’s key role in ameliorating the most challenging environmental issues of our time. Filmed on four continents, featuring esteemed scientists and working farmers and ranchers, Symphony of the Soil is an intriguing presentation that highlights possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.



Source:
http://www.symphonyofthesoil.com/

Farmers go Digital to Confront Changing Growing Conditions

American farmers have a long history of overcoming obstacles. In 1938, they helped the country emerge from the Dust Bowl by switching to contour plowing and eradicated the boll weevil forty years later by employing integrated pest management techniques. In both cases – and many others – USDA was there to help farmers achieve success.
Many of the obstacles they face today are on a much larger scale, associated with climate change and seasonal weather variability. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is helping farmers get the tools they need to meet those challenges.
NIFA provided a $5 million Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant in 2011 to Purdue University to lead a multi-institutional effort to provide farmers with online tools that could make their crop-related decisions easier. Today, the resulting “Useful to Usable” (U2U) project is helping Corn Belt farmers improve their resilience and profitability amid the irregular weather conditions of a changing climate. The U2U project takes existing weather data and then provides the information in formats that farmers can use to manage their crops – what, when, and where to plant; fertilizing; irrigating; and more.
The U2U team consisted of Purdue, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, South Dakota State University, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and University of Wisconsin.
“Developing solutions to the complex problems associated with agricultural production and climate change requires many skill sets and also localized knowledge,” said Melissa Widhalm, U2U project manager at Purdue. “While the entire Midwest is growing corn, specific regions have unique climate characteristics, farm management strategies, and social factors that must be considered. By bringing together a diversity of experts from across the region we can accomplish work that no single university could do alone.“
“The goal of U2U is to develop a dashboard of tools that people can use for decision-making, not only within the season but also when looking ahead at multiple seasons,” explained Dennis Todey, South Dakota State University’s U2U program director.
According to Todey, U2U contains various web-based tools, including the Corn Growing Degree Days (GDD). Most plants, including corn, develop at rates that are dependent upon how much warmth they receive each day. GDD is a mathematical formula (based on daily temperatures) that determines how many units of heat the corn accumulates over the course of the growing season. Farmers can then use that data to compare how their crops are actually performing and when they may reach maturity compared to potential freeze conditions. U2U’s GDD method has proven to be helpful in both food safety and economic growth for farmers.
Farmers select the location and time when corn is planted and determine the amount of days it will take to reach maturity. According to Todey, the program then assesses the development compared to a 30-year average to project tasseling and maturity dates.
“The GDD tool has been particularly useful this year because of delayed planting and overall cool summer conditions. Producers have been able to review where they are in development and how likely corn is to reach maturity. Producers can then make decision on chopping corn for silage, changing marketing decisions, or propane purchases for corn drying needs,” said Todey.
Another U2U decision support tool is the Climate Patterns Viewer (CPV). CPV gives a historic view of how El Nino weather patterns and Arctic Oscillations have influenced corn yield across the Corn Belt. The CPV map shows how these weather events have affected temperature, precipitation, and deviations in yield from 1981-2010.
“This is very timely, since we’re looking at a pending El Nino,” Todey said. “Farmers are now able to track the potential weather month by month and better understand how oscillations effect temperature changes, precipitation and crop yielding.”
Through federal funding and leadership for research, education, and extension programs, NIFA focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people’s daily lives and the nation’s future.

Source:

http://blogs.usda.gov/

Journal of Integrative Plant Biology. Special Issue: Metabolomics and Metabolic Biology

Editorial
Plant metabolomics and metabolic biology (pages 814–815)
Xiaoquan Qi and Dabing Zhang

Minireview
Recent progress in polar metabolite quantification in plants using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (pages 816–825)
Zhiqian Liu and Simone Rochfort

Research Articles
Seed metabolomic study reveals significant metabolite variations and correlations among different soybean cultivars (pages 826–836)
Hong Lin, Jun Rao, Jianxin Shi, Chaoyang Hu, Fang Cheng, Zoe A. Wilson, Dabing Zhang and Sheng Quan

Gas chromatography mass spectrometry based metabolic profiling reveals biomarkers involved in rice-gall midge interactions (pages 837–848)
Ruchi Agarrwal, Jagadish Sanmallappa Bentur and Suresh Nair

Comparative metabolomic analysis of wild type and mads3 mutant rice anthers(pages 849–863)
Guorun Qu, Sheng Quan, Palash Mondol, Jie Xu, Dabing Zhang and Jianxin Shi

Metabolomics-assisted refinement of the pathways of steroidal glycoalkaloid biosynthesis in the tomato clade (pages 864–875)
Kevin Schwahn, Leonardo Perez de Souza, Alisdair R. Fernie and Takayuki Tohge

Comprehensive profiling and natural variation of flavonoids in rice (pages 876–886)
Xuekui Dong, Wei Chen, Wensheng Wang, Hongyan Zhang, Xianqing Liu and Jie Luo

Genome-wide identification and expression analyses of cytochrome P450 genes in mulberry (Morus notabilis) (pages 887–901)
Bi Ma, Yiwei Luo, Ling Jia, Xiwu Qi, Qiwei Zeng, Zhonghuai Xiang and Ningjia He

The P450-type carotene hydroxylase PuCHY1 from Porphyra suggests the evolution of carotenoid metabolism in red algae (pages 902–915)
Li-En Yang, Xing-Qi Huang, Yu Hang, Yin-Yin Deng, Qin-Qin Lu and Shan Lu

THF1 mutations lead to increased basal and wound-induced levels of oxylipins that stimulate anthocyanin biosynthesis via COI1 signaling in Arabidopsis (pages 916–927)
Yi Gan, Hong Li, Ye Xie, Wenjuan Wu, Maoyin Li, Xuemin Wang and Jirong Huang

Peltate glandular trichomes of Colquhounia seguinii harbor new defensive clerodane diterpenoids (pages 928–940)
Chun-Huan Li, Yan Liu, Juan Hua, Shi-Hong Luo and Sheng-Hong Li

Analysis of metabolic alterations in Arabidopsis following changes in the carbon dioxide and oxygen partial pressures (pages 941–959)
Alexandra Florian, Stefan Timm, Zoran Nikoloski, Takayuki Tohge, Hermann Bauwe, Wagner L. Araújo and Alisdair R. Fernie

Source:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jipb.v56.9/issuetoc?campaign=woletoc

Plant variants point the way to improved biofuel production

Manufacturing biofuels from food crop by-products such as straw could be made quicker and cheaper thanks to a new study led by scientists at the University of York.

The research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) discovered variant straw plants whose cell walls are more easily broken down to make biofuels, but which are not significantly smaller or weaker than regular plants.
The discovery by researchers in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products at York could help ease pressure on global food security as biofuels from non-food crops become easier and cheaper to make.
The impact of carbon emissions on global warming is driving the need for carbon neutral biofuels. Many existing biofuels are produced from crops which can be used for food, and therefore have a negative impact on global food security.
One answer is to make fuels from woody, non-food parts of plants such as straw. These are rich in polysaccharides (sugar chains) which can be broken down into simple sugars and then fermented into ethanol for fuel. However, such biofuels are currently too expensive because of the cost of digesting the woody tissues into simple sugars.
The CNAP researchers led by Professor Simon McQueen-Mason, working with colleagues in France, screened a large collection of variants of the model grass species Brachypodium for digestibility. Screening mutants in this way allows rapid assessment of the range of natural diversity that can be found in a species.
Using this approach, PhD student Poppy Marriott identified 12 independent plant lines with highly digestible straw, but which grew normally and showed no decrease in straw strength. Analysing these plants showed that increased digestibility can be achieved through a range of changes in the cell wall, where the majority of sugar is contained in woody biomass.
In addition the team at York also showed they can identify the gene alterations that give rise to the high digestibility. The new results are published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
By identifying these plant variants with straw that is easier to digest, but which retain their size and strength, the cost and complexity of biofuel production could be reduced.
Professor McQueen-Mason said: “This work sets the stage for identifying similar high-digestibility lines in commercial crop species that will pave the way to more cost-effective and sustainable biofuels.
“Using plant by-products such as straw provides a double benefit as we can harvest the food from the plant, then use the straw to produce a carbon neutral fuel.”
Professor Melanie Welham, BBSRC Executive Director for Science, said: “This research is another important step towards making carbon-neutral biofuels both easier and cheaper to produce. Using crop by-products such as straw for biofuels reduces pressure on food supplies and also adds value to the crop, boosting food security and helping farmers.
“It is just one example of how BBSRC investment in world class bioscience is working towards addressing some of the existing and emerging global challenges that we all face.”

Further information:

• A range of cell wall alterations enhance saccharification in Brachypodium distachyon mutants is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
• The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Its aim is to further scientific knowledge, to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond. Funded by Government, BBSRC invested over £484M in world-class bioscience in 2013-14. It supports research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people it funds are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. BBSRC investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.For more information about BBSRC, its science and impact see:http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk For more information about BBSRC strategically funded institutes see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/institutes
• The Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) is an award winning strategic research centre based in the Department of Biology at the University of York. CNAP is dedicated to realising the potential of plants as renewable, low-cost factories that produce high-value chemicals and biofuels. Laboratory based discoveries are translated into practice in partnership with industry.www.york.ac.uk/org/cnap/

Source: 

http://www.york.ac.uk/