For decades, agronomists have ignored hidden possibilities in native plants in many areas and have focused on growing the same old staple crops around the world (read: grains like corn, wheat and rice).
Joe Biden is trying to change that by testing a program that encourages people to produce plants that are better for the area and their health. The New York Times explains:
Cary Fowler once helped build an Arctic vault to save the world’s great variety of crop seeds from extinction. Now, as the State Department’s global envoy for food security, he is trying to plant a new seed in U.S. foreign policy.
Traditional crops are more nourishing for people who eat them and for the soils in which they are grown, according to Mr. Fowler, and they are better at withstanding the wild weather delivered by climate change. The problem, he says, is that they’ve been ignored by plant breeders. His goal, through the new State Department initiative, is to increase the agricultural productivity of the most nutritious and climate-hardy among them.
The initial focus is on a half dozen crops in a half dozen countries in Africa.
“These crops have been grown for thousands of years in Africa,” Mr. Fowler, 74, said in a recent interview. “They’re doing something right. They’re embedded in the culture. They really supply nutrition. If they have yield problems or other barriers to commercialization, frankly, by and large, it’s because we haven’t invested in them.”
He calls them “opportunity crops” because they’re sturdy and full of nutrients.
Within the Biden Administration, it isn’t just Fowler who’s enthusiastic about this:
Mr. Fowler’s boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the idea could be “genuinely revolutionary.”
Does this mean getting rid of wheat, corn and rice?
Mr. Fowler said that he was not trying to stop the promotion of staple grains but wanted to expand the range of crops that get attention and investment.
“We focused on traditional and indigenous crops, because they haven’t gotten the focus ever before,” Mr. Fowler said. “This program is not about telling farmers when to grow or telling people what to eat. It’s about presenting options.”
His favorite of these opportunity crops are grass peas. He first saw them on a visit to Ethiopia during a bad drought. The soil was dry and caked. There were deep fissures in the earth. “And here was this beautiful little plant, flowering,” he said. “I thought, ‘What a generous little plant this is.’”
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden did more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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