Breeding for public health: A strategy

Abstract

Background Plant and animal breeding can contribute to promote human health by providing new and healthier food products that farmers can produce in an economically viable way and consumers will choose to buy and eat. However, this can only be achieved if breeding makes full use of knowledge about nutrition, consumer behaviour, farming and agricultural economics, A strategy is needed for breeding for public health.Scope and Approach: A multidisciplinary group of researchers has developed a strategy for plant and animal breeding for public health. The group includes experts in plant breeding, animal breeding, food science, nutrition science, clinical nutrition, agricultural economics, consumer research, and ethics.Key Findings and Conclusions: An outline is proposed of a strategy for breeding for public health. It aims at improving public health in both low- and high-income countries. To prevent chronic disease, the highest priority should be to develop healthy variants of traditional food items that can be introduced universally, i.e. completely replace the older, less healthy variants. In particular in low-income countries, food products with enhanced micronutrient content are urgently needed. In all countries, crops with improved fatty acid composition can contribute substantially to improved public health. A reasonable second priority is products that may not be suitable for universal introduction but will expectedly be demanded by large groups of consumers. One example could be diminishing the energy density of traditional foodstuffs by reducing their fat, sugar, and starch content and increasing their dietary fibre content, Changes in the current organization of the market for farm products are needed to encourage the production of healthier foodstuffs.

Keywords

Animal breeding; Consumers; Energy density; Fat composition; Food choice; Genetic modification; Micronutrients; Nutrition; Obesity; Plant breeding; Public health

Published in

Trends in Food Science and Technology
2018, Volume: 80, pages: 131-140 Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON

SLU Authors

• Hansson, Sven Ove

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

• Åman, Per

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• de Koning, Dirk-Jan

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Lagerkvist, Carl-Johan

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Lehrman, Anna

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Stymne, Sten

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG2 Zero hunger
SDG3 Good health and well-being
SDG17 Partnerships for the goals


UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Food Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2018.07.023

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/97069