The following is an edited excerpt.
Despite the rapid progress made towards reducing poverty in many developing countries in recent years, high rates of malnutrition persist – and Vitamin A deficiency remains a persistent challenge.
WHO promotes an ‘arsenal’ of nutritional weapons, including “a combination of breastfeeding and vitamin A supplementation, coupled with enduring solutions, such as promotion of vitamin A-rich diets and food fortification”.
A complementary approach is ‘biofortification’, where the missing nutrients are bred into staple crops either through conventional selective breeding or – if no genes are available in related plants – through genetic engineering.
Read the full post here: Golden promise: How ‘biofortification’ could soon be saving hundreds of thousands of lives
