Farming and Agriculture

Food as Medicine: BBC series cites biofortification as crucial innovation to fight malnutrition

10 March 2022, USA: A new episode of the BBC’s “Follow the Food” series, titled “Food as Medicine,” sheds light on biofortification as an innovative technology to combat micronutrient deficiencies.  The episode shows how producers, scientists and technologists are redefining how we grow our food to feed the planet and how we can do better by rethinking solutions. 

Is a healthier world possible? Food is at the heart of the problem as millions of people don’t have enough to eat—800 million people still going to bed hungry—while on the other hand, we have more than 2 billion people who are overweight. Food as medicine is a very powerful concept and it would change how we grow, process, distribute and consume food.

The video features interviews from HarvestPlus Founding Director Howdy Bouis, and HarvestPlus’ Regional Director for Africa Donald Mavididze, talking about how nutrient-enriched biofortified staple crops are helping revolutionize diets for millions of smallholder farmers across different continents when they go through the process of biofortification. They speak about harnessing the power of good food as medicine with nutrients added to conventionally-bred staple crop varieties. The groundbreaking process of biofortification provide the minerals and vitamins that people need to meet their micronutrient needs. More than 400 varieties of nutrient-enriched staple crops have been released across more than 40 countries and 10 million smallholder farmers are growing and consuming these biofortified varieties.