Biofortification or diversification? Moving toward a food system approach to overcome the controversy

Problem statement. Micronutrient deficiencies (vitamins and minerals), sometimes called “hidden hunger”, affect over 2 billion people worldwide and have many consequences on human development and health. Among the different strategies to address this challenge, biofortification and dietary diversification have often been opposed, giving rise to controversy over their respective benefits and effectiveness. Biofortification consists in increasing the micronutrient contents of food crops through selective breeding, genetic modification, or enriched fertilization. Dietary diversification consists in enhancing the availability, access, and utilization of a variety of foods through more diversified agri-food systems and food environments. The debate between these two approaches engages different levers and actors, at different scales, and reflects different visions on agriculture, food and nutritional security. 2. Methodology. We propose here to disaggregate the representation of this controversy through an interdisciplinary prism, considering the whole food system as an efficient conceptual framework for understanding the links between production and nutrition outcomes. By considering impacts on health and environment through a cross-cutting approach, we achieved an integrated literature review that mobilized complementary scientific disciplines in environmental, medical and social sciences, providing an original and holistic perspective on the debate. 3. Results. While there is consistent evidence that higher dietary diversity can prevent micronutrient deficiencies in low-income countries there is still a need for evidence that biofortified foods can have impacts beyond just increasing nutrients intakes. The literature shows that in some contexts, biofortification can be an effective medium-term way of tackling nutritional risk in vulnerable populations, but it could generate negative environmental, economic and social impacts. Dietary diversity would encourage greater agrobiodiversity at different scales, improving ecosystem services. Beyond providing healther diets, agricultural diversification is an important lever to sustain agri-food systems at different scales. Hence, diversifying agricultural and food systems helps synergistically to fight malnutrition and preserve the environment. 4. Conclusion. To meet the challenge of micronutrient deficiencies but also malnutrition in all its forms, there is a need to move away from a silo or chain approach towards a holistic, multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach. Food biodiversity in human diets hence appears to be a key step towards human and environmental health simultaneously and should receive much greater interest and support in nutrition policies and programs in the low-income countries.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Malézieux, Eric, Verger, Eric O., Avallone, Sylvie, Alpha, Arlène, Biu Ngigi, Peter, Lourme-Ruiz, Alissia, Bazile, Didier, Bricas, Nicolas, Ehret, Isabelle, Martin-Prével, Yves, Amiot, Marie Josèphe
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	Elsevier
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/607946/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/607946/8/BIOFORT.VS.DIV-GFS-LEUWEN-MALEZIEUX.pdf
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