Closing Research Investment Gaps for a Global Food Transformation

Research Abstract:

Recent calls for a global food transformation have centered on simultaneously improving human and environmental health, recognizing that food and nutrient diversity have declined over time while food systems have exacted a heavy climate and ecological toll. Grain legumes and coarse grain crops provide important human nutrition and environmental benefits, but the production and consumption of many of these crops remains relatively low compared to major commodities, such as maize, wheat, rice, and soy. Outstanding hurdles to scaling up these “minor commodity” crops include (among other things) their relatively lower yields, and lower farmer adoption, based partly on actual or perceived profitability and marketability. We hypothesize that these limitations are attributable in part to unequal funding for these crops' research and development (R&D) both on a national and global scale. In the United States, we show that investment patterns for a snapshot of USDA-funded research grants from 2008 to 2019 consistently favor major commodity crops, which received 3 to 4.5 times more funding and 3 to 5 times as many grants than the minor commodity crop groups. This current USDA funding allocation poses a barrier to food system transformations. Achieving nutritious diets for planetary health requires more public agricultural investment toward minor commodity crops and increased collaboration between public health, nutrition, agriculture, and environmental sectors.

fsufs-05-794594 (4).pdf

The Need for a

Global Food Transformation

On the left you can find my poster which is broken up into 5 sections. This project was recently published by the Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems journal and was written as a perspective article. This article does contain original data, but relies more heavily on discussion than methods/results.

The 1st section, "Twentieth Century Agricultural Development and Current Trends," outlines the evolution of agricultural production and the trend towards decreased diversity in our food supply.

The 2nd section, "Impact of Current Agricultural Systems on Human Health and the Environment," highlights the implications of this decreased diversity on planetary health.

The 3rd section, "Needs for a Great Food Transformation," discusses the importance of minor commodity crop groups in leading the charge towards a global food transformation that supports human health and the environment simultaneously and sustainably into the future.

The 4th section, "Crop Research and Development Investment Gaps in the United States," showcases our review of USDA research funding between 2008 and 2019. The results show that minor commodity crop groups received far less research funding from the USDA, both in the total dollars spent and in the number of grants funded, than the major commodity crop group.

The 5th section, "Discussion: Toward a Global Food Transformation," summarizes how the current USDA funding distribution is an important barrier to the improvement of minor commodity crops and their utility to planetary health. We end by calling for a shift towards more diverse agricultural landscapes and diets which requires (1) a major re-orientation of public agricultural investment toward minor commodities and (2) increased collaboration across public programs designed to promote food security and meet environment, climate, and conservation goals.

Alex Bollington

Hello! My name is Alex and I'm a first year Master's student at NYU Steinhardt's Food Studies program. I'm very passionate about research that explores the intersection of public health, nutrition, agriculture, and the environment. I come from an environmental science background and care deeply about the future of this planet. If you have any questions at all about the project please feel free to reach out over email (arb653@nyu.edu)! I'm aiming to graduate from the program by Spring 2024 and can't wait to continue to research topics within this space during my time at NYU.

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