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.

中文翻译：

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促进公共卫生的育种：一项战略

背景

动植物育种可以通过提供农民可以经济上可行的方式生产的新的，更健康的食品来促进人类健康，消费者将选择购买和食用。但是，只有在育种充分利用了有关营养，消费者行为，农业和农业经济学的知识后，才能实现这一目标。需要一种策略来繁殖公共卫生。

范围和方法

一个多学科的研究人员小组已经开发了一种用于公共卫生的动植物育种策略。该小组包括植物育种，动物育种，食品科学，营养科学，临床营养，农业经济学，消费者研究和伦理学方面的专家。

主要发现和结论

提出了公共卫生育种策略的大纲。它旨在改善低收入和高收入国家的公共卫生。为了预防慢性病，最优先的工作应该是开发可以普遍引入的传统食品的健康变种，即完全替代较旧，健康程度较低的变种。特别是在低收入国家，迫切需要微量营养素含量更高的食品。在所有国家中，脂肪酸组成得到改善的农作物都可以极大地改善公共健康。合理的第二优先权是可能不适合普遍推出的产品，但预计会受到大量消费者的需求。一个例子可能是通过减少传统食品的脂肪，糖和淀粉含量并增加其膳食纤维含量来降低其能量密度。为了鼓励生产更健康的食品，需要改变当前农产品市场的组织。