Gates Grant Will Help Danforth Center Fight Hunger

January 7, 2009

By Georgina Gustin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

One of the world's biggest philanthropic foundations has given researchers here a multimillion-dollar infusion of cash to help genetically modified, nutritionally fortified crops take root in Africa.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is employing its massive $35.1 billion endowment to tackle global health and hunger issues, awarded the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center a $5.4 million grant, announced this week. The funding will help the center secure the approval of African governments to allow field testing of genetically modified banana, rice, sorghum and cassava plants that have been fortified with vitamins, minerals and proteins. These crops are mainstays in the diets of millions in developing countries around the globe.

"If you eat these roots or these grains on a day-to-day basis ... you don't get these nutrients, and you end up with malnutrition and all of the ramifications of that," said Paul Anderson, the center's director of international programs. "We're trying to improve these crops."

Researchers at the center and at a handful of other institutions scattered around the world have succeeded in introducing the nutrients into the plants. Now they need to gain regulatory approval from target countries to move forward with the research - research the not-for-profit Danforth center will give free to farmers. The center believes the research could eventually help stem hunger in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.

"We need to start making plans for how these product developments are going to be carried out in our countries of interest and how these products are going to meet the regulatory requirements of those countries," Anderson said.

So far, no countries have approved field tests of the crops - a hesitation that critics of the technology say stems from African countries' unwillingness to be seen as guinea pigs. Researchers say, however, that the tests are the critical next step that would allow them to determine whether the plants have changed in unsafe ways.

The $5.4 million will go to developing the crops in the field, to safety assessments and overcoming regulatory hurdles.

The foundation has previously supported research at the center, which focuses on sorghum and cassava, a potato-like crop that has been widely destroyed by virus. Previously, the foundation has given the center, and other institutions, $12.1 million to help fortify cassava with proteins and other nutrients.

Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Copyright 2009.