Howarth Bouis

Last updated
Howarth Bouis
NationalityAmerican
Academic career
Institution HarvestPlus
International Food Policy Research Institute
Alma mater Stanford University
Awards World Food Prize

Howarth E. "Howdy" Bouis (born October 10, 1950), is an American economist whose work has focused on agriculture, nutrition outcomes, and reducing micronutrient malnutrition, also known as hidden hunger. [1] He is the founder and former director of HarvestPlus, [2] a global non-profit agricultural research program. Bouis was awarded the World Food Prize in 2016 for his pioneering work on biofortification. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Bouis was born in 1950 in Berkeley, California. [4] He received his BA in economics from Stanford University in 1972. Bouis then spent three years in the Philippines serving with Volunteers in Asia, an experience that influenced him to pursue a career in international humanitarian work. [5] Bouis went on to receive his MA and PhD from the Food Research Institute at Stanford University. [6] As part of his doctoral research, he spent a year as a fellow at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, the Philippines, collecting information for his dissertation, “Rice Policy in the Philippines”. [7]

Career

International Food Policy Research Institute

In 1982, Bouis joined the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as a post-doctoral researcher in the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division. [8] The first project he undertook at IFPRI investigated how economic factors impact nutritional status and health outcomes in the Philippines. [9] He went on to work in the same division as a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow. [10]

Discovery and confirmation of biofortification

When Bouis joined IFPRI, most experts in the field considered calorie intake to be the principal benchmark for nutritional status. The issue of micronutrient malnutrition, or hidden hunger, was not yet widely understood. Research that Bouis and Lawrence Haddad carried out in the Philippines from 1984 to 1990 indicated that mineral and vitamin intake, not calorie intake, was the primary constraint to improving nutrition outcomes and reducing micronutrient deficiencies. Recognizing that low-income smallholder farmers, a large proportion of the population in most developing countries, could not afford nutritionally-dense, diverse diets, Bouis sought a way for staple crops, such as beans, rice, and wheat, to provide more micronutrients. [11] He hypothesized that crops bred to include higher levels of iron, zinc or vitamin A could substantially improve nutrition at a relatively low cost and could conveniently reach remote rural households. This concept eventually came to be known as biofortification. [12]

HarvestPlus

After receiving initial skepticism from the public health and agricultural communities, Bouis partnered with Dr. Ross Welch from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory (PSNL) at Cornell University and Dr. Robin Graham of the University of Adelaide, and IFPRI’s Biofortification Challenge Project was formed in 1993. The Project was renamed HarvestPlus in 2003, and Bouis was selected as Director. [13] In that role, he led the effort to breed and deliver micronutrient-dense staple crops to reduce micronutrient malnutrition. [14] Biofortification now reaches over 25 million people in developing countries. [15] Bouis remained in this role until his retirement in October 2016. He currently resides in the Philippines and continues to serve as an advisor for the program. [16]

Awards

In 2016, Bouis was announced as a recipient of the World Food Prize for pioneering the concept of biofortification and taking it from hypothesis to scaling up globally. [17] The World Food Prize Committee noted that Bouis “persevered relentlessly in the face of skepticism and opposition from public health experts and crop breeders as he pursued his vision that agriculture could provide more nutritious staple crops, which could reduce the micronutrient deficiencies that can cause malnutrition, blindness, disease and even early death among vulnerable populations in Africa and Asia, and Latin America, particularly children under the age of five”. [18] He shared the prize with fellow laureates Dr. Maria Andrade, Dr. Jan Low, and Dr. Robert Mwanga of the International Potato Center in recognition of their pioneering work on biofortified sweet potatoes in Africa. [19]

In 2017, Bouis was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Greenwich. [20]

Selected publications

See also

Related Research Articles

Vitamin deficiency is the condition of a long-term lack of a vitamin. When caused by not enough vitamin intake it is classified as a primary deficiency, whereas when due to an underlying disorder such as malabsorption it is called a secondary deficiency. An underlying disorder can have 2 main causes:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malnutrition</span> Medical condition

Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues and form. Malnutrition is not receiving the correct amount of nutrition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Food Prize</span> International award in human development

The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug and established in 1986 through the support of General Foods, the prize is envisioned and promoted as the Nobel or the highest honors in the field of food and agriculture. It is now administered by the World Food Prize Foundation with support from numerous sponsors. Since 1987, the prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply, such as animal science, aquaculture, soil science, water conservation, nutrition, health, plant science, seed science, plant pathology, crop protection, food technology, food safety, policy, research, infrastructure, emergency relief, and poverty alleviation and hunger.

Micronutrients are essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities to regulate physiological functions of cells and organs. Micronutrients support the health of organisms throughout life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Keller International</span> U.S. nonprofit organization

Helen Keller Intl is an US-based nonprofit organization that combats the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition by establishing programs based on evidence and research in vision, health, and nutrition. Founded in 1915 by Helen Keller and George A. Kessler, the organization's mission is to save the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empty calories</span> Calories with no nutritional value

In human nutrition, empty calories are those calories found in foods and beverages composed primarily or solely of calorie-rich macronutrients such as sugars and fats, but little or no micronutrients, fibre, or protein. Foods composed mostly of empty calories have low nutrient density, meaning few other nutrients relative to their energy content. Empty calories are more difficult to fit into a diet that is both balanced and within TDEE, and so readily create an unhealthy diet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Food Policy Research Institute</span>

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in 1975 to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations in agricultural technology. Additionally, IFPRI was meant to shed more light on the role of agricultural and rural development in the broader development pathway of a country. The mission of IFPRI is to provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.

Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding micronutrients to food. It can be carried out by food manufacturers, or by governments as a public health policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population. The predominant diet within a region can lack particular nutrients due to the local soil or from inherent deficiencies within the staple foods; the addition of micronutrients to staples and condiments can prevent large-scale deficiency diseases in these cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitamin A deficiency</span> Disease resulting from low Vitamin A concentrations in the body

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biofortification</span> Breeding crops for higher nutritional value

Biofortification is the idea of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value. This can be done either through conventional selective breeding, or through genetic engineering. Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious as the plants are growing, rather than having nutrients added to the foods when they are being processed. This is an important improvement on ordinary fortification when it comes to providing nutrients for the rural poor, who rarely have access to commercially fortified foods. As such, biofortification is seen as an upcoming strategy for dealing with deficiencies of micronutrients in low and middle-income countries. In the case of iron, the WHO estimated that biofortification could help cure the 2 billion people suffering from iron deficiency-induced anemia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global Hunger Index</span> Tool that measures and tracks hunger

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Haddad</span> British economist

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References

  1. ↑ Craugh Zuckerman, Jocelyn. "Biofortification". New York Times.
  2. ↑ Pollack, Andrew (21 October 2003). "Grant Aims at More Healthful Crops". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Doering, Christopher. "World Food Prize winners turn food into medicine". The Des Moines Register.
  4. ↑ "2016 Laureates: Maria Andrade, Howarth Bouis, Jan Low and Robert Mwanga". YouTube. 11 November 2016.
  5. ↑ "2016 Laureates: Maria Andrade, Howarth Bouis, Jan Low and Robert Mwanga". YouTube. 11 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "Howarth Bouis". IFPRI.
  7. ↑ "Alumni". Stanford University.
  8. ↑ Bouis, Howarth. "Why should we make staple foods more nutritious?". IFPRI.
  9. ↑ "Biofortification: Better Crops, Better Nutrition". CSIS.
  10. ↑ "Howarth Bouis". IFPRI.
  11. ↑ Bouis, Howarth. "Why should we make staple foods more nutritious?". IFPRI.
  12. ↑ "Biofortification of staple crops". World Health Organization. Archived from the original on January 13, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Our History". HarvestPlus.
  14. ↑ "Howarth Bouis". Huffington Post.
  15. ↑ "Howarth Bouis honoured by University of Greenwich". University of Greenwich.
  16. ↑ "Biofortification: Better Crops, Better Nutrition". CSIS.
  17. ↑ "Biofortification Pioneers Win 2016 World Food Prize For Fight Against Malnutrition". The World Food Prize.
  18. ↑ "2016 - Andrade, Mwanga, Low and Bouis". The World Food Prize. Archived from the original on 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  19. ↑ "2016 - Andrade, Mwanga, Low and Bouis". The World Food Prize. Archived from the original on 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  20. ↑ "Howarth Bouis honoured by University of Greenwich". University of Greenwich.
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