Sustainable crop production systems and human nutrition

Authors: Roberts, Daniel; Mattoo, Autar

Submitted to: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/20/2019
Publication Date: 9/4/2019
Citation: Roberts, D.P., Mattoo, A.K. 2019. Sustainable crop production systems and human nutrition. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00072.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00072

Interpretive Summary: It is apparent that diets consumed by large portions of the world population for the past decades are nutrient-limited and have added to degradation of the environment and natural biodiversity. Therefore, next-generation crop production development requires a decrease in the impacts of the cropping system on the environment and the use of genetic approaches to enhance crop nutritional content. Crop genetics is the primary driver of plant nutrient content and management of environmental influences in crop production fields to optimize crop nutrient content can be extremely challenging. We review the impact of cropping system components on crop nutrient content as well as naturally occurring environmental influences such as temperature, light intensity, etc. Additionally, we detail a sustainable tomato production system that was developed to minimize the impact of tomato production on the environment. We also describe the beneficial impacts of this sustainable tomato production system on general tomato physiology and on the tomato fruit metabolome. Information in this review chapter will be useful to scientists developing sustainable cropping systems that enhance the nutritional quality of food.

Technical Abstract: Collectively, plant foods contain most minerals, macronutrients (calories), and micronutrients essential for human nutrition. These plant foods also contain a range of bioactive compounds that can play important roles in the prevention of chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cataracts, and age-related functional decline. But these nutrients are often present in edible plant tissues at marginal concentrations for human nutrition/prevention of disease. The synthesis/uptake of these nutrients in edible plant tissues is primarily dependent on crop genetics and regulated by complex and overlapping mechanisms in response to developmental and environmental cues. Environmental cues are naturally occurring- temperature, light intensity, and other stressors, or result from crop production system components - fertilizer, tillage operations, etc. One strategy for next-generation crop production development is to direct development of the production system on decreasing impacts of the cropping system on the environment and to use genetic approaches to enhance crop nutritional content, since crop genetics is the primary driver of plant nutrient content and management of environmental cues in crop production fields to optimize crop nutrient content can be extremely challenging. We detail here the development of a sustainable tomato production system and the beneficial impacts of this next-generation tomato production system on tomato physiology and nutritional quality of the tomato fruit. Going forward there is a pressing need for redesigning agriculture to achieve sustainability and for utilizing modern genetic tools, including genetic engineering, to add nutritional value to crops for the benefit of the diverse human population. It is apparent that diets consumed by large portions of the world population for the past decades are nutrient-limited and have added to degradation of the environment and natural biodiversity.