As a plant geneticist, Rebecca Nelson focuses on identifying traits that could improve disease resistance in corn. “When we select for one trait, we run the risk of losing another trait. Traditionally, as we have bred for higher yielding crop varieties, we lost some of the plant’s natural ability to resist pests.” Today, geneticists, such as Rebecca, and plant breeders are working to incorporate natural resistance back into crops to reduce our reliance on pesticides and to assist low-resource crop producers.
A significant challenge that Rebecca and her team are working on is limiting the amount of fungal toxins entering the food supply in low resource areas in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and India. Aflatoxin is one such toxin produced by molds that grow on foodstuff such as corn in the field and in storage. Aflatoxin is highly carcinogenic, likely stunts child growth and impairs the immune system. Unfortunately, the risk of aflatoxin contamination is highest in food insecure areas with hot, dry climates. These are also areas most affected by climate change, which in turn increases the risk of toxin accumulation.
Rebecca and her colleagues are identifying the genetic traits that make corn resistant to the fungi that produce aflatoxin and other toxins such as fumonisin. In addition, in communities strongly impacted by aflatoxin and fumonisin, her goal is to develop ways to allow people to remove the toxic corn kernels from their food supply. One approach is sorting by density (low tech, low cost); another option is spectral grain sorting (high tech, hopefully low cost). Most communities in Kenya and Tanzania have their own small-scale corn mill. This community hub allows for a central location to integrate sorting technologies, and provides an opportunity to educate farmers about risk-reducing practices.
To come up with solutions to problems in a local food system, Rebecca believes it is better to engage with the community to come up with a practical, acceptable and affordable set of solutions. This is particularly relevant in low resource areas with limited regulatory protection for food safety, where the consumer needs to prompt better practices. By empowering consumers in these areas to identify safe and unsafe food and to clean up toxic staples, it may be possible to provide consumer protection and to provide incentives for the entire food system to “clean up its act”.
In addition to her teaching focus in international agriculture and rural development, Rebecca is part of the food systems teaching team for Cornell’s new Master of Public Health (MPH) program. The MPH program is creating new life for a set of ideas and aspirations by taking an interdisciplinary approach to understanding food systems.
Rebecca Nelson is a Professor in Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe-Biology, Plant Breeding and Genetics and International Agriculture and Rural Development at Cornell University.