Report of Eighth Dry Bean Research Conference, Bellaire, Michigan, August 11-13, 1966 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Report of Eighth Dry Bean Research Conference, Bellaire, Michigan, August 11-13, 1966 From a chapter written by R. F. A. Dean of Uganda for a book which I edited some years ago, the statement that legumes will present one of the most important sources of protein for the future and their utilization must dominate any discussion of man's use of plant proteins, might well Open this discussion. I became further intrigued with legumes when I ran into the specu lation on how ancient American civilizations developed. The story goes that as long as the major source of food was corn, large urban populations could not form and survive, because there was insufficient protein to supply their needs. But when beans came into the agricultural pattern, then corn and beans together made for an adequate diet and permitted large concentrations of people so necessary to sustain a high culture. Legumes remain a major source of protein throughout the world. It is estimated that humans consume million tons of protein annually from legumes as compared to 40 million tons from cereals and 22 million tons from animals. I do not know how much of the million tons is solely non - oilseed legumes. But I would suspect that this is a substantial amount. Non - oilseed legumes are a major protein crop in India; over 10 million tons are produced-more than tenfold higher than in any other country Since it is yet a question as to whether soybeans can assume an important role in India, these legumes are a critical source of protein supplements. Let us first discuss the program to encourage new food industries in developing countries to combat protein malnutrition and then try to comment on the position of legumes. As a beginning, we might review what is known about the problem. There are actually two problems and they are related (a) There is the problem of undernutrition - there is not enough to eat and there are not enough calories. (b) There is the problem of malnutrition - the quality of the food is inadequate. We will confine our discussions of malnutrition to protein malnutrition, although we recognize fully that there are instances of vitamin and trace mineral malnutrition as well. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.