Brave New Vegetables — A Challenge to Biotechnology

Although cereals feature as the main world crops (1638 million tonnes — 1983 FAO figures), field vegetables (372 million tonnes), roots and tubers (556 million tonnes) and pulses (44 million tonnes) form the other major components of food crop production (see Table 1 for UK vegetable statistics). Thus, in most parts of the world, vegetables comprise a large part of the human diet, providing a high proportion of the nutrients and vitamins essential for normal body metabolism. Indeed, in some countries they constitute the main food intake, particularly where the protein levels of some indigenous vegetables is high and in areas where availability of other foods is very limited.