Assessment of Several Approaches to Biofortified Products: A Literature Review

The aim of this study is to provide a literature review on biofortified products and their role in the scientific sphere. Despite the large number of studies conducted on biofortified products in the last 20 years, many defining issues are still debated in the literature and several research questions should be clarified. It is therefore relevant to investigate more on this topic, which is considered increasingly important to human health, world hunger reduction strategy, and also for the international marketing strategy of production holdings. The papers were analyzed according to a chronological/conceptual approach, with greater emphasis on research that has added significant value to the literature. The research was carried out using a scientific database from which 1189 scientific papers were extracted. A careful analysis of the abstracts and the text led to the identification of the five dimensions of our greatest interest (Reducing world hunger; Human health; GMOs; Agronomy, herbaceous crops; Economy and the market). The suggestions for future research reported by various authors are organized and structured in order to create an incentive for new studies and insights into biofortification.

Practicing the Passion of Pentecost

Scholars are steadily situating pentecostal studies within the embodiment turn, recognizing its foci as imperative to ongoing twenty-first-century pentecostal/charismatic studies. Yet this enjoins greater movement beyond the earlier “linguistic turn,” which too often overlooked the crucial perspectival role of human flesh. For from the horizons of incarnation and Pentecost, Christian faith propagates God’s turn toward flesh. This suggest that pentecostal spirituality generates an eschatological urgency. Fostering this “urgency” into the twenty-first century, however, requires recasting its source and expression within pentecostal spirituality. Drawing from Acts 2:17 (“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh”), this essay explores how this turn to the flesh might aptly ground and generate eschatological fervor. Doing so, however, exposes deficiencies with pentecostal sacramentality, recognizing links between it and eschatology. The essay addresses this by engaging Kearney’s “anatheistic sacramentality.” It concludes with several implications with particular attention to the violent tragedy of world hunger.

Eco-Social and Economic Profile of the Herbicide Glyphosate

By overview of scientific, political, and economic arguments, the structure and profile of glyphosate, the most important agrochemical compound in the world, has been portrayed. Toxicological, ecological and market objections of the opponents of glyphosate are in opposition with the financial and political support to that herbicide which, according to its advocates, enables the protection of crops, higher yields, and postpones the problem of world hunger. The conflict surrounding glyphosate surpasses the narrow scientific and social frames and is a good example of the need to think through and of decision making which involves connection and the totality of reality.

QTLs identified for Biofortification Traits in Wheat: A Review

Wheat is the essential constituent of cereal-based diets and one of the most significant sources of calories. However, there is an inherently low bioavailability of proteins, mineral, and vitamins in modern wheat grains. Biofortification has earned recognition as an outstanding approach, at the same time as a cure for world hunger. The developments in the identifications of quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis and understanding of the physiological and molecular basis of QTLs controlling the biofortification traits in wheat has revealed new horizons for the improvement of modern wheat varieties. Within this review, we have compiled the information from the studies carried out in wheat using QTL mapping methodologies that is among the best methods for biofortification traits. We hope this review will serve as an essential reference for the QTLs identified for the several important biofortification traits in wheat.