Professor Dyno Keatinge welcomed by CAFS
The Centre for Agroecology and Food Security (CAFS) will host a talk by an international expert on agriculture’s role in tackling global malnutrition on Friday February 15.
CAFS – a joint initiative between Garden Organic and Coventry University – has invited Professor Dyno Keatinge, Director General of AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, based in Taiwan, to give a seminar.
Prof Keatinge will give a talk called “Prosperity for the Poor and Health for All – through the increased production and consumption of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables.”
His seminar will be held at Garden Organic’s Centre for Organic Horticulture, Ryton Gardens, Coventry, on February 15, from 12pm to 1pm.
Dr Julia Wright, Deputy Director of CAFS, said: “We are honoured to have Professor Keatinge visit us here to discuss this subject, which is just as important for the UK as for other countries, given our increasing levels of dietary-related ill health and the role that high-nutrition vegetables can play in alleviating this.
“We will be showing Dyno around Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library that is conserving over 800 old varieties of vegetables, many of which I believe hold higher nutritional levels than modern commercial varieties. By growing these crops organically we also maintain and even increase these levels, rather than erode them.”
“We will be talking with Dyno about opportunities for collaboration, to examine, for example, the cost-effectiveness of consuming high-nutrition veg rather than purchasing expensive vitamin and mineral supplements.”
Professor Keatinge is currently Visiting Professor of Tropical Agriculture at the University of Reading, but he has been the Director General of AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center since 2008.
AVRDC is committed to alleviating poverty and malnutrition in the developing world through the increased production and consumption of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables.
This world-renowned organisation has a network of 300 staff involved in projects throughout Asia, Africa, Central America and Oceania.
For full details visit www.gardenorganic.org.uk.