The Zinc Nutrient Initiative has the potential to improve millions of lives around the world.
50% of the world’s agricultural soils are deficient in zinc. Grain concentrations of crops grown on zinc-deficient soils are much lower; therefore, people eating crops grown on zinc-deficient soils receive little to no zinc in their diets, subjecting them to life-threatening low levels of zinc. Zinc is an essential micronutrient for human health, vital in early development of children and in the daily functioning of every living thing.
Zinc deficiency weakens the immune system, leaving children vulnerable to infectious diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. This is an especially critical problem in developing nations that rely primarily on grains as their primary source of dietary intake. This was the drive behind the launch of the Zinc Nutrient Initiative.
Zinc deficiency is the 5th leading cause of death in the developing world. 800,000 people are at risk of dying each year due to zinc deficiency—more
than half of those are children under the age of 5.1 These are big numbers. But they are numbers that can be greatly reduced with the simple, sustainable solution of agronomic fortification of crops with zinc...Read more