Chickpeas can grow in water-stressed areas and they fix nitrogen, reducing need for added fertilizers and enhancing the quality of the soil in which they grow. However, we are experimenting with several new irrigation techniques that will help expand the seasons that chickpeas can be grown in Ethiopia as a way to increase yields by planting more times during the year.

Kumnager Ahmed is a field supervisor at Omega Farms. She recently completed her BA at the Adama Science and Technology University in Ethiopia. She oversees the approximately 60 farmers who work at Omega Farms each day. Throughout Ethiopia, approximately three million small-scale farmers without access to many modern production methods account for more than 80 percent of total production of oilseeds and pulses crops.

Chickpeas in a food market in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Chickpeas are a major pulse crop in Ethiopia, and are important for both the domestic and export market.  With an average of 22 percent protein, chickpeas can serve as a more sustainable alternative to meat. They are also rich in fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals such as iron, and low in endocrine-disrupting phytoestrogens.

Here you can see the difference here between a chickpea that come for the local seed, and a larger chickpea that comes from a new seed introduced by the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research. As part of this project, PepsiCo and its partners are working to provide better seeds to local farmers to help them grow larger, denser chickpeas to support an increase in production.

This is a chickpea field in Shoa, about an hour outside Addis Ababa. We are in pilot phase now and are testing a variety of methods – irrigation, fertilizer, seed spacing, seed variety – to see what combination provides best yield for farmers. Later in 2012, another crop will be planted, based on these new learnings.

These chickpeas, in pod and on stem, are being grown on a farm in Shoa, Ethiopia about an hour from the capital city, Addis Ababa.  The chickpea was originally found in what is now Turkey about 7,500 years ago. There are 2 main types of chickpea: Desi, which has small, darker seeds and a rough coat, cultivated mostly in the Indian subcontinent, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Iran; and kabuli, which has lighter colored, larger seeds and a smoother coat, mainly grown in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Chile.

PepsiCo is one of 17 companies that are industry partners at the forum and have contributed, along with other stakeholders and governments, to the paper over the last year and a half. The paper addresses the major challenges of global food and agricultural sustainability based on a vision of agriculture as a positive contributor to food security, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity. The paper also aims to be a roadmap towards a vision of action to implement business-led and market-based solutions that are explicitly linked to national development priorities. Specifically the paper highlights three key realizations that should drive global action:

1. Agriculture provides much more than food
2. The world must produce more with less
3. Agriculture can better fulfill the world’s most basic social needs

As a global food and beverage company we know we have a significant role to play in agriculture and food security and are quite proud of our actions to date. Sustainable agriculture is critical to our business and several things we are currently working on include:

1. Increasing chickpea production in Ethiopia
2. Working with corn and sunflower farmers in Mexico
3. Partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture to promote sustainable farming in China

But we also know that as the world’s population increases toward a projected 9 billion in 2050, people will be demanding more resource intensive produce like meat and dairy from increasingly limited natural resources, there will be higher risk of price volatility and severe malnutrition will impede human and economic development. We believe that harnessing the power of farmers, industry, governments and civil society through public private partnerships is the swiftest and most thorough way to develop market-based approaches that, in conjunction with policy and infrastructure, make an impact on our agricultural future.

We are pleased to be part of such important and dynamic thinking with the final goal of transforming agriculture to serve all the world’s people. What do you think of the Realizing a New Vision for Agriculture: A roadmap for stakeholders paper, and what solutions might you suggest to the authors?

Fifteen years ago today, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its final rule authorizing the use of the health claim linking soluble fiber from whole oats and reduced risk of coronary heart disease.¹ In essence, the FDA agreed with The Quaker Oats Company that consumption of soluble fiber from whole oats, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, lowered blood cholesterol levels.  This was a seminal event because prior to this ruling, the FDA had  prohibited food manufacturers from using any language on product labels that linked specific foods to specific health conditions.² However, upon reviewing the totality of  evidence presented by Quaker and the rigor of the underlying scientific research, the federal regulators concluded that the health claim was justified, making  Quaker the first company to gain FDA health claim approval for a specific food and later serve as the model for other manufacturers seeking health claims.³

Quaker made history as one of the first companies to cooperate with regulators for an authorized health claim; previously regulators and industry had engaged in a tug-of-war over nutritional messaging. Ironically, a health fad centering on oat bran during the late 1980s proliferated misleading health information on packaging. This type of abuse was a primary motivator for the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990, which gave the FDA broad authority to control nutrition information on food packages. Quaker was one of the most vocal supporters of regulation; the company viewed the oat bran fad as a detriment to its hard-earned reputation for science based claims, responsible labeling and appropriate use of nutrition information. Following the passage of the NLEA, Quaker was well positioned to make the case for the heart health benefits of oats, with over a dozen independent nutrition studies; but what type of claim could Quaker make on its Quaker Oats packages?

Label claims have existed in three types since the 1990 legislation. Quaker was one of the first to garner a claim with the highest level of regulatory approval  (a “Health Claim Meeting Significant Scientific Agreement (SSA)” which links a food to a reduction of disease risk).  The other types of claims, such as nutrient content claims (e.g. “contains 500mg of calcium”), structure-function claims (e.g. “calcium helps maintain bone density”), and qualified health claims⁶ (e.g. “Supportive but not conclusive research shows that eating 1.5 ounces per day of walnuts, as part of a low saturated fat and low cholesterol diet and not resulting in increased caloric intake, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease”) have increased steadily to encompass about one-third of product labels, albeit with significantly greater FDA oversight than in the pre-NLEA period.⁴ Quaker’s oat claim joined government-initiated heart health claims for fruits, vegetables, and low-fat foods. The claim served as a trendsetter for a class of manufacturer-petitioned claims related to heart health. Barley and psyllium grains were added  to the oat claim in later years, and whole grains, plant esters and soy protein are other food substances with claims linked to the reduction of heart disease risk that have resulted from manufacturer entreaties.  Altogether, the FDA now recognizes 16 claims in total, with several from manufacturer requests and a majority from government recommendations.⁵

Quaker’s ground-breaking heart health claim cemented the company’s reputation as a maker of nutritious, heart-healthy foods, and has served as a consistently valuable promotional tool. Quaker’s commitment to heart health in particular, and health and wellness in general, has continued following the company’s 2001 acquisition by PepsiCo, where the brand now serves as a beacon of nutrition grounded in the wholesome goodness of oats.

Most importantly, as part of PepsiCo’s multibillion dollar portfolio, and sitting side by side in Chicago with PepsiCo’s Global Nutrition Group (recently created to deliver breakthrough innovation in the areas of fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy, and functional nutrition⁷), Quaker has the unique opportunity to leverage multiple platforms and brands to scale up its business – and mission – of nourishing people around the globe.  In fact, the scientific and technological advances in research and development, such as those that that led to the first food-specific health claim 15 years ago, continue today and serve as the innovation engine for consumer-centered solutions demonstrating that what is good for the consumers’ health can also be good for business. Best wishes for a happy and special 15^th anniversary celebration to Quaker!

Selected References

1. Food and Drug Administration. Food Labeling: Health Claims; Oats and Coronary Heart Disease; Final Rule. Fed Regist 1997 January 23;62(15):3583-601.
2. United States Congress. Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. United States Statutes at Large (59th Cong , Sess I, Chp 3915, p 768-772; cited as 34 U S Stats 768) 1906;Available at: URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22116/pdf/purefood.pdf
3. Fitzsimmons R. Oh, What Those Oats Can Do. Quaker Oats, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Market Value of Scientific Evidence 1984 to 2010. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Safety 2012; 11:59-99.
4. Food and Drugs Administration.  Claims That Can Be Made for Conventional Foods and Dietary Supplements.  http://www.fda.gov/food/labelingnutrition/labelclaims/ucm111447.htm
5. Food and Drugs Administration.  Guidance for Industry: A Food Labeling Guide http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/FoodLabelingNutrition/FoodLabelingGuide/ucm064919.htm
6. Food and Drugs Administration Qualified Health Claims http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/LabelClaims/QualifiedHealthClaims/ucm072756.htm
7. Khan M.  PepsiCo’s new Global Nutrition Group. http://foodfrontiers.pepsicoblogs.com/2010/10/pepsico%E2%80%99s-new-global-nutrition-group/

In the interview, Derek explains Enterprise EthioPEA, “PepsiCo hopes to use chickpeas to address famine and malnourishment in the Horn of Africa, stimulate economic development in Ethiopia, and support PepsiCo’s business strategy for Africa more generally. Today, PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of chickpea-based hummus, a product that is experiencing rapid growth in demand. Chickpeas will play an important role in growing PepsiCo’s nutrition business to $30 billion in revenue by 2020. This is truly a great example of what we at PepsiCo call “Performance with Purpose.” The project will create new markets for products and increase yields for farmers while allowing PepsiCo to create healthier, locally sourced foods and beverages that benefit the whole community while driving long-term growth for the company.”

Please check out the whole interview and let us know what you think.

We were joined by a panel of distinguished speakers, each of whom shared important perspectives on the intersection of agriculture, food and health.

Patrick Kelley, director of the Board on Global Health for the Institute of Medicine, moderated the event. Marshall Bouton, president of the Chicago Council, gave opening remarks.

Rachel Nugent, the report’s author, walked the audience through the recommendations and findings. Of note were her comments on the use of a “value chain” to identify social, health and environmental benefits in the production process.

Gary Toenniessen, managing director for Agriculture at the Rockefeller Foundation, spoke to the audience about the “epidemiological transition” for a developing world farmer and his or her family.

Shenggen Fan, director-general of the International Food Research Policy Institute, observed that while the agriculture community was building health targets into their work, he didn’t yet see a reciprocal interest from the health community in the ties to agriculture.

And PepsiCo’s Derek Yach, senior vice president for GHAP at PepsiCo, discussed the importance of strategic partnerships with other private and public sector partners in order to support the development of agriculture value chains – partnerships like those recently announced in China and Ethiopia that combine social impact with business goals.

With UN and civil society leaders convening to discuss the rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the report and remarks focused on a key area for PepsiCo and our efforts to deliver optimal nutrition with environmentally sustainable agriculture. We look forward to future discussions like those at the UN – and Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting – on the intricate dynamics between the policies driving what we grow and what we eat, and their link to health trends.