Amaranth

Amaranth, a little-known crop of the Americas, is grown either as a grain crop or as a leafy vegetable. Despite its obscurity, it offers important promise for feeding the world's hungry. In the National Academy of Sciences' 1975 study Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value, amaranth was selected from among 36 of the world's most promising crops. Since then, extensive research has been done on the plant, and this book provides a more detailed examination of its characteristics and prospects.

The panel that produced this report met in September 1981 at the Rodale Research Center of Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. There, panel members examined a field of grain amaranth ready for harvest as well as test plots of several hundred amaranth varieties. They also sampled many amaranth products from the Rodale Test Kitchen. The panel members are indebted to Robert Rodale and his staff for their assistance and hospitality.

This report, resulting from the panel's deliberations, is intended for agencies engaged in development assistance and food relief, officials and institutions concerned with agriculture in developing countries, and scientific communities with relevant interests.

This study is one of a series that explores promising plant resources that heretofore have been unknown, neglected, or overlooked. Other titles include:

  • Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value (1975)
  • Making Aquatic Weeds Useful: Some Perspectives for Developing Countries (1976)
  • Tropical Legumes: Resources for the Future (1979)
  • The Winged Bean: A High-Protein Crop for the Tropics (second edition, 1981)

This series of reports is issued under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on Technology

Innovation (ACTI) of the Board on Science and Technology for International Development

(BOSTID), National Research Council. ACTI was established in 1971 especially to assess scientific and technological advances that might prove particularly applicable to problems of developing countries.

Funds for this study were provided by the William H. Donner Foundation, which also made possible the free distribution of the report. Staff support was provided by the Office of the

Science Advisor, Development Support Bureau, Agency for International Development.

Credits

Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development (BOSTID) Office of International Affairs.

National Research Council, 1984.

Panel on amaranth

  • DONALD L. PLUCKNETT, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., Chairman
  • MELVIN G. BLASE, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • T. AUSTIN CAMPBELL, Economic Botany Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland
  • LAURIE B. FEINE, Rodale Research Center, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
  • HECTOR E. FLORES-MERINO, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
  • LINDA C. GILBERT, Product Development, Rodale Test Kitchen, Emmaus, Pennsylvania
  • RICHARD R.HARWOOD, Rodale Research Center, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
  • SUBODH JAIN, Department of Agronomy and Range Science, University of California, Davis
  • CHARLES S. KAUFFMAN, Rodale Research Center, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
  • CYRUS M. MCKELL, Native Plants Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah
  • GARY NABHAN, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Tucson, Arizona
  • HUGH POPENOE, International Programs in Agriculture, University of Florida, Gainesville
  • ALFREDO SANCHEZ-MARROQUIN, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agricolas (Proyecto NAS/INIA), Mexico D.F.
  • ROBIN M. SAUNDERS, Western Regional Research Center, Cereals Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley, California
  • JOSEPH SENFT, Amaranth Consultant, Emmaus, Pennsylvania
  • JAMES L.VETTER, American Institute of Baking, Manhattan, Kansas
  • DAVID E.WALSH, General Nutrition Corporation, Fargo, North Dakota

Special contributors

  • G.J.H. GRUBBEN, Research Station for Arable Farming and Field Production of Vegetables, Lelystad, Holland
  • T.N.KHOSHOO, Secretary, Department of Environment, Government of India, New Delhi, India
  • JUDITH M.LYMAN, Rockefeller Foundation, New York, New York
  • JONATHAN SAWER, Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
  • ARRIS A.SIGLE, Amaranth Farmer, Luray, Kansas
  • THEODORE SUDIA, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
  • NOEL D. VIETMEYER, Professional Associate, Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Amaranth Study, Director National Research Council Staff F.R. RUSKIN, BOSTID Editor
  • MARY JANE ENGQUIST, Staff Associate
  • CONSTANCE REGES, Administrative Secretary

Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation

  • HUGH POPENOE, Director, International Programs in Agriculture, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (Chairman through 1983)
  • ELMER L,GADEN, JR., Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, Chairman

Members:

  • WILLIAM BRADLEY, Consultant, New Hope, Pennsylvania (through 1983)
    CARL N.HODGES, Director, Environmental Research Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona
    RAYMOND C.LOEHR, Director, Environmental Studies Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
  • CYRUS M.MCKELL, NPI, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah
    DONALD L.PLUCKNETT, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Washington, D.C.
  • EUGENE B.SHULTZ,JR., Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
  • THEODORE SUDIA, Deputy Science Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. (through 1983)

Board on Science and Technology for International Development

RALPH HERBERT SMUCKLER, Dean of International Studies and Programs, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, Chairman

Members:

  • SAMUEL P. ASPER, President, Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, Washington, D.C.
  • DAVID BELL, Department of Population Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
  • LAWRENCE L. BOGER, President, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma
  • ROBERT H. BURRIS, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
  • CLAUDIA JEAN CARR, Conservation and Resource Studies, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California
  • NATE FIELDS, Director, Developing Markets, Control Data Corporation, Edina, Minnesota
  • ROLAND J.FUCHS, Chairman, Department of Geography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, ex officio
  • ELMER L.GADEN, JR., Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottsville, Virginia
  • JOHN H. GIBBONS, Director, U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Washington, D.C.
  • ADELAIDE CROMWELL GULLIVER, Brookline, Massachusetts N. BRUCE HANNAY, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Engineering, ex officio
  • WILLIAM HUGHES, Director, Engineering Energy Laboratory, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma
  • WILLIAM A. W.KREBS, Vice President, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • GEORGE I.LYTHCOTT, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, Wisconsin
  • JANICE E. PERLMAN, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California
  • FREDERICK C. ROBBINS, President, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, ex officio
  • WALTER A. ROSENBLITH, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Sciences, ex officio
  • FREDERICK SEITZ, President Emeritus, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, ex officio
  • BARBARA WEBSTER, Associate Dean, Office of Research, University of California, Davis, California
  • GILBERT F. WHITE, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, ex officio
  • ALBERT WESTWOOD, Corporate Director, Research and Development, Martin-Marietta Corporation, Bethesda, Maryland
  • JOHN G. HURLEY, Director
  • MICHAEL G.C. MCDONALD DOW, Associate Director/Studies
  • MICHAEL P.GREENE, Associate Director/Research Grants

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by Act of Congress as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation for the furtherance of science and technology, required to advise the federal government upon request within its fields of competence. Under its corporate charter the Academy established the National Research Council in 1916, the National Academy of Engineering in 1964, and the Institute of Medicine in 1970.

The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Office of International Affairs is responsible for many of the international activities of the Academy and the Research Council. Its primary objectives are to enhance U.S. scientific cooperation with other countries; to mobilize the U.S. scientific community for technical assistance to developing nations; and to coordinate international projects throughout the institution.

The Board on Science and Technology for International Development (BOSTID) of the Office of International Affairs addresses a range of issues arising from the ways in which science and technology in developing countries can stimulate and complement the complex processes of social and economic development. It oversees a broad program of bilateral workshops with scientific organizations in developing countries and conducts special studies. BOSTID's Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation publishes topical reviews of unconventional technical processes and biological resources of potential importance to developing countries.

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