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Book of Abstracts First Legume Society Conference 2013: A Legume Odyssey Novi Sad, Serbia, 9-11 May 2013
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KEYNOTE LECTURE
Getting the message out: grow, use, feed and eat legumes
Frederick L Stoddard
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
What is better than a legume? Its biological nitrogen fixation fertilizes the legume crop at low
cost and provides high-value protein. It is better at liberating and taking up phosphorus and
several mineral nutrients than most other crops, providing both nutrient use efficiency and endproduct
value. The side-effects of growing a legume crop include a better growing environment
for the subsequent crop, improved food and feed security, and improved consumer health. Some
things remain to be improved. The indeterminate growth habit of many legumes allows flexible
response to the environment but leads to yield instability. Yields lag behind those of small-grain
cereals. The amino acid composition of most species is not as good as that of soya bean. Most
farmers in Europe are not familiar with growing legumes, and in order to persuade them to try,
the message about the benefits to the cropping system, from farm to fork, needs to go not only
to farmers and agricultural advisors, but also to policy makers and consumers. Pulse Canada and
Pulse Australia do this successfully in their respective countries, and one of the roles of the
Legume Society will be to emulate this in Europe. A consortium of some of our members has
written a policy document for the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural
Development on "the environmental role of protein crops in the new common agricultural
policy", explaining the farm-to-fork aspects of legume production and its role in agricultural
sustainability in a policy context.
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