Ron Cao, a
federal agriculture department researcher working on the campus of the
University of Guelph, is studying pigweed as a potential crop and food for
Ontario.
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| Amaranth, known to Ontario farmers as Pigweed |
Cao is
assessing how the environment and genetics affect the nutritional and
antioxidant values of amaranth (pigweed) and quinoa.
It’s part
of a project being led by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.
``If we
can produce quinoa and amaranth in Ontario, it can give local farmers lucrative
new crops to grow and give consumers a healthy local product to buy,'' Cao said
recently by way of a news release.
He first
studied the nutritional value of green and purple amaranth leaves, which are
used as a vegetable in many cultures.
He found
the more highly-pigmented purple leaves had more antioxidants than the green
ones. Similar results have been found with quinoa leaves.
Quinoa has
a complete essential amino acid profile and has many nutritional benefits.
The Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has declared this year the
International Year of Quinoa.
Cao's
research will continue for the next two years at the Guelph Food Research Centre,
one of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's network of 18 research centres.
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| George Lubberts |
Amaranth has been highly beneficial to communities in
Uganda, Africa, where farmers began growing it as a way to improve nutrition
and health.
George Lubberts, who grew up in the Drayton area and is a
crop consultant now in Alberta, helped a Canadian church organization – World Renew
– to work with the farmers in Uganda to learn how to grow the crop.
