For the microbiologist Justin Sonnenburg, that career-defining moment—the discovery that changed the trajectory of his research, inspiring him to study how diet and native microbes shape our risk for disease—came from a village in the African hinterlands.
A group of Italian microbiologists had compared the intestinal microbes of young villagers in Burkina Faso with those of children in Florence, Italy. The villagers, who subsisted on a diet of mostly millet and sorghum, harbored far more microbial diversity than the Florentines, who ate a variant of the refined, Western diet. Where the Florentine microbial community was adapted to protein, fats, and simple sugars, the Burkina Faso microbiome was oriented toward degrading the complex plant carbohydrates we call fiber.
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Plusieurs acteurs français de l’agriculture biologique ou de l’écologie expriment actuellement des craintes sur l’orientation donnée en France (et en Europe) au label "agriculture biologique » . Selon eux, et pour résumer, les pratiques actuelles s’éloignent des valeurs portées par les fondateurs de l’agriculture biologique et il devient essentiel d’identifier les pratiques d’une agriculture écologique par de nouveaux termes et de nouvelles démarches. Lire la suite.
