一种比轮子还古老的谷物能成为食物的未来吗？| 盖茨笔记

你和你的家人是吃什么谷物长大的？我来自美国，那里以小麦和玉米为主。但如果我出生在东亚，可能小时候已经吃了不少大米。

如果你在西非长大，你可能已经吃过一种叫做福尼奥米（fonio）的古老谷物。福尼奥米作为西非家庭的食物已有5000多年的历史，比非洲大陆上任何其它栽种的谷物的历史都要长。这也使它比厕所、轮子，甚至文字还要古老。福尼奥米是一种非常小的谷物，煮熟后的口感让我想起了蒸粗麦粉（couscous）。它的坚果味本身就很美味，磨成粉后味道也不错。

福尼奥米只是一个更大的古老谷物家族——粟米（millets）的一员。也许你听说过䅟子（finger millets），它是乌干达以及肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚部分地区的主食，在印度被称为ragi，深受人们喜爱。或许你听说过苔麸（teff），它是埃塞俄比亚人长期以来的最爱，在那里它被用来制作英吉拉（injera）。

粟米已经存在了数个世纪，但它们目前正在回潮——不仅因为消费者喜欢它们的味道，也因为农民看重它们的种植可靠性。

特别是福尼奥米，种植起来就像是在简单模式下耕作：你只需等到一场好雨来临，轻轻翻松土壤，然后将种子撒到地上。两个月后，你就可以收获谷物了。

塞内加尔农民收割待加工的福尼奥米秸秆。

难怪西非农民称它为“懒农的作物”！福尼奥米生长在撒哈拉沙漠以南的半干旱地区萨赫勒。要在那里茁壮成长，作物必须耐旱，并能在贫瘠的土壤中生长。福尼奥米不仅能轻松应对干旱条件，甚至还能在生长过程中改善土壤。

随着气候变化不断导致作物生长季更加难以预测，像粟米这样的作物将变得越来越重要。多年来，盖茨基金会一直与国际农业研究磋商组织（CGIAR）等伙伴合作，致力于提高玉米和水稻等主要粮食作物的气候适应能力。粟米天然具备许多农民在作物中寻找的优质特点，它们可以在帮助农民适应气候变暖的世界方面发挥重要作用。

它们还能帮助我们应对营养不良。当欧洲人首次来到西非时，他们称福尼奥米为 “救荒米”，因为它生长迅速，在没有其它食物的时候，你就可以吃它。今天，许多人可能会称它为“超级食品”。

考虑以下几点：

• 福尼奥米是蛋白质、纤维、铁、锌和几种关键氨基酸的极佳来源

• 䅟子的钙含量是小麦的10倍

• 苔麸是唯一一种富含维生素C的谷物

在一个部分地区粮食安全日益充满不确定的世界中，这些食品可能会改变游戏规则。我在博客上写过很多关于营养不良的文章，如果我有一根魔杖，我首先要解决的问题就是营养不良。获得高质量的营养来源可以帮助更多的孩子步入成长的正轨。

左图：营养丰富且耐旱的䅟子可以增强非洲的粮食安全。

右图：它还可以做成美味的粥

那么，即便粟米有这么多优点，为什么不是世界各处都在吃呢？

对于福尼奥米来说，答案很简单：直到最近，它都很难进行大规模加工。你吃的部分被一个坚硬的壳包裹着，传统上是由熟练的女性使用杵臼或她们的脚来破壳。这是一个耗时耗力的过程，因此很难实现盈利。在塞内加尔，只有10%的福尼奥米被销售到市场上，几乎所有的福尼奥米都被农民及其家庭直接消费。

左图：传统上，收获福尼奥米是一项艰苦的工作。熟练的女性用她们的脚去除包裹着可食用部分的坚硬外壳。

右图：这个过程也非常耗时，需要长达七个小时来清理、清洗、干燥和预煮这种谷物。

幸运的是，这种情况正在改变。Terra Ingredients，一家将这种谷物带到大西洋彼岸的美国公司，过去他们曾进口未加工的福尼奥米，然后在明尼苏达州的工厂里用机器加工，以供食用。但他们最近与一家名为CAA的塞内加尔公司合作，在达喀尔建立了一个商业加工设施。我在访问过程中也参观了这个设施。看到他们如何帮助当地农民过上更好的生活，我很受启发。

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也有一些倡议旨在提升像苔麸这样的谷物的市场存在。苔麸是一种用来制作英吉拉的粟米，作为一种不含麸质的选择，它在国际上越来越受欢迎。它甚至在埃塞俄比亚国内也在增长，由于苔麸粉和即食英吉拉的供应增加，该国的苔麸磨坊、英吉拉制作企业和零售店增加了近50%。食品科学家们也在为䅟子开发新的工艺和产品。现在，肯尼亚全国各地的学校都将䅟子作为午餐期间粗玉米粉粥（ugali porridge）的一部分。

然而，许多人仍然不了解这些神奇的粟米。尽管潜力巨大，但我提到的所有粟米都是专家所说的“被忽视且未充分利用的作物”，即那些已经被废弃并且历来在农业研发中被忽视的作物。

这种情况正在改变，部分归功于一个人：皮埃尔·蒂亚姆（Pierre Thiam）。他是一位来自塞内加尔的厨师，并将为非洲农民创造更多机会作为使命，宣传他所谓的“遗失的作物”（lost crops）。他甚至将在今年晚些时候的达喀尔主持一场专注于这些作物的会议。在2022年盖茨基金会的目标守卫者活动上，我有幸向他学习了如何烹饪福尼奥米——我们制作的芒果沙拉非常美味。

在 2022 年目标守卫者活动上，我向皮埃尔大厨学习了如何烹饪福尼奥米，那真是一段愉快的时光。

皮埃尔大厨深知，一种谷物，甚至是整个神奇的谷物家族，并不能解决世界粮食安全问题。我们需要建立强大、多样化的粮食系统，从许多不同的来源中获取粮食。但是，如果你想了解如何帮助农民适应气候变化并使作物更有韧性，像粟米这样的古老谷物是一个很好的开始。它们已经存在了数个世纪，所以它们显然做对了一些事情！

What grain did your family grow up eating? I’m from the United States, where wheat and corn are king. But if I had been born in East Asia, I probably would’ve eaten a lot more rice as a kid.

If you grew up in West Africa, you might have eaten an ancient grain called fonio. Fonio has been feeding families in West Africa for more than 5,000 years, longer than any other cultivated grain on the continent. That makes it older than toilets, the wheel, and even writing. It’s a super small grain with a texture that reminds me a bit of couscous when cooked in hot water. Its nutty taste is delicious on its own but is also good when ground into flour.

Fonio is just one part of a much bigger family of remarkable ancient grains: the millets. Perhaps you’ve heard of finger millet. It’s a staple in Uganda and parts of Kenya and Tanzania, and it’s beloved in India where it is called ragi. Or maybe you’ve heard of teff, a longtime favorite in Ethiopia where it’s used to make injera.

Millets have been around for centuries, but they’re currently experiencing a resurgence—both for consumers who enjoy their taste and for farmers who appreciate how reliable they are to grow.

Fonio, in particular, is like farming on easy mode. You wait until a good rain comes, lightly till the soil to loosen it up, and then scatter the seeds on the ground. Two months later, you harvest the grain.

No wonder West African farmers call it the “lazy farmer’s crop”! Fonio grows in the Sahel, a semi-arid region just south of the Sahara Desert. To thrive there, a crop must be drought-tolerant and able to grow in poor quality soil. Fonio not only handles the dry conditions with ease but even rejuvenates the soil as it grows.

As climate change continues to make growing seasons more unpredictable, crops like the millets will become more and more important. The Gates Foundation has been working with partners like CGIAR for years to make staple crops like corn and rice more climate resilient. Millets naturally have many of the qualities farmers look for in a crop, and they could play an important role in helping farmers adapt to a warming world.

They can also help us fight malnutrition. When Europeans first arrived in West Africa, they called fonio “hungry rice” because it grew so quickly that you could eat it at times when other foods weren’t available. Today, many people would probably call it a “superfood.”

Consider this:

· Fonio is a great source of protein, fiber, iron, zinc and several key amino acids.

· Finger millet has 10 times the calcium of wheat.

· Teff is the only grain that is high in vitamin C.

In a world where food security is increasingly uncertain in some parts of the world, these foods could be a game changer. I’ve written a lot on this blog about how malnutrition is the first problem I would solve if I had a magic wand. Having access to a high-quality nutrition source could help more kids’ development stay on track.

So if millets have so much going for them, why aren’t they eaten everywhere?

In the case of fonio, the answer is simple: Until recently, it was hard to process on a commercial scale. The part you eat is surrounded by a hard hull, which was traditionally removed by skilled women using either a mortar and pestle or their feet to crack the shell. It’s a time- and labor- intensive process that makes it hard to turn a profit. In Senegal, only 10 percent of the fonio grown is sold at market—nearly all of it is consumed directly by farmers and their families.

Luckily, that’s changing. Terra Ingredients—an American company that is helping to bring the grain across the Atlantic—recently partnered with a Senegalese company called CAA to build a commercial processing facility right in Dakar. I got to visit it during my trip, and it was inspiring to see how they’re enabling local farmers to earn a better living.

Initiatives are also underway to improve the market presence of crops like teff, the millet used to make injera, which is gaining international popularity as a gluten-free option. It’s even on the rise within Ethiopia. Thanks to the increased availability of teff flour and ready-made injera, the country has seen a nearly 50 percent increase in teff mills, injera-making enterprises, and retail outlets. Food scientists are also developing new processes and products for finger millet. It’s now eaten in schools across Kenya as part of the ugali porridge served during lunch.

Yet, many people still just don’t know about the magic millets. Despite their potential, all of the millets I’ve mentioned are what experts call “neglected and underutilized crops,” a term that refers to crops that have fallen into disuse and been historically ignored by agricultural R&D.

That’s changing, too, in part due to the efforts of one person: Pierre Thiam. He’s a Senegalese chef who has made it his mission to create more opportunity for African farmers and spread the word about what he calls “lost crops.” (He’s even hosting a conference focused on them in Dakar later this year.) I was lucky enough to get a lesson in cooking fonio from him at the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers event in 2022—the mango salad we made was delicious.

Chef Pierre understands that one grain—or even a whole magic family of grains—isn’t the answer to the world’s food security problems. We need to build strong, diverse food systems that pull from lots of different sources. But if you want to understand how to help farmers adapt to climate change and make crops more resilient, ancient grains like the millets are a great place to start. They’ve survived for centuries, so they’re clearly doing something right!