By linking an expert nutritionist from WashU with a team of ethnobotanists from the Missouri Botanical Garden, this transdisciplinary project delved into the complex interplay between plants and people.
A professor at WashU’s Brown School, Lora Iannotti is a globally recognized researcher in maternal and young child nutrition, with projects in Haiti, Ecuador, and East Africa. She hadn’t planned on adding Madagascar to that list, until the Living Earth Collaborative approached her with a team science opportunity that was too good to pass up.
Madagascar is a nation deeply beset by malnutrition, with nearly half (47.3%) of its children experiencing stunted growth. But a team of Missouri Botanical Garden researchers was interested in examining how foraged wild plants in Madagascar, including tubers and leafy greens, could potentially mitigate some of the worst impacts of pervasive hunger. Iannotti’s expertise was the missing piece that could push their project over the edge.
“This cool and impressive Missouri Botanical Garden team, fascinating research questions, and the dire public health needs in Madagascar were all very convincing,” Iannotti said, who signed on to the project in short order.
The Living Earth Collaborative exists to make these kinds of dream collaborations happen. Through its seed grant funding, the group brings together some of the brightest minds from WashU, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo to examine global conservation questions.
For the Madagascar project, the emphasis was on exploring the complex interplay between plants and people. Project member and Missouri Botanical Garden research specialist Tabita Randrianarivony refers to herself and her team as “ethnobotanists,” a term that encompasses both halves of that equation. Working with Iannotti’s E3 Nutrition Lab, the team focused on the Alandraza-Agnalavelo sacred forest in Southwestern Madagascar, whose remote location necessitates creative food solutions.
“Our work involved conducting surveys to identify the plants collected during the hunger season and understanding their ecology in the wild,” Randrianarivony said. “We were particularly interested in this region in southwestern Madagascar because we worked closely with the local community in remote and dry areas where children receive less care.”
Iannotti says the team’s field visit to the region deeply impressed upon her the severity of the situation.
“I saw forms of malnutrition I hadn’t seen in years,” Iannotti said.
The team’s findings, however, indicate that wild food can be a part of the solution.
“The most important outcome was realizing that we can reduce malnutrition with available food, but we need to teach people to value what they have and grow diverse food that they can access,” Randrianarivony said.
“Given what we observed, we are eager now to pilot test interventions to improve child nutrition and ensure conservation of protected plants,” Iannotti said. “We are in the process of pursuing other grants to grow this work.”
Watch Iannotti discuss the project with WashU School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea below:
