The legume manifesto: (Net)workers on Fabaceae, unite!

Abstract

Legumes have been an important part of cropping systems since the dawn of agriculture. The shift in Europe from draught animals to meat animals coincided with the increasing availability of soybean meal from North and South America, and the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union promoted the growing of cereals and oilseeds at the expense of other crops so legumes fell out of favour with farmers and decision-makers. Continental concerns about food and feed security, high prices of oil and soybean meal and advances in the application of fundamental molecular genetics to crop species, all mean that now is a good opportunity to promote the return of legumes to European cropping systems by enhancing the efficiency of research and development on this family. Hence we propose the establishment of a Legume Society that will promote information exchange and scientific productivity by uniting the various legume research communities.

Keywords

• food and feed security
• Legume Society
• modelling
• networking
• sustainability