People
McBurney, Rory P.H.
| Job Title | Dryland Nutritionist |
|---|---|
| Department | Jodrell |
| Section | Sustainable Uses |
| Science Teams |
Large-Scale Syntheses Drylands: Africa |
| Joined Kew | 2002 |
| Foreign Language(s) |
Qualifications & Appointments
BSc (Hons), Human Life Sciences, Univ. Aberdeen, 1997
MSc, Human Nutrition and Metabolism, Univ. Aberdeen, 1998.
RPHNutr. Registered Public Health Nutritionist, UK Nutrition Society, May 2002.
Role
The conservation and sustainable use of traditional food plants for increasing dietary diversity and improving nutrition.
In order that subsistance agriculturists may use plants sustainably, they must ahve access to both seeds and the technical knowledge on hoe to use them. For many organisations involved in conservation, one aspect of their work focuses on conserving seeds with economic 'use' or potential. However, without conserving the technical knowledge on how to sow, grow, harvest, store and process post harvest, these plants loose their 'useful' status and revert to becoming part of the ecosystem.
My current work at RBG KEw involves working with subsistancee agriculturists in assisting them conserve and sustainably use their traditional knowledge relating to the use of their traditional food plants. My work currently focuses on collecting, investigating and conserving their traditional knowledge relating to the use of plants for food. Once this work is published (by communities themselves), we will work towards improvig their seed management, and develop community based resource centres where they can have access to their seed and indigenous knowledge.
My research involves documenting the methods and processes that we use to conserve traditional food plants, and also the relationship between their biodiversity and dietary diversity.
Projects
Selected Publications 2001-2005
Seal A.J., Creeke P.I., Mirghani Z., Abdalla F., McBurney R.P., Pratt L.S., Brookes D., Ruth L.J. & Marchand E. (2005). Iron and Vitamin A Deficiency in Long-Term African Refugees. Journal of Nutrition 135: 808-813.
McBurney R, Griffin, C., Paul, A., Greenberg, D. (2004). The nutritional composition of African Wild Food Plants, from Compilation to Utilisation. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 17: 277-289.
McBurney R. (2002). African Wild Harvest. Emergency Nutrition Network, Field Exchange, August 2002.
McBurney R., Davis S. (2002). African Wild Harvest: Linking the Fields of Botany, Nutrition, Relief and Development Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Proceedings of the First PROTA International Workshop 23 – 25 September 2002, Nairobi, Kenya. 308-309.
Selected Publications pre-2001
Golden B.E., Corbett M., McBurney R., Golden M.H. (2000). Malnutrition: Trials and Triumphs. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 94: 12-3.