Fertilizing Crops 
for 
Functional Foods

Symposium Proceedings
11 November 2002
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

sponsored by

Potash & Phosphate Institute
Soil Science Society of America
Crop Science Society of America
American Society of Agronomy

The topics described in the following papers were originally presented at the “Symposium on Fertilizing Crops for Functional Food,” November 11, 2002. The Symposium took place during the 2002 annual meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science
Society of America (SSSA), in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Consumer and producer interest in healthy food is growing. The concept of “functional food”, or food with enhanced levels of health-promoting phytochemicals, gives fresh perspective to the mineral nutrition of plants. The symposium was planned to review the impacts of plant mineral nutrition on functional food components—nutraceuticals—in crop products. While past soil fertility research has considered impacts on traditional quality parameters such as protein, oil, and vitamins, the possibilities for functional foods and nutraceuticals represent a new area of discovery.

Research is continuing on many fronts and there is still much to learn about this fascinating topic. However, the papers in this proceedings provide insight into the wide range of possibilities related to fertilizing crops for functional foods.