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During the last century, conventional plant breeding, mostly based in the evaluation at the phenotypic level, has been very successful in increasing the crop yields and in consequence the global production of food. Maize, rice and wheat, the three most important staple crops for mankind, are typical examples of the dramatic increases in yield achieved thanks to the application of the combination of new cultivars with improved cultivation techniques. Conventional plant breeding has been based in developing efficient methodologies for exploiting the available phenotypic variation present in the crops and wild relatives. However, the recent advances in genomics, which allow the direct study of the genotype and its relationship with the phenotype, are bringing a new paradigm shift in plant breeding. Developments in next generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics, are providing breeders with new tools, like large collections of markers which facilitate, among others, developing ultra dense genetic maps, or obtaining new populations of interest in plant breeding, like near isogenic lines (NILs), introgression lines (ILs), or chromosome substitution lines (CSSLs). Also, new approaches like TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes) and EcoTILLING (Ecotype TILLING) are allowing discovering genetic variants for genes of interest. All these genomic tools are of great utility for plant breeding as they make possible genome-wide diversity studies of genetic resources, the discovery of genes and QTLs for traits and interest, and marker assisted selection (MAS) including backcross selection, pyramiding of genes, 'breeding by design', or genomic selection (GS). The availability and application of genomic tools is leading to a new Green Revolution that, hopefully, will be able to cope with the challenges faced by agriculture in this century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public opinion has a growing concern for food health issues and is interested in the consumption of food of improved quality, which is defined by several aspects, like the internal composition, appearance of the produce, technological/commercial issues, and social and environmental criteria. In this respect, conventional agriculture has resulted in a reduction of the internal quality, resulting from a decrease in the concentrations of nutrients and bioactive substances, as well as in some non sustainable practices that have a profound impact in the environment. Organic agriculture allows the production of food without the use of chemical synthesis products and with practices that are friendlier to the environment than conventional agriculture. In addition, organic food usually has a higher concentration of nutrients and bioactive substances. In order to guarantee that the organic foods have been produced according to adequate practices, in the EU only the foods produced according to specific regulations can be labeled as organic. Several experiments, of which we summarize the results show that organic food is healthier than conventionally produced food as, depending on the crops, organic fruits and vegetables have lower concentration of nitrates, higher concentration of relevant minerals (e.g., K, Ca, Fe), and more vitamin C and total phenolics. We have also found that organic meat has more protein and less fat than conventionally produced meat. Organic eggs also have a better quality than conventionally produced eggs, with more protein and oleic acid and also keep freshness for longer time. All these results show that organic food is healthier than conventional food for human health and at the same time is produced using methodologies that are friendlier for the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]