broad overviews of the areas of chemical R&D that require emphasis if world food supplies are to be increased sufficiently and diets are to be made more varied worldwide. Representatives of the seven South American countries reviewed the status of nutrition, primary production, and food processing in their countries. Although each of the countries is a net exporter of food, each has difficulties in satisfying the minimum needs of at least parts of its population for either calories or for all essential nutrients or for both. Everyone thus agreed that the region must increase primary production, must do so while keeping costs and the use of energy at a minimum, and also must not degrade the environment. The more significant recommendations that came at the seminar's end, however, were those calling for improving the region's food processing industry to enhance the quality of foods consumed locally, as well as to upgrade each country's economy. As shown by speakers from each of the seven countries, the food processing industry is growing at a lower rate than are other industries. It is an industry composed of many small and medium-sized companies and few large companies. Moreover, it is an industry in which firms using the most modern technologies coexist with ones that use outmoded technologies and exercise poor quality control. Against such a background, seminar speakers recommended a number of changes, including: • Food processing capacity be increased and high priority be given to adopting the best and most efficient technology and to ensuring that high standards of quality control be followed industrywide. • High priority also be assigned to shifting from economies based on primary commodity production to economies that emphasize the processing of commodities into finished food products with greater value. Such a change is needed to provide for jobs and for competition in international markets. • Regional cooperation in food processing R&D be increased, especially in areas dealing with the sup-
plementing of foods with proteins and trace minerals; in producing new flavors, emulsifiers, thickeners, colors, sweeteners, and preservatives having better properties as well as being suitably safe; and in devising new materials and methods of packaging, so that losses between farms and final markets will be reduced drastically. How successful the seven countries will be in reducing malnutrition in the years ahead remains to be seen. Some will have a much easier job than others. Argentina, for example, has excellent farm and ranch land, a very favorable climate, and a population that has a high level of education. At the other extreme are Bolivia and Ecuador, both of which have much less favorable climates and land resources as well as populations with generally lower levels of education. Even though the South American countries face many difficulties, the problems are much less widespread than those faced by sub-Saharan African countries. Since chemistry is such a key science in improving food supplies, the CHEMRAWN Committee and ACS are planning the next seminar in Nairobi in midJanuary of 1987 for persons in policy positions in eastern Africa. The International Centre for Insect Physiology & Ecology in Nairobi is expected to join them as a cosponsor and also to work with them in organizing a fourth seminar in the series in the fall of 1987 for countries in central and western Africa. Chemical companies, foundations, and government agencies contributed nearly $500,000 to support the cost of the Manila conference. Likewise, special financial support for the Buenos Aires seminar was provided by grants from Coca-Cola Co., International Minerals & Chemical Corp., Miles Laboratories, the agricultural chemicals division of Mobay Chemical Corp., the Rockefeller Foundation, the Latin American division of Rohm & Haas Co., and Zoecon Corp. in the U.S., Ciba-Geigy A.G. in Basel, Switzerland, and the German Agrochemicals Association in Frankfurt. Staff support for the North American contingent was provided by the ACS Department of International Activities. •
Nomenclature for hydrogen proposed The naming of hydrogen ions and groups is among the areas in which the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry is attempting to standardize nomenclature. Current practice, IUPAC suggests, does not always make clear whether a term refers to a specific isotope of hydrogen or to the mixture of isotopes that comprise the element in nature. U n d e r IUPAC's n o m e n c l a t u r e proposal, the prefixes hydro- and hydri- would be used to refer to the mixture of hydrogen isotopes that occurs in nature. Proto- and protiwould be reserved for the *H isotope, either alone or as a group. Thus, the word proton would mean the ! H + ion exclusively and not H + in natural abundance. The H + cation would be called the hydron. Similarly, the 2 H isotope would always be referred to using the prefixes deuteri- or deutero- (as in, for example, potassium deuteride, K2H). The 3 H isotope would always have the prefix triti- or tritio-. These prefixes would also be used for reactions involving these groups: The transfer of an H + cation to a substrate, for example, would be called a hydronation (not protonation) reaction. IUPAC also proposes standard nomenclature for symbols and units in ultraviolet and visible absorption spectroscopy, materials preparation for analytical atomic spectroscopy, sampling nomenclature for analytical chemistry, and molecular parameter values for infrared and Raman spectroscopy. At the same time, IUPAC is soliciting comments on the first two sections of "The Red Book/' its nomenclature guide for inorganic chemistry. Those sections deal with the general aims and methods of nomenclature and the grammatical rules for naming inorganic chemicals. Copies of all of IUPAC's proposals are available to those who may wish to comment on them. They may be obtained from the Journals Department, American Chemical Society, P.O. Box 3330, Columbus, Ohio 43210. Comment periods for the proposals vary, but all extend at least until the end of 1986. • July 21, 1986 C&EN
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