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Five years ago, with international funding, several international agricultural research centers set out to explore the potential to improve the micronutrient quality of some staple food crops. Five objectives were identified, and all needed a favorable result if breeding for higher micronutrient density in the staples were to be deemed feasible. Useful genetic variation to exploit was needed. The traits needed to be manageable in a breeding program (simple screening and high heritability), and stable across a wide range of environments if impact was to be large. Above all, the traits needed to be combinable with traits for high yield to ensure that farmers chose the improved lines. Finally, it was necessary to show that the new types actually improved the health of humans of low nutrient status representing the target populations. The extra nutrients needed to be bioavailable to the gut. Today, only this last essential criterion …