ABSTRACT
GRAIN and legume crops have two main uses: in human foods and in animalfeeds. To be effective, estimations of the impacts of grain and legume phytic acid, and the development of strategies to deal with these impacts, probably need to take into consideration both of these major uses of staple crops. In the case of livestock production, the concerns over grain and legume phytic acid are relatively straightforward [1,2]. Nonruminants such as poultry, swine, and fish, excrete essentially all feed phytic acid they consume [3-5]. Excretion of this large fraction of grain total P can contribute to phosphorus (P) pollution and to the resulting eutrophication of surface waters. This is an important contemporary problem in Europe and the United States [6]. New, more stringent standards for P management in agricultural production are currently being put in place. The magnitude of phytic acid’s role in this context is illustrated by the recent estimation that the amount of P synthesized into phytic acid annually worldwide by seed crops may represent more than 50% of the annual fertilizer P application worldwide [7].
