Howarth E. "Howdy" Bouis (born October 10, 1950), is an American economist whose work has focused on agriculture, nutrition outcomes, and reducing micronutrient malnutrition, also known as hidden hunger.
Bouis then spent three years in the Philippines serving with Volunteers in Asia, an experience that influenced him to pursue a career in international humanitarian work.
Recognizing that low-income smallholder farmers, a large proportion of the population in most developing countries, could not afford nutritionally-dense, diverse diets, Bouis sought a way for staple crops, such as beans, rice, and wheat, to provide more micronutrients.
[11] He hypothesized that crops bred to include higher levels of iron, zinc or vitamin A could substantially improve nutrition at a relatively low cost and could conveniently reach remote rural households.
[17] The World Food Prize Committee noted that Bouis “persevered relentlessly in the face of skepticism and opposition from public health experts and crop breeders as he pursued his vision that agriculture could provide more nutritious staple crops, which could reduce the micronutrient deficiencies that can cause malnutrition, blindness, disease and even early death among vulnerable populations in Africa and Asia, and Latin America, particularly children under the age of five”.