- “Our traditional crops are not just food. They are life. They are our ancestors’ legacy and our children’s inheritance.”
- “Banana diversity is not only a scientific or agricultural asset — it is the sector’s insurance for the future.”
- “Through my parents, I learned that agriculture doesn’t just feed people, it also makes the world more beautiful.”
- “Genebank work depends on accumulated knowledge. If that knowledge isn’t transferred, you don’t just lose experience, you introduce risk.”
- “Conserving and using Africa’s plant genetic resources is not a luxury. It is a necessity for resilient agrifood systems in a changing climate.”
Joining up the crop diversity impact dots a bit better
I think I was a bit too gnomic in the last Brainfood. What I was trying to do was arrange a bunch of recent papers on the pipeline from diverse farm landscapes to better health and nutrition outcomes. But I could have been more explicit about it, I agree. So here goes.
First, Global spatial co-variation between crop diversity and landscape heterogeneity shows that in areas with a moderate extent of cropland, landscape diversity is associated with crop diversity. Ok, fine, but so what? Well, next, The role of farm production diversity in enhancing dietary diversity and food security in Southern Bangladesh links that crop diversity — the diversity that farming families grow — with the diversity of the food that they eat: farms growing a wider range of crops tend to support more varied and nutrient-rich diets. Ok, but, again, so what? Hang in there, we’re almost there. The next paper, Linking species and functional crop diversity in South Asia: a spatial assessment of agrobiodiversity for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, sharpens up the focus by showing that what matters nutritionally is not just more crops, but crops that differ in traits, nutrients and uses. And finally, the pièce de résistance, Food biodiversity and its association with diet quality and health outcomes – A scoping review, connects the dots at the consumption end, associating higher food biodiversity with improved micronutrient adequacy and a better overall diet. So the arc is: conserving and deploying species diversity in fields and landscapes is not merely an ecological virtue, but a nutritional strategy, one that translates more diverse seeds in the soil to more nutrients on plates to fewer people in hospitals.
Better now?
Latest from the Treaty
Ok, sure, maybe the Plant Treaty needs “enhancement,” and the results of its recent Governing Body meeting may have been a tad disappointing. But its achievements are undeniable, and very well documented in a just-out comprehensive analysis of the Multilateral System it has set up.
Brainfood: Crop (species) diversity edition
- Small farms contribute a third of the food consumed in high-income nations. And those small farms are disproportionately diverse…
- The Global Spatial Co-Variation Between Crop Diversity and Landscape Heterogeneity. …and crop diversity on farms goes with landscape diversity.
- Beyond Crop Hotspots: Why Overlooked Marginal Agricultural Lands Deserve Urgent Attention. I’m willing to bet landscape diversity is often associated with marginality, but that’s not the end of the world.
- Food Biodiversity and its Association with Diet Quality and Health Outcomes-A Scoping Review. Why should we care about diverse farms? Because diversity in your food is associated with nutritional adequacy, a reduced risk of mortality, or a reduced risk of gastrointestinal cancers. Ok, I know, I missed a step there. There was nothing in the past few weeks in the literature specifically linking farm diversity and food diversity, but you know the link is there. At least sometimes.
- Long-term agricultural diversification increases financial profitability, biodiversity, and ecosystem services: a second-order meta-analysis. Diversity on farms is not just good for (ok, maybe) diets.
- Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production. Another way farm diversity is useful is via pest control. Well, actually, this could count as an ecosystem service, and so an example of the above.
- Ecological drivers of intercropping performance for enhanced global crop production. Ah, that explains how those farm ecosystem services actually works.
- Crop rotations synergize yield, nutrition, and revenue: a meta-analysis. Rotations are diversification too, and good for you too.
- Revitalizing orphan crops to combat food insecurity. But of course the diversification strategy de jour is opportunity crops.
- Value chain research and development: The quest for impact. And for that revolution to happen, we’ll need a better grip on value chains.
- Cultural innovation can increase and maintain biodiversity: A case study from medieval Europe. Yes, agricultural revolution can lead to increased biodiversity.
- Household vegetable agro-biodiversity in northern Vietnam requires diversity in seed sources. Any revolution is going to need good sources of good seeds though.
Sowing the seeds of leadership at WorldVeg
And speaking of opportunities, wanna run the WorldVeg genebank?
