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Agrobiodiversity Explained

Our panel of international experts explores how our global food systems have become overreliant on only three crops, and what we can do about it.

  • Introduction
  • Food Systems and Agrobiodiversity
  • People and Agrobiodiversity
  • Supply Chain and Agrobiodiversity

Click to explore

  • Introduction

    by Dr. Fabrice DeClerck and Dr. Eric Huttner
  • What has led our global food systems to become less biodiverse?

    by Dr. Maria Andrade and Dr. Stefano Padulosi
  • What are some results of food biodiversity loss?

    by Dr. Alice Muchugi
  • How does food biodiversity increase our resilience to climate change?

    by Dr. Arnab Gupta
  • What does agrobiodiversity have to do with soil health?

    by Prof. Kadambot Siddique
  • How does agrobiodiversity provide women with livelihoods?

    by Dr. R V Bhavani
  • Measuring agrobiodiversity

    by Dr. Sayed Azam-Ali
  • What happens when you decide to have more agrobiodiversity in the food supply chain?

    by Lisa Feldman
  • Can a more transparent supply chain lead to greater agrobiodiversity?

    by Mark Kaplan

Agrobiodiversity Explained

Our panel of international experts explores how our global food systems have become overreliant on only three crops, and what we can do about it.

  • Introduction
  • What’s happening to agrobiodiversity
  • Environment and agrobiodiversity
  • People and agrobiodiversity
  • Agriobiodiversity in food supply chains
  • Resources

Introduction

Facts

Multi-year, multi-crop rotations produce high yields for each crop in the rotation, control pests and weeds with less reliance on chemical pesticides, and enhance soil fertility with less need for synthetic fertilizers.

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FAO’s definition of Agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity is the result of the interaction between the environment, genetic resources and management systems and practices used by culturally diverse peoples, and therefore land and water resources are used for production in different ways. Thus, agrobiodiversity encompasses the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are necessary for sustaining key functions of the agro-ecosystem, including its structure and processes for, and in support of, food production and food security.

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Dr. Fabrice DeClerck

Dr. Fabrice DeClerck

Science Director
EAT FOUNDATION

How does agrobiodiversity promote responsible conservation and farming practices that safeguard the environment?

Diversity is the spice of life, and biological diversity, in many ways, underpins many aspects of food, from its nutritional value, flavor and taste, and even how it is produced. I’m typically not one to argue for silver bullets, but food diversity is our best bet at long-lasting sustainability and a food production that works with, rather than against, nature. However, we must start with clarifying some terms.

Many forms of diversity are involved in healthy and sustainable food. Dietary diversity, which may be the first thing that people think of when we speak of food diversity, is the diversity of foods we eat. 

By some estimates, there are 30,000-60,000 species of edible plants and countless species of edible fungi, algae, fish and shellfish, and animals. Eating diverse foods is generally considered the core of a healthy diet–mainly eating a diversity of plants and plant parts: fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. In his book Food Rules, Michael Pollan reminds us to “eat your colors.” This makes sense since food’s green, red, yellow, white, orange, and brown colors often represent distinct and complementary nutrients.

The recent EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet recommends that half of our diets be comprised of fruits, vegetables, and seeds, with 30% of our caloric intake coming from whole grains–rice, maize, and wheat. It makes us question: why not teff, fonio, sorghum, millet, or other pseudo-grains like buckwheat, quinoa, and amaranth? Or a greater variety of plant-based proteins such as beans and pulses (0-700 grams per week)?

Dietary diversity can have two important links to sustainable farming. First, eating a diversity of foods can support farming practices that grow crops in environments where they are best suited, and create markets for a diversity of foods, hopefully allowing farmers to select crops that are adapted to soils, climate, and water availability. Our over-dependence on a handful of crops has driven a style of farming that has sought to adapt crops to different environments, or, more recently, new forms of hothouse or vertical agriculture that adapts the environment to a crop’s needs. Agroecology, in contrast, tries to find the best crops for a specific environmental condition. The second way that dietary diversity can impact the environment is by increasing our consumption of plant-based food, with more moderate meat consumption.  The EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health diet recommends 0-200 grams of beef, pork, or lamb per week, 0-420 grams of poultry per week, and 0-700 grams of fish per week. 

Livestock is an important part of circular agriculture; cattle and other grazers can be important means of conserving grassland plant, bird, and animal diversity in grassland biomes. Thus, the recommendation is to consume moderate amounts of animal meat, favoring farmers who work hard to humanely produce quality food while protecting biodiversity and the environment. Additionally, overconsumption of meat is one of the biggest drivers of climate change and can be a major force of biodiversity loss when forests are cleared for meat or forage production.

Often forgotten in food diversity is the biodiversity that supports food production. There is a highly invisible workforce of bacteria, fungi, insects, birds, and other critters that contribute to the production of high-quality and nutritious foods. Increasingly we are becoming comfortable thinking about bees and the pollination services they provide, but entire soil ecosystems are frequently taken for granted yet critical to sustainable food production. Even less understood are the evolutionary forces behind healthy foods. The foods we eat have little impact on sustainable production; however, how and where food is produced makes or breaks the sustainability questions. Let’s take these questions one by one.

Field-scale practices are critical to sustainability. Health professionals and the public increasingly understand that the gut microbiome (the diversity of critters living in our guts) is essential to human health. A plant root is simply a gut turned inside out. It is where nutrients are absorbed to allow for plant growth. Fungi and bacteria surround roots, and numerous other biodiversities, which drive nutrient cycles, capture and store carbon, and filter water. Practices that limit soil disturbances such as no-till or which limit the use of agricultural chemicals, particularly biocides (fungicides, herbicides, pesticides) but also fertilizers, can help support healthy soil ecosystems (soil microbiome). Leaving plant material on soils and cultivating a diversity of crops through polycultures or rotations are necessary to keep biodiversity healthy and functioning. 

Biodiversity is essential around fields as well. Keeping wild vegetation in and around fields, as in agroforestry systems (trees mixed with crops), creates habitats for species that can contribute to pollination or pest control services. The Planetary Health diet calls for increasing consumption of a diversity of fruits, nuts, and vegetables because of their nutritious qualities. These are also the crops most critically dependent on pollinators, not just European honeybees, but on a diversity of bees, flies, moths, butterflies, beetles, and other critters. Wasps, ladybird beetles, and many other examples of biodiversity,, in contrast, can play essential roles in preying on crop pests and keeping diseases in check. Cultivating a diversity of crops and reducing disturbance of soils and vegetation all serve to maintain habitat in and around fields and are necessary means of conserving the biodiversity that supports healthy food production. 

Let us wrap up with a quick note on evolution, the most poorly understood interactions between food diversity and sustainability. Many flavors, such as spicy chili peppers, aromatic cinnamon, or the bitter taste of arugula, are the product of the evolutionary chemical warfare between plants and their predators. The flavors we have come to enjoy were developed by these plants to protect their leaves, seeds, and stems from insects, fungi, or other pests. Thus while pests can be pesky, they are the source of the spice of life. We’re still not quite sure what happens to these flavors if plants are grown in environments that are fully protected from pests. Still, one hypothesis is that they will eventually lose those flavors, and unique chemical properties, such as antioxidants, which make them exceptionally nutritious and delicious. 

We live on a uniquely biological planet. Diversity, in all of its forms, is the hallmark of life. Protecting and working with diversity, rather than against, whether the diversity in our guts, on our plates, or in and around our fields, is likely to be the best path to both health and sustainability.

Key term

Crop Diversity

Diversity of plants grown for food at the species or variety level; can occur on individual farms or on a global scale.

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Facts

Only 3 crops contribute 60% of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants.

Since 1900 about 75% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost.

250K to 300K are known edible plant species. Only 150 to 200 are used by humans.

It takes about 500 years to form 25 mm of soil under agricultural conditions.

Poor diets were responsible for 10.9 million deaths among adults in 2017.

Dr. Eric Huttner

Dr. Eric Huttner

Research Program Manager for Crops
AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH (ACIAR)

The food systems feeding humans on this planet work at diverse scales. At the planetary scale, the imminent danger of climate change makes clear that while productive land use is paramount, we need to reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint by avoiding further land clearing at all costs. For the next four decades, until our global population stabilizes (around 2060), a growing demand for food must be met by growing more food using the same area. This will require intensive, highly productive systems. 

Agricultural biodiversity can contribute to this intensification by growing more species, more crops per year, two species together (intercropping, mixed cropping), or in adding novel rotations. This is especially true with underutilized staple foods (e.g., tef, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, and millets), though additional research is needed to make their production more profitable. Diets can also transition to more pulses (e.g., bambara, cowpea, fonio, beans), fruits, and nuts to reduce meat consumption, as advocated by the EAT-Lancet report.

​​At the farm scale, agroecological parameters (latitude, temperature, day length, water precipitation or irrigation availability, land topography and soil types, etc.) and socio-economic parameters (population density, landholding size, land tenure arrangements, access to farm input, credit, and insurance, access to markets, etc.) largely determine which crops can grow in a particular place or time. Once these key parameters are accounted for, market demand and government policies can further influence farmers’ decisions regarding what to grow and how. 

From a western consumer perspective, while there is a widespread belief that the diversity of diets has decreased with modern agriculture, visiting any supermarket in the western world shows that consumers have access to an ever-increasing diversity of food. Just ask an 80-year-old European consumer whether they had access to kiwi fruit, bokchoy, or quinoa during their childhood.

Still, supporting biodiversity comes at a cost. While return on investment will always be the most significant driver of large-scale commercial farming, return on labor will become an ever increasing concern for smallholder farmers in the developing world. Farmers grow what consumers buy, but as societies and demographics change, and consumers become more affluent, will their preferences support increased diversity in the marketplace?

Key term

Sustainable Intensification

Sustainable intensification is the broad term for an approach to agriculture that increases food production from existing farmland without increasing impact on the environment.

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Food Systems and Agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity Fact
About 75 percent of the world’s food comes from just 12 plants and 5 animal species. Almost half of our plant-derived calories come from just three foods: wheat, corn and rice. While estimates vary, it is believed that there are over 30,000 edible plants, and we only eat 150 of them.
visit FAO
Agrobiodiversity Fact
Although over time it has increased, biodiversity has steadily gone down in the past 35 years. The current declining of biodiversity is comparable to the massive extinction of many animals over 65 million years ago.
visit IUCN Red List
Agrobiodiversity Fact
A biodiversity hotspot is an area of rich biodiversity that faces serious threats to its existence. Around the world, 36 areas qualify as hotspots. They represent just 2.4% of Earth’s land surface, but they support more than half of the world’s plant species as endemics.
visit Conservation International
Agrobiodiversity Fact
The monetary value of goods and services provided by ecosystems is estimated to amount to some US$33 trillion per year. The USA GDP for the whole of 2018 was only US$20.5 trillion. For the European Union in the same year it was $18.8 trillion.
visit WWF
Agrobiodiversity Fact
Agriculture has long been understood to be the single largest cause of biodiversity loss and is likely to remain so in the future absent major change.
visit World Resources Institute
Agrobiodiversity Fact
Crop diversity is conserved in fields and in genebanks, and is used by plant breeders in research work every day. According to FAO, about seven million materials are conserved in genebanks worldwide.
visit FAO
Agrobiodiversity Fact
Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need pollinators. Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops.
visit Pollinator Partnership
Agrobiodiversity Fact
Considering the full value chain of food including deforestation to clear land, processing, packaging, transportation and waste, our food systems account for an estimated 43-57 per cent of human caused greenhouse gas emissions
visit TEEB
Agrobiodiversity Fact
Smallholders manage over 80 per cent of the world’s estimated 500 million small farms and provide over 80 per cent of the food consumed in a large part of the developing world, contributing significantly to poverty reduction and food security.
visit IFAD
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Facts

Almost one hundred years ago, the Russian scientist Nikolai Vavilov identified 12 spots in the world where most of domesticated crops and their genetic diversity originated. He called those spots “Centres of Origin”.

Vavilov Centers are regions where a high diversity of crop wild relatives can be found and have been a basic knowledge for plant breeders to locate one crop’s historical roots and avoid genetic erosion.

Dr. Maria Andrade

Dr. Maria Andrade

Researcher
World Food Prize Winner
INTERNATIONAL POTATO CENTER (CIP)

Dr.  Stefano Padulosi

Dr.  Stefano Padulosi

Senior Scientist
THE ALLIANCE OF BIOVERSITY INTERNATIONAL AND CIAT

What has led our global food systems to become less biodiverse?

There are multiple causes for the shrinking diversity in our food systems, ranging from the intense standardization of planting material and agronomic practices—we eat more of fewer foods—to the scarce attention paid to addressing the basic needs of underutilized crops.

Not enough money is spent to research which varieties to grow, how to upgrade harvest and post-harvest operations, and what approaches can be taken to enhance value chains. This “diversity-poor” approach has marginalized hundreds of nutritious and healthy crops that can no longer compete with highly researched commodities in local, national, and global food systems.

Consumers also bear a responsibility for the increasing lack of diversity in our food systems; they wrongfully perceive many traditional crops to be symbols of poverty and hardship. Unstead, their diets now focus on popular, easy-to-cook staples. 

At the government level, decision makers give little space to biodiversity in national agricultural development strategies and programs. They often neglect the numerous environmental and livelihood benefits associated with deploying crop diversity in food and production systems, focusing instead on a few commodity crops.

The result of such myopia? Two-thirds of crop production comes from only nine species: sugar cane, maize, rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, oil-palm fruit, sugar beet, and cassava. The remaining 6,000 cultivated plant species are in continuous decline.  Some of the major causes of agricultural biodiversity loss can be traced in:

  • Homogenization of agricultural production systems
  • Intensification of agricultural systems
  • Specialization by plant and animals breeders
  • Introduction of exotic species
  • Introduction of new technologies
  • Genetic erosion
  • Destruction, conversion, or degradation of agro-ecosystems,
  • Pollution
  • Unsustainable management practices (soil and use of pesticides, herbicides, etc.)
  • Climate change
  • Population growth
  • Urbanization
  • Globalization
  • Changes in land and water use and management
  • Overexploitation and overharvesting
  • Changes in cropping patterns
  • Policies

These strategies are interrelated, meaning that to increase biodiversity in global food systems will require a combination of approaches that build resilience in global food systems so they can better adapt to changes in consumer tastes and diets.

Key term

Monocropping

A farming model that prioritizes efficiency and high yields, sacrificing bio-diversity and natural resiliency. Monocropping (the intense cultivation of one single crop in a large field) is achieved by using pesticides and other agro-chemicals.

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Facts

Agrobiodiversity has been seriously eroded and lost at all levels over the last century, due to several trends and causes  that also function as barriers to the implementation and scaling-up of practices that enhance biodiversity. A new agroecological paradigm is required, rooted in fundamentally different relationships between agriculture and the environment, and between food systems and society.

IPES Food identified seven case studies that provide concrete examples of how, in spite of the many barriers to change, people around the world have been able to fundamentally rethink and redesign food systems around agroecological principles.

Dr. Alice Muchugi

Dr. Alice Muchugi

Gene Bank Manager
WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE

What are some results of food biodiversity loss?

Biodiversity loss can be considered from a nutrition, environmental and economic point of view. 

When the availability of certain nutrient-rich foods is reduced, nutritional deficiencies correspondingly rise among populations that rely on these foods. For example, the loss of traditional and local food crops that have high levels of vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients can result in nutrient deficiencies, especially in rural and low-income communities that rely on these crops.

Biodiversity loss can also lead to a range of negative environmental impacts. For example, the loss of pollinators can reduce the ability of crops to produce fruits and seeds. Similarly, the loss of biodiversity in soils can lead to reduced soil fertility and increased erosion. Also, loss of biodiversity in freshwater and marine ecosystems can negatively impact a variety of ecosystem services including water purification, flood regulation and recreation.

Economies can also suffer from biodiversity loss. For example, the absence of pollinators can reduce crop yields and lead to increased costs for farmers. Similarly, the loss of biodiversity in fisheries can lead to reduced fish catches and lower income for fishing communities.

Finally, it’s worth noting that these impacts are interconnected: the loss of biodiversity in one area can lead to cascading impacts elsewhere. For example, the loss of biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems can lead to reduced pest control, which can in turn increase the need for synthetic pesticides, further damaging biodiversity and the environment.

Key term

Pollinator Friendly

Native plants that may serve as sources of nectar or pollen for adult pollinators, or plants that host larva. Some plants and flower shapes attract specific pollinators with deep or complex flowers. Pollinator friendly can also refer to pest management practices used to grow plants with no harmful insecticide residue on the flowers or in the pollen and nectar.

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Facts

Agriculture is one of the industries most affected by climate change but, at the same time, it is also one of the largest contributors to it through greenhouse gas emissions.

17% directly through agricultural activities and an additional

7-14% through land use changes.

It is therefore part of the problem – and potentially an important part of the solution.

In order to face future climatic challenges, scientists all over the world are looking into the so called “Climate Smart Crops” to find the key for adaptation. Climate Smart Crops are crops that adapt to a wide range of agro-climatic conditions and give good performance even under marginal growing conditions.

Dr. Arnab Gupta

Dr. Arnab Gupta

Seed Systems Advisor
WAGENINGEN CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT INNOVATION

How does food biodiversity increase our resilience to climate change?

In tropical and subtropical agriculture, increases in temperature and decreases in available moisture can dramatically limit plant growth and production, especially during a crop’s flowering and fruit development stages. With climate change, these impacts are being felt faster than anticipated. Greater precipitation variability—including flooding, drought, and more extreme rainfall events—now affects food security in many parts of the world, including India. 

Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop resilient diversified agricultural systems that can buffer crops against climate variability and extreme weather events. New programs are needed to provide farmers with different varieties adapted to local conditions and dynamically adapted to any ongoing changes in the climate. More diversity will result in greater buffering capacity across these crop systems.

We also need to develop market support mechanisms to make the farming systems for these “diverse” crops more sustainable. The keyword here is “Demand.” If we can diversify our lunch or dinner “plate,” we can diversify our cropping systems. Mainstreaming climate-resilient crops and their varieties can create a demand for these food items, and motivate farmers to grow them. The Indian Institute for Millet Research, for example, holds cook-shops to develop recipes and “fast food” from millets. They are also incubating new food companies to prepare over-the-shelf food items made from millet. Celebrity chefs have also begun developing millet recipes for hotels and restaurants. These collective efforts are creating a huge demand for crops neglected in favor of rice and wheat. The more diverse we make our food systems, the less pressure we put on our agriculture and the greater security for all of us.

Key term

Adaptation

Any adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. It involves taking action so that we can be more resilient to our current climate, less susceptible to the impacts of future climate change and in a position to take advantage of opportunities.

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Facts

The 68th UN General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses (IYP), aiming to increase public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production. 

But pulses are also leguminous plants, so they have nitrogen-fixing properties which can contribute to increasing soil fertility and have a positive impact on the environment.

The inclusion of pulses in multiple cropping systems, such as intercropping or simple crop rotation, is important for the sustainable management of soil nutrients, for improving soil structure, and overall, it is an important step towards implementing more sustainable agricultural practices.

Prof. Kadambot Siddique

Prof. Kadambot Siddique

Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair and Director
THE UWA INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE

What does agrobiodiversity have to do with soil health?

Healthy soils team with life. Myriad micro-organisms, from bacteria and fungi to algae, as well as soil animals (protozoa, nematodes, mites, springtails, spiders, insects, and earthworms) and even plants live all or part of their lives in or on the soil. These organisms play a vital role in the health and productivity of the soil, as they help to break down organic matter, improve soil structure, and provide nutrients to plants. 

Unfortunately, the highly valuable ecological benefits this soil biota provides is increasingly under threat from anthropogenic (human) activities, including the excessive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.

Agrobiodiversity can have a positive impact on soil biota by providing a diverse range of food sources and habitat for these organisms. For example, the presence of pollinators and other insects can help to improve the fertility of the soil by aiding in the pollination of plants, while the presence of predatory insects can help to control pest populations and reduce the need for chemical pesticides. 

Additionally, the use of diverse crop rotations can help maintain nutrient balance in the soil, which is critical as different crops have different nutrient requirements. The roots of these diverse plant species can also help loosen the soil to promote greater infiltration of water and air, while contributing to a diverse community of soil microbes, which can improve the overall health and fertility of soil by breaking down organic matter, improving water retention, and suppressing disease-causing pathogens. 

Overall, promoting agrobiodiversity can help support the long-term health of soil ecosystems.

Key term

Healthy Soil

Healthy soil is loose, friable, and well-drained, approximately 45% minerals, 25% water, 25% air and 5% organic matter, has good structure and texture, plenty of nutrients and a pH between 5.5 and 7.5, and has large numbers and types of organism.

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People and Agrobiodiversity

Facts

Women comprise an average 43 percent of the agricultural labour force of developing countries. The female share of the agricultural labour force ranges from about 20 percent in the Americas to almost 50 percent in East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Eliminating the gap between men and women in access to agricultural resources would raise yields on women’s farms by 20-30 per cent and increase agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5-4 per cent, which could in turn reduce the number of undernourished people ly by 12-17 percent or 100-150 million people.

Dr. R V Bhavani

Dr. R V Bhavani

Director, Agriculture-Nutrition-Health
M S SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION (MSSRF)

How does agrobiodiversity provide women with livelihoods?

Throughout the ages, small holder farmers, and particularly women, have been the custodians of agricultural biodiversity; their livelihoods are interwoven with the traditional knowledge on how to manage diverse natural resources—wild plants, edible roots and tubers, tree products, wild and domesticated animals—and the uses of these foods for household food and nutrition security. That knowledge extends to the diverse use of plants and their different parts (leaves, fruits, nuts, seeds, roots), both domesticated and from the wild. This, combined with the keen awareness of how food is used as medicine, forms the basis of their household food security.

In agriculture, while women continue to play a major role, they are often not recognized or given credit as farmers, especially in a globalized food system where two to three crops have come to dominate the marketplace. Despite this reality, their awareness of desirable characteristics—resistance to pests and disease, taste and cooking quality, and processing and storage properties—has provided a solid foundation for the selection and adaptation of many plant varieties in agriculture. This is of huge relevance for conserving the diversity of plant and animal genetic resources.

Today, the world bears witness to the rapid erosion of genetic diversity in both plant and animal resources, but by going back to the roots and recognizing the traditional role women play in conserving agrobiodiversity and building sustainable livelihoods around them, the global community can move closer to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal targets.

Key term

Smallholder Farmer

The term “smallholders” includes small farmers who own/control the land they farm and those who do not. Often, the term “outgrower” is used to refer to a smallholder who is in a dependent, managed relationship with an exporter.

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Supply chains and agrobiodiversity

Facts

Over 50% of the global requirement for proteins and calories are met by just three crops, maize, wheat and rice; only 150 crops are commercialized on a significant global scale. Yet, humankind has, over time, used more than 7,000 edible species. Numerous neglected and underutilized species offer the potential to diversify not only the human diet, but also increase food production levels, and, thus, enable more sustainable and resilient agro- and horti-food systems.

Sayed Azam-Ali

Sayed Azam-Ali

CEO
CROPS FOR THE FUTURE

Measuring agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity isn’t just about the range of products in our kitchens or the types of food on our plates. Supermarket shelves are stacked with a plethora of novel food products, snacks, ready meals, and condiments. However, their ingredients increasingly come from the same narrow range of plants and animals on which most of us now depend. Just three ‘staple’ crops (wheat, rice, and maize) provide more than 60% of the calories consumed by over 7.4 billion people. Will they be enough to nourish nearly ten billion people on a hotter planet? If not, we need greater agrobiodiversity from more crops and diverse agroecosystems instead of more products from the same crops grown as monocultures.

Agrobiodiversity and the knowledge systems that sustain it provide the basis to transform agriculture for our good and that of the planet. However, to demonstrate agrobiodiversity, we need mechanisms to trace the journey from where our food ingredients are grown to the markets where they are consumed. For such traceability, we now have scientific and management tools to analyze the genetics, management, processing, products, end-users, and markets for different crops at specific locations and across regions. By spanning the whole value chain, these tools also allow us to follow data on the origin, ingredient integrity, quality control, and safety of our food from farm to plate. They can also provide open-access platforms and interfaces to demonstrate agrobiodiversity for different end-users, from policymakers to consumers, farmers and researchers.

Traceability allows us to clarify what we mean by agrobiodiversity and transparency in the supply chains that bring it to our plates. However, by themselves, clarity and transparency are not enough. To deliver a more agrobiodiverse food system, we must gain and retain the trust of all those involved in food cultivation, distribution, processing, marketing, and consumption. Such faith involves a philosophical commitment to the cultures and generational knowledge of the communities who have preserved, protected, and cherished the agrobiodiversity that can nourish us on a hotter planet. Without their trust and commitment, we cannot transform agriculture – for good.

Key term

Value Chain Cycle

A value chain is the participation of organizations in the process of creating and sharing value, from one to another, from origin to end-user. These include the acquisition and consumption of resources (money, labor, materials, equipment, buildings, land, etc.), as well as the administration and management of these resources.

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Facts

A glance of what is saved when we save food biodiversity can be seen in the Ark of Taste project, a project of Slow Food and the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo aimed at cataloguing the richness of foods in the world, at risk of disappearing.

Lisa Feldman

Lisa Feldman

Director of Recipe Management
SODEXO

What happens when you decide to have more agrobiodiversity in the food supply chain?

As a chef for one of the world’s largest contract food service companies, I can’t say that agrobiodiversity or sourcing transparency often crossed my mind. Sure, I understood that eating a wide variety of food from varying agricultural sources was good for people and the planet, but not specifically why. Then, the CIA’s Menus of Change happened. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I was standing at the nexus of using my organization’s menus and purchasing capital to help change what we feed our customers, safeguard the environment, and empower our consumers to respond to climate change with their forks directly.

The first major agricultural product we focused on was amaranth, and I needed to figure out where we would source enough of it to supply it to 3000 kitchens across North America. I wasn’t worried. How hard could it be to source amaranth? Undoubtedly, the company we contract for specialty whole grains could help us. But then, reality set in. Yes, they carried amaranth, but only in 200-pound bags for their industrial companies because no restaurants or commercial kitchens were buying it. Could I still find a source? Sure. Our distributor carried a “generic” 10-pound box readily available. This was when I realized that even when you work for a company that has committed to incorporating biodiverse ingredients into our food offer in a significant way, almost universally, the supply chain either couldn’t give me what I needed or, if they could, couldn’t guarantee that the ingredients they were offering represent the same values and principals we want to support through our food purchases and ultimately what ends up on our customer’s plates. So, there was the gauntlet thrown.

As a chef and a parent, I feel a profound responsibility to ensure that the food I put on people’s plates is beneficial for their personal and the planet’s health. I want to help create a supply chain that allows farmers to support biodiversity by giving them resources to help increase the number of agrobiodiverse crops they grow, knowing that they have a customer for these crops, and then being rewarded for responsible agricultural practices. I want an easy way to purchase products with traceability that our chefs can turn into delicious meals. And I want to be able to tell the farmers’ stories so that our customers understand precis who is growing their food and can feel good knowing that the plate of food that was lovingly prepared in one of our kitchens is providing a farmer with a livelihood and helping to reverse climate change. That’s what this activator is trying to do.

Key term

Deliciousness

Deliciousness is the quality of having a very pleasant taste or smell. Deliciousness is one of the most important aspects in the reawakening of forgotten foods. The work of chefs in this regard is crucial in that through research and the creation of new recipes they are able to value and make desirable foods that once were thought to be poor and tasteless.

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Facts

Blockchain has been looked at as one of the most promising technologies when it comes to traceability and supply chain control.

Blockchain’s capability of tracking ownership records and tamper-resistance can be used to solve urgent issues such as food fraud, safety recalls, supply chain inefficiency and food traceability and open up a series of interesting perspectives for increasing food security and assuring benefit sharing.

Mark Kaplan

Mark Kaplan

CEO
(EN)VISIBLE

Can a more transparent supply chain lead to greater agrobiodiversity?

In A Guide to Traceability, A Practical Approach to Advance Sustainability in Global Supply Chains, the United Nations Global Compact and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) use a hybrid of the widely accepted definition of traceability from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), along with the added key component of a sustainability focus as:

The ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights, labour (including health and safety), the environment and anti-corruption.

Traceability requires a system to follow commodities through different stakeholder processes and custody transfers across supply chains. Such a system must be able to facilitate information sharing between stakeholders to validate claims such as provenance, quality, safety, and product transformations.

However, traceability and transparency are often mistakenly used interchangeably. Supply chain transparency has the explicit goal of making data and information transparently available and is independent of, but well coupled with, traceability.

Fully traceable supply chains can remain opaque if the stakeholders choose not to share data. Further, storytelling content about products is often disconnected from traceability data.

Some also mistakenly believe that technologies like blockchain or artificial intelligence supersede the need for human acceptance and participation for traceability systems to succeed. While tools like blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can improve and protect data entered into a system, appropriate reward structures can also incentivize stakeholders to share data.

Key term

Transparency (Value Chain)

Supply chain transparency occurs when manufacturers and processors commit to knowing where and how their goods are produced, based on reliable data, and communicate this knowledge to their stakeholders, including customers.

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Providing best water quality conditions to ensure optimal living condition for growth, breeding and other physiological needs

Water quality is sourced from natural seawater with dependency on the tidal system. Water is treated to adjust pH and alkalinity before stocking.

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Smallholder Farmer

Producers that own and manages the farm operating under small-scale farming model with limited input, investment which leads to low to medium production yield

All 1,149 of our farmers in both regencies are smallholder farmers who operate with low stocking density, traditional ponds, and no use of any other intensification technology.

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Worker Safety

Safe working conditions — cleanliness, lighting, equipment, paid overtime, hazard safety, etc. — happen when businesses conduct workplace safety audits and invest in the wellbeing of their employees

Company ensure implementation of safe working conditions by applying representative of workers to health and safety and conduct regular health and safety training. The practices are proven by ASIC standards’ implementation

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Implementation of farming operations, management and trading that impact positively to community wellbeing and sustainable better way of living

The company works with local stakeholders and local governments to create support for farmers and the farming community in increasing resilience. Our farming community is empowered by local stakeholders continuously to maintain a long generation of farmers.

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Frozen at Peak Freshness

Freezing seafood rapidly when it is at peak freshness to ensure a higher quality and longer lasting product

Our harvests are immediately frozen with ice flakes in layers in cool boxes. Boxes are equipped with paper records and coding for traceability. We ensure that our harvests are processed with the utmost care at <-18 degrees Celsius.

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Deforestation Free

Sourcing plant based ingredients, like soy, from producers that do not destroy forests to increase their growing area and produce fish feed ingredients

With adjacent locations to mangroves and coastal areas, our farmers and company are committed to no deforestation at any scale. Mangrove rehabilitation and replantation are conducted every year in collaboration with local authorities. Our farms are not established in protected habitats and have not resulted from deforestation activity since the beginning of our establishment.

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Implement only natural feeds grown in water for aquatic animal’s feed without use of commercial feed

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THE TERM “MOONSHOT” IS OFTEN USED TO DESCRIBE an initiative that goes beyond the confines of the present by transforming our greatest aspirations into reality, but the story of a moonshot isn’t that of a single rocket. In fact, the Apollo program that put Neil Armstrong on the moon was actually preceded by the Gemini program, which in a two-year span rapidly put ten rockets into space. This “accelerated” process — with a new mission nearly every 2-3 months — allowed NASA to rapidly iterate, validate their findings and learn from their mistakes. Telemetry. Propulsion. Re-entry. Each mission helped NASA build and test a new piece of the puzzle.

The program also had its fair share of creative challenges, especially at the outset, as the urgency of the task at hand required that the roadmap for getting to the moon be written in parallel with the rapid pace of Gemini missions. Through it all, the NASA teams never lost sight of their ultimate goal, and the teams finally aligned on their shared responsibilities. Within three years of Gemini’s conclusion, a man did walk on the moon.

FACT is a food systems solutions activator that assesses the current food landscape, engages with key influencers, identifies trends, surveys innovative work and creates greater visibility for ideas and practices with the potential to shift key food and agricultural paradigms.

Each activator focuses on a single moonshot; instead of producing white papers, policy briefs or peer-reviewed articles, these teams design and implement blueprints for action. At the end of each activator, their work is released to the public and open-sourced.

As with any rapid iteration process, many of our activators re-assess their initial plans and pivot to address new challenges along the way. Still, one thing has remained constant: their conviction that by working together and pooling their knowledge and resources, they can create a multiplier effect to more rapidly activate change.

Douglas Gayeton

Douglas Gayeton

Co-Founder
THE LEXICON

Michiel Bakker

Michiel Bakker

Vice President
Global Workplace Programs
GOOGLE

Eligibility, Submission Terms and Conditions

Sponsor

A Greener Blue Global Storytelling Initiative is sponsored by The Lexicon, a US based 501(c)(3) public charity.

Opportunity

Storytellers will join A Greener Blue Storytelling Collective to create stories for the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture with the FAO and its partner organizations. Members of the Collective will take part in a private online “Total Storytelling Lab” led by The Lexicon’s Douglas Gayeton. Upon completion of this online certificate program, members of the Collective will join seafood experts from around the globe in creating A Greener Blue Storytelling initiative.

Terms

Who can enter and how selections are made.

A Greener Blue is a global call to action that is open to individuals and teams from all over the world. Below is a non-exhaustive list of subjects the initiative targets.

  • Creatives and storytellers with a passion for food and the willingness to support small-scale fisherpeople and experts worldwide. This category includes, but is not exhausted in photographers, videomakers, illustrators, podcasters, and writers.
  • Food Activists working to change open sea fishing and aquaculture; 
  • Members of fishing and indigenous communities that support their communities, share their stories and protect their way of life;
  • Local and International NGOs work every day with actors across the whole value chain to create more sustainable seafood models.

To apply, prospective participants will need to fill out the form on the website, by filling out each part of it. Applications left incomplete or containing information that is not complete enough will receive a low score and have less chance of being admitted to the storytelling lab.

Nonprofit organizations, communities of fishers and fish farmers and companies that are seeking a closer partnership or special support can also apply by contacting hello@thelexicon.org and interacting with the members of our team.

Special attention will be given to the section of the form regarding the stories that the applicants want to tell and the reasons for participating. All proposals for stories regarding small-scale or artisanal fishers or aquaculturists, communities of artisanal fishers or aquaculturists, and workers in different steps of the seafood value chain will be considered.

Stories should show the important role that these figures play in building a more sustainable seafood system. To help with this narrative, the initiative has identified 10 principles that define a more sustainable seafood system. These can be viewed on the initiative’s website and they state:
Seafood is sustainable when:

  • it helps address climate change
  • it supports global ecosystems
  • it optimizes impact on resources and nutrient cycles.
  • it promotes a safe growing environment for safe food sources.
  • it advances animal welfare.
  • it enhances flavor and nutrition.
  • it builds resilience and self-sufficiency in local communities.
  • it prioritizes inclusion, equality, and fair treatment of workers.
  • it preserves legality and the quality and the story of the product throughout the value chain.
  • it creates opportunities along the whole value chain.

Proposed stories should show one or more of these principles in practice.

Applications are open from the 28th of June to the 15th of August 2022. There will be 50 selected applicants who will be granted access to The Lexicon’s Total Storytelling Lab. These 50 applicants will be asked to accept and sign a learning agreement and acceptance of participation document with which they agree to respect The Lexicon’s code of conduct.

The first part of the lab will take place online between August the 22nd and August the 26th and focus on training participants on the foundation of storytelling, supporting them to create a production plan, and aligning all of them around a shared vision.

Based on their motivation, quality of the story, geography, and participation in the online Lab, a selected group of participants will be gifted a GoPro camera offered to the program by GoPro For A Change. Participants who are selected to receive the GoPro camera will need to sign an acceptance and usage agreement.

The second part of the Storytelling Lab will consist of a production period in which each participant will be supported in the production of their own story. This period goes from August 26th to October 13th. Each participant will have the opportunity to access special mentorship from an international network of storytellers and seafood experts who will help them build their story. The Lexicon also provides editors, animators, and graphic designers to support participants with more technical skills.

The final deadline to submit the stories is the 14th of October. Participants will be able to both submit complete edited stories, or footage accompanied by a storyboard to be assembled by The Lexicon’s team.

All applicants who will exhibit conduct and behavior that is contrary to The Lexicon’s code of conduct will be automatically disqualified. This includes applicants proposing stories that openly discriminate against a social or ethnic group, advocate for a political group, incite violence against any group, or incite to commit crimes of any kind.

All submissions must be the entrant’s original work. Submissions must not infringe upon the trademark, copyright, moral rights, intellectual rights, or rights of privacy of any entity or person.

Participants will retain the copyrights to their work while also granting access to The Lexicon and the other partners of the initiative to share their contributions as part of A Greener Blue Global Storytelling Initiative.

If a potential selected applicant cannot be reached by the team of the Initiative within three (3) working days, using the contact information provided at the time of entry, or if the communication is returned as undeliverable, that potential participant shall forfeit.

Offering

Selected applicants will be granted access to an advanced Storytelling Lab taught and facilitated by Douglas Gayeton, award-winning storyteller and information architect, co-founder of The Lexicon. In this course, participants will learn new techniques that will improve their storytelling skills and be able to better communicate their work with a global audience. This skill includes (but is not limited to) how to build a production plan for a documentary, how to find and interact with subjects, and how to shoot a short documentary.

Twenty of the participants will receive a GoPro Hero 11 Digital Video and Audio Cameras by September 15, 2022. Additional participants may receive GoPro Digital Video and Audio Cameras to be announced at a later date. The recipients will be selected by advisors to the program and will be based on selection criteria (see below) on proposals by Storytelling Lab participants. The selections will keep in accordance with Lab criteria concerning geography, active participation in the Storytelling Lab and commitment to the creation of a story for the Initiative, a GoPro Camera to use to complete the storytelling lab and document their story. These recipients will be asked to sign an acceptance letter with terms of use and condition to receive the camera. 

The Lexicon provides video editors, graphic designers, and animators to support the participants to complete their stories.

The submitted stories will be showcased during international and local events, starting from the closing event of the International Year of Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022 in Rome, in January 2023. The authors of the stories will be credited and may be invited to join.

All selection criteria

Storytelling lab participation:

Applicants that will be granted access to the storytelling Lab will be evaluated based on the entries they provided in the online form, and in particular:

  • The completeness of their form
  • The relevance of their story (coherence with the main goal of the initiative and 10 principles)
  • Written motivation explained
  • Geography (the initiative aims at showcasing stories from all over the world so the mix of locations will be a factor that the selection committee will take into account)
 

Applications will be evaluated by a team of 4 judges from The Lexicon, GSSI and the team of IYAFA (Selection committee).

When selecting applications, the call promoters may request additional documentation or interviews both for the purpose of verifying compliance with eligibility requirements and to facilitate proposal evaluation.

Camera recipients:

Participants to the Storytelling Lab who will be given a GoPro camera will be selected based on:

  • Quality of the story (coherence with the initiative and the 10 principles)
  • Motivation demonstrated during the interaction in the online class
  • Participation in the online class (participants that will attend less than 4 classes will be automatically excluded)
 

The evaluation will be carried out by a team of 4 judges from The Lexicon, GSSI and the team of IYAFA (Selection committee).

Incidental expenses and all other costs and expenses which are not specifically listed in these Official Rules but which may be associated with the acceptance, receipt and use of the Storytelling Lab and the camera are solely the responsibility of the respective participants and are not covered by The Lexicon or any of the A Greener Blue partners.

All participants who receive a Camera are required to sign an agreement allowing GoPro for a Cause, The Lexicon and GSSI to utilize the films for A Greener Blue and their promotional purposes. All participants will be required to an agreement to upload their footage into the shared drive of The Lexicon and make the stories, films and images available for The Lexicon and the promoting partners of A Greener Blue.

Additional Limitations

Selection and distribution of the camera is non-transferable. No substitution or cash equivalent of the cameras is granted. The Lexicon and its respective partners and representatives are not responsible for any typographical or other errors in the offer or administration of the Initiative, including, but not limited to, errors in any printing or posting or the Official Rules, the selection and announcement of any selected participant, or the distribution of any equipment. Any attempt to damage the content or operation of this Initiative is unlawful and subject to possible legal action by The Lexicon. The Lexicon reserves the right to terminate, suspend or amend the Initiative, without notice, and for any reason, including, without limitation, if The Lexicon determines that the Lab cannot be conducted as planned or should a virus, bug, tampering or unauthorized intervention, technical failure or other cause beyond The Lexicon’s control corrupt the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper play of the Contest. In the event any tampering or unauthorized intervention may have occurred, The Lexicon reserves the right to void suspect entries at issue.

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