By Gina Kennedy

Our food systems are failing to deliver on several important SDGs, including those linked to human health, namely SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SDG 3 (good health and well-being), as well as those supporting planetary health, such as SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG 15 (life on land).

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), hunger affects 9% of the world’s population, or roughly 735 million people, two billion people suffer micronutrient deficiencies (deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals), and more than 25% of adults are obese. Diet-related factors are the number one health risk globally. A healthy diet is not affordable for 2.83 billion people, about one-third of the population.

A large portion of this nutritional burden relates to insufficient intakes of nutrient dense, diverse, healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, and excessive intakes of harmful dietary factors including sodium, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grains, processed meats, and trans fats. Our planetary reliance on a narrow set of crops has opened our system up to vulnerability to pests and crop diseases and contributed to increasing susceptibility to climate extremes and has driven our nutritional and diet-related disease burdens.

Diets worldwide are increasingly homogenous, dominated by staple crops rich in energy but poor in micronutrients and other protective compounds. This is not surprising given that the majority of our dietary energy (calories) come from rice, wheat, and maize – with additional edible oils and a few other crops making up most diets globally. For heathier people and planet, we need to diversify our food systems and our plates toward a whole-of-diet approach that can diversify diets and production systems.

Why we need biodiversity for food and nutrition

One of our greatest opportunities to address climate change, sustainable food production and consumption, and to improve diets and nutrition is to elevate and value the role of edible biodiversity in food systems. Edible biodiversity is defined as the diversity of plants, animals, aquatic foods, fungi, and other organisms used for food.This covers all genetic resources within and between species, including wild and cultivated biodiversity used for food. Our planet’s edible biodiversity provides essential vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive compounds essential for human growth and development as well as prevention of disease.

Diversification of food grown on farms and in wild terrestrial and aquatic spaces is a key solution for our production systems to enable an adequate supply of all nutrients and food components required for a healthy diet for all. Production diversification strategies are linked with improved ecosystem services and conservation of biodiversity. Dietary diversification, or more species and food group diversity on our plates, can help ensure a nutritionally adequate and healthy diet year-round. A recent joint statement by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) lists diversity within and across food groups as one of four universal principles of a healthy diet to favor nutrient adequacy and consumption of other health promoting elements such as dietary fiber and small bio-active compounds. Similarly, nearly all food-based dietary guidelines recommend consumption of diverse foods chosen from culturally appropriate diverse food groups. An abundance of scientific evidence underpins these important statements related to the nutritional benefits of biodiversity for food and nutrition.

Status of edible biodiversity in the mindsets of food system stakeholders

The reasons for the global decline in the use of biodiversity are multifactorial and often overlap. Factors include lasting impacts of colonization, unintended consequences from the Green Revolution, and subsequent focus of subsidies on a small number of staple crops as well as concentration of economic power in large multinational food companies with motivations to standardize supply chains, thereby reducing biodiversity. In the mindset of consumers, who also can be engaged as key actors working within food systems, there is often negative stigma associated with much of the world’s edible biodiversity. Referred to for decades as neglected, underutilized, and orphaned, lesser used crops have often been referred to as food for the poor or “hunger” foods. However, there is a momentum shift to change this mindset. The importance of edible biodiversity is being recognized, and along with more recognition has come a shift toward more positive nomenclature, including: “future smart foods”; “food treasures”; and “opportunity crops.” Despite being underutilized and undervalued, there are thousands of these future food options that can be used to benefit both our health and our ecosystems.

Solutions

The Alliance of Bioveristy and CIAT (the Alliance) works with partners to shape food systems and landscapes that sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people. As part of these efforts, we work in three interconnected research areas.

1. Providing evidence;
2. Influencing policies, programs, and the food environment; and
3. Raising awareness.

Provision of evidence to explore the nutritional value, cultural significance, and market success of biodiverse foods for everyday diets is essential to continue to grow the scientific evidence base that is then used for informing policy and programs and raising awareness with consumers. While there is a substantial and growing evidence base on the economic, environmental, nutrition, and health contributions of edible biodiversity and why edible biodiversity is important for people and the planet, there is also a vast amount of undiscovered information. Using our current knowledge on what is in food as an example, most food composition tables document approximately 150 nutrients per species analyzed. However, we know that each species we use for food contains thousands of nutritive molecules, including amino acids, fatty acids, and small bio-active molecules that science has yet to document. Indigenous peoples and local communities are often the custodians and knowledge holders of the agronomy and culinary benefits of this food diversity.

Community-based participatory approaches can be used to map national and locally available edible biodiversity and link this diversity to traditional knowledge, laboratory analysis of the nutritional value, and current dietary intake patterns. Value chain and market-based assessments provide additional opportunities for sustainable use. Tools available for use within this pillar include prioritization tools, seasonal food availability assessments, dietary intake assessments that measure dietary diversity and diet quality, primary nutritional analysis through the Periodic Table of Food Initiative and/or secondary compilation of food composition data of locally available species, and the varieties, cultivars, and breeds within each species. This approach contributes to much-needed national capacity building to ensure sustainability of action around biodiversity for food and nutrition.

Influencing policies and programs to advocate for edible biodiversity needs to be included as a cross-sectoral entry point for national policies and programs to improve health, nutrition, and food security. This pillar is facilitated by key national stakeholder groups in the public, private, and civil society domains and aims to take stock of existing policy and regulatory instruments, as well as relevant multi-sectoral platforms, which can be used to create an enabling policy and business environment for greater integration of edible biodiversity across sectors.

A great example of this is the Zero Hunger platform in Brazil that was used to leverage greater integration of edible biodiversity for the achievement of the goals of the national program. Integration of biodiversity into National Action Plans, including Food System Transformation Action Plans as well as National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are key entry points for this pillar. Assessment of policies can help identify program entry points such as school meals, product marketing support, small business training, or community education initiatives. Cross-sectoral collaboration across relevant government sectors can stimulate the development of new policies relevant to the better mainstreaming and sustainable use of biodiversity.

For example, Brazil’s ordinance officially recognizing over 100 native species that are nutrient-rich is an important step in formal recognition of these species for public food procurement including school meals. There is also a growing call to link the narratives on biodiversity (through NBSAPs), climate (through nationally determined contributions (NDC)), food systems (through national food system transformation pathways), and nutrition (through national nutrition action plans and food-based dietary guidelines). The Alliance is providing support to countries in Asia and Africa to review cross-sectoral coherence and align action across the climate, biodiversity, and nutrition for multiple synergistic outcomes.

Raising awareness to broaden knowledge and understanding of all food system stakeholders for how biodiversity can improve food and nutrition involves the promotion and marketing of biodiversity for food and nutrition. This is also the pillar that requires the most contextualization to each country or regional context. A great example of successfully raising awareness of traditional food comes from the Pacific Island Food Revolution that uses social media, television, radio, and documentaries to change people’s eating behavior and stimulate wider population awareness of the benefits of consuming fresh, local, Indigenous foods to curb the epidemic of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) sweeping Pacific Island nations. The initiative used reality TV cooking competitions both to inspire and to educate consumers. Diverse episodes were dedicated to providing solutions to barriers to healthy eating such as convenience, taste, and affordability. Social movements to engage consumers as “food warriors” on social media or in classrooms were used for wider impact of the initiative.

Some of the techniques to be used in this pillar include food fairs and cooking demonstrations, alliances with gastronomic movements such as Beans is How and Slow Food, promotion of using edible biodiversity in familiar recipes, and development of local cookbooks. The use of celebrities and other biodiversity champions, including high-profile chefs, can also fit under this pillar as can the use of modern forms of social media, reality television, YouTube, and other platforms designed to reach large and demographically diverse segments of the population. Raising awareness through the use of art, music, culinary linkages, and even competitions can also be used depending on the suitability and local context. 

Way forward

The current state of our food systems highlights critical failures in achieving several SDG, particularly those related to health and planetary well-being. The global shift towards homogenous diets that lack diversity of food groups and species within food groups – and are heavily reliant on a narrow range of staple crops, and the enabling policy and economic environment that fuel the status quo, are constraints to progress. A business-as-usual (BAU) approach will lead to further environmental degradation, food insecurity, and diet-related diseases. To address these challenges, the role of biodiversity in food systems must be elevated. The promotion and integration of edible biodiversity – through diverse plant, animal, and aquatic species – offers a promising solution to improving nutrition, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and supporting sustainable food production. Through the provision of evidence, influencing policies, and raising awareness, critical and necessary shifts in supply and demand for more biodiverse food can be achieved. Embracing biodiversity in food systems not only helps diversify diets, but also plays a pivotal role in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. By valuing and utilizing diverse food sources, we can create a healthier, more sustainable future for both people and the planet.

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Dr. Gina Kennedy is Principal Scientist at Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT.

This article was written for Perry World House’s 2025 Conference, ‘Feeding a Climate Changed World.’ This meeting was made possible in part by a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The views expressed are solely the author’s and do not reflect those of Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania, or the Carnegie Corporation of New York.