Food, how it is produced and how it is consumed, has become a much discussed political topic about choice and decision-making. This report contributes to the debate
Globalization has helped increase local supplies of energy-dense food crops, but at a significant cost to global food security and human health, according to a new study by the University of British Columbia, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The comprehensive study of global food supplies thoroughly documents for the first time what experts have long suspected—over the last five decades, human diets around the world have grown increasingly similar by an average of 36 percent. The trend has the potential to boost obesity, heart disease and diabetes rates, and places food production at increased widespread risk to drought, insect pests and diseases.
The emerging 'standard global food supply' described by the study include several crops that were already staples a half-century ago—such as wheat, rice, maize and potato–as well as more energy-dense foods that have risen to global prominence more recently, like soybean, sunflower oil and palm oil. Wheat is a major staple in 97.4 percent of countries and rice in 90.8 percent. Soybean has become significant to 74.3 percent of countries. In contrast, many crops of considerable regional importance—sorghum, millets, rye, sweet potato, cassava and yam—have lost ground.
"More people are consuming more calories, protein and fat, and they rely increasingly on a short list of major food crops, like wheat, maize and soybean, along with meat and dairy products, for most of their food," says the study’s lead author Colin Khoury at the Colombia-based CIAT.
"These foods are critical for combating world hunger, but relying on a global diet of such limited diversity obligates us to bolster the nutritional quality of the major crops, as consumption of other nutritious grains and vegetables declines."
The reports recommendations are the adoption of a wider range of varieties of the major crops worldwide to boost genetic diversity and thus reduce the vulnerability of the global food system in the face of challenges that include climate change, rising food demand, and increased water and land scarcity. This action is especially important for certain crops, like banana, for which production is dominated by a very few, widely grown commercial varieties. The use of diverse plant genetic resources—including farmers’ traditional varieties and wild species related to crops—which are critical for broadening the genetic diversity of the major crops. More vigorous implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is required to better safeguard and share these genetic resources internationally, and increased investment in crop research. Finally, enhance the nutritional quality of the major crops on which people depend—for example, through crop breeding to improve the content of micronutrients like iron and zinc—and make supplementary vitamins and other nutrient sources more widely available.
Globalization has helped increase local supplies of energy-dense food crops, but at a significant cost to global food security and human health, according to a new study by the University of British Columbia, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The comprehensive study of global food supplies thoroughly documents for the first time what experts have long suspected—over the last five decades, human diets around the world have grown increasingly similar by an average of 36 percent. The trend has the potential to boost obesity, heart disease and diabetes rates, and places food production at increased widespread risk to drought, insect pests and diseases.
The emerging 'standard global food supply' described by the study include several crops that were already staples a half-century ago—such as wheat, rice, maize and potato–as well as more energy-dense foods that have risen to global prominence more recently, like soybean, sunflower oil and palm oil. Wheat is a major staple in 97.4 percent of countries and rice in 90.8 percent. Soybean has become significant to 74.3 percent of countries. In contrast, many crops of considerable regional importance—sorghum, millets, rye, sweet potato, cassava and yam—have lost ground.
"More people are consuming more calories, protein and fat, and they rely increasingly on a short list of major food crops, like wheat, maize and soybean, along with meat and dairy products, for most of their food," says the study’s lead author Colin Khoury at the Colombia-based CIAT.
"These foods are critical for combating world hunger, but relying on a global diet of such limited diversity obligates us to bolster the nutritional quality of the major crops, as consumption of other nutritious grains and vegetables declines."
The reports recommendations are the adoption of a wider range of varieties of the major crops worldwide to boost genetic diversity and thus reduce the vulnerability of the global food system in the face of challenges that include climate change, rising food demand, and increased water and land scarcity. This action is especially important for certain crops, like banana, for which production is dominated by a very few, widely grown commercial varieties. The use of diverse plant genetic resources—including farmers’ traditional varieties and wild species related to crops—which are critical for broadening the genetic diversity of the major crops. More vigorous implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is required to better safeguard and share these genetic resources internationally, and increased investment in crop research. Finally, enhance the nutritional quality of the major crops on which people depend—for example, through crop breeding to improve the content of micronutrients like iron and zinc—and make supplementary vitamins and other nutrient sources more widely available.
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