109Abstract
Biologically diverse diets are more likely to be nu-
tritionally replete, and contain intrinsic protective
factors. An increasing number of initiatives promote
dietary diversity for improved child nutrition and
protection against chronic diseases. The agricul-
tural biodiversity central to diverse diets, including
many lesser-known and underutilized plant species,
has developed over millennia through biocultural
evolution of the plant genome and associated cul-
tural codes. However, the biocultural diversity of
food plants is under threat from changing eating
patterns, intensive agriculture, and climate change,
resulting in a loss of local food plant diversity from
diets and threatening food and nutrition security. We
recommend a holistic approach promoting the use
of traditional food plant diversity together with
conservation of genetic material and associated
traditional knowledge.
- Introduction
Traditional diets, containing a high proportion of
lesser known and underutilized plant species, are
rich in biodiversity. They are an ideal basis for sus-
tainable diets and for chronic disease prevention.
Traditional diets are under threat in developing
countries due to anthropogenic factors. Addressing
such threats requires a holistic approach, where
complementaryin situand ex situtechniques com-
bine to conserve local agricultural biodiversity and
the knowledge on how to use it. Here we explore two
projects that have attempted to do this, and make
recommendations on best steps forward. - Dietary diversity, agricultural biodiversity and
biocultural evolution
Agricultural biodiversity is broadly defined by the
Convention on Biological Diversity as those “com-
ponents of biological diversity of relevance to food
and agriculture” and includes crops and “wild
plants harvested and managed for food” (CBD,
2000). Agricultural biodiversity and dietary diversity
form the basis of human health and are intrinsically
linked through traditional food systems and food
habits. Consuming a high level of dietary diversity is
one of the most longstanding and universally accepted
recommendations for human health at national,
regional and international levels (WHO (Europe),
2003; UK Food Standards Agency, 2009). It has been
recommended that we should “eat at least 20, and
probably as many as 30 biologically distinct types of
food, with the emphasis on plant food [with a week
as a time frame]” (Wahlqvistet al.,1989; Savige,
2002). Dietary diversity across as many food groups
as possible ensures dietary adequacy, increased
food security, a reduced intake of toxicants and pro-
tection against chronic diseases (Slatteryet al.,
1997; Hatløy et al., 1998; McCulloughet al., 2002;
Wisemannet al., 2006).
Dietary diversity is underpinned by agricultural bio-
diversity. Although just 12 plant species contribute
80 percent of total dietary intake (Grivetti and Ogle,
2000), many more lesser-known, underutilized,
semi-domesticated and wild plants are harvested
and managed for food. The figure of more than 7 000
is commonly cited (Bharucha and Pretty, 2010), but
the total number of plant species that have been
grown or collected for food may be as high as 12 600.
Agricultural biodiversity is selected and managed
by farmers – even non-cultivated plant species are
managed to a greater or lesser degree by the people
who know their uses, harvest them, and allow their
continued survival – and the CBD recognizes “tradi-
tional and local knowledge” as an important dimen-
sion of agricultural biodiversity (CBD, 2000).
In a globalized world of intensive agriculture and
agribusiness, it is easy to forget that our food systems
are the result of thousands of years of synergistic
interaction between biological and cultural resources
or, as one author puts it, “biocultural evolution”
(Katz, 1987). The nutritional adaptation described by
Ulijaszek and Strickland (1993) shows how, during
the process of biocultural evolution, genetic codes
are stored in the DNA of plants and cultural codes in