Title
Biocultural Diversity for Food System Transformation Under Global Environmental Change
Date Issued
08 October 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Argumedo A.
Song Y.
Khoury C.K.
Hunter D.
Dempewolf H.
Guarino L.
Farmer Seeds Network
Publisher(s)
Frontiers Media S.A.
Abstract
Biocultural diversity is central to the nutrition, resilience, and adaptive capacity of Indigenous and traditional peoples, who collectively maintain the longest ongoing human experiences with the provision of food under environmental change. In the form of crops and livestock and associated knowledge on their cultivation and use, food-related biocultural diversity likewise underpins global food security. As food system transformation is increasingly recognized as an urgent priority, we argue that food security, sustainability, resilience, and adaptive capacity can be furthered through greater emphasis on conservation, use, and celebration of food-related biocultural diversity. We provide examples from the Parque de la Papa, Peru, a “food biocultural diversity neighborhood” which through advocacy and partnerships based around its diversity, has both enhanced local communities and contributed to food security at a much larger scale. We outline collaborative actions which we believe are important to up- and out-scale food biocultural diversity neighborhood successes. Further research and knowledge sharing are critical to better document, understand, track, and communicate the value, functions, and state of biocultural diversity in food systems. Expanded training and capacity development opportunities are important to enable the interchange of experiences and visions on food, health, sustainability and resilience, climate adaptation, equity and justice, and livelihood generation with others facing similar challenges. Finally, strengthened networking across food biocultural diversity neighborhoods is essential to their persistence and growth as they increasingly engage with local, national, and international organizations, based on shared interests and on their own terms, across five continents.
Volume
5
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ecología Agricultura, Silvicultura, Pesquería Antropología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85118303930
Source
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
ISSN of the container
2571581X
Source funding
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Global Alliance for the Future of Food
Sponsor(s)
An early version of this work was supported by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. CK was supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship (grant no. 2019-67012-29733/project accession no. 1019405) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The funders had no role in the writing of the article or in the decision to publish.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus