Giving Compass' Take:

• The United Nations released a new sobering report on our world's biodiversity loss and how this would greatly impact our food system. However, an excerpt from Simran Sethi's book gives some insight and hope on how to make changes so the foods we love don't disappear. 

• How can we make biodiversity a bigger issue that needs to be solved? What programs and policies will have the most impact? 

• Here's why it pays to invest in biodiversity. 

Embedded in every conversation about feeding people, conserving natural resources and ensuring a healthy diet, both now and in the future, is the threat of the loss of agricultural biodiversity—the reduction of the diversity in everything that makes food and agriculture possible, from the microorganisms, plants, and animals we consume to the inputs and broad range of environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues that inform what and how we eat. This shift is the direct result of our relationship with the world around us.

Agricultural biodiversity—also called “agrobiodiversity”—is the foundation of agriculture and food. It’s what emerges out of the connection between:

  • the microorganisms, plants and animals we eat and drink;
  • the inputs that support their creation and development, including bees and other pollinators, as well as the quality of nutrients in the soil;
  • nonliving (or abiotic) influences on our ability to grow and gather food, such as temperature and the structures of farms;
  • a range of socioeconomic and cultural issues that inform what and how we eat.

Read the full article on the importance of agrobiodiversity to save our foods by Simran Sethi at The New Food Economy.