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Feeding futures framed: bkp_rediscovering biocultural diversity in sustainable foodscapes

Abstract:

In light of the 2008 food crisis and the impending challenges of climate change, the subject of foodstuffs has taken central stage in the international research agenda, which led to the development of the Committee on World Food Security in 2009 and prompted investment in agricultural research and development funding. Further steps taken to address the challenges to food security by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN include the necessity of expanding the diversity of plants consumed and grown, and increasing within-crop genetic diversity. They advocate that more diversity in our diets will not only improve human health, but also protect environmental quality. Indigenous peoples and small-scale food systems exhibit much agrobiodiversity globally, but here the focus will be on the Americas. Agrobiodiversity refers to the diversity of domesticated, cultivated, and wild plants that thrive in managed systems of cultural landscapes. In the Americas, research on these diverse food systems has shown that they also enhance local biodiversity, promote resource conservation and environmental sustainability, and encourage community-scale. Indigenous peoples in the Americas have been managing local food and fiber systems for millennia; however, these food systems have not been without disruption and change.