Enabling policy and market environment are needed for diverse nutritious foods to make their way back into consumer shopping baskets. Examples of success include efforts in India to create markets for nutritious but ‘forgotten’ minor millets, and Brazil’s innovative school feeding programme which demands that 30% of procurement comes from local family farmers.

1. Biodiversity in the shopping basket:
policies to sustain a biodiverse diet
Danny Hunter, Senior Scientist, Bioversity International
6th May 2015

2. Global malnutrition

3. Shrinking diversity
Source: FAO 1997

4. Feeding the world with biodiversity
Bioversity International is a
global research-for-
development organization.
We have a vision – that
agricultural biodiversity
nourishes people and sustains
the planet.

5. Putting diverse nutritious foods back in the
shopping basket
Through:
• More understanding and
knowledge of biodiversity’s
benefits
• Consumer demand
• Enabling policies
• Diverse production, sustainable
food systems, value-chains and
markets

6. Biodiversity for food and nutrition initiative
Brazil
1 in 3 children
aged between 5 &
9 are overweight
70 species of
leafy vegetables
Sri Lanka
1 in 3 children aged between 5
& 9 are overweight
20 Native root & tuber crops,
bananas, rice varieties, leafy
vegetables & fruits
Turkey
31% population
overweight
43 species of local
wild edible plant
species
Kenya
1/3 of population food
insecure
20 Native leafy
vegetables, sorghum,
millets, nuts, fruits,
livestock

7. Biodiversity for food and nutrition initiative
Inform public policies on
food & nutrition
• Food composition data
for >150 species of
nutritional importance
Raising awareness &
consumer demand for
traditional varieties
• Food fairs, gastronomy
workshops, school
programmes
• Food markets

8. Minor millets in India
Nutritious & drought resistant millets once
part of traditional diets
Working with partners for 15 years to
promote millet use resulting in:
• 2013 India’s food security act adds
millets into public distribution system
• Millets on menu in restaurants, sold on
streets
• Inclusion of millets in school lunches in
12 districts in Central & Southern India

9. African leafy vegetables in Kenya
Nutritious traditional African leafy
vegetables disappearing from farmers’
field and people’s menus
8 year initiative in Kenya with partners:
• 12 nutritious species introduced into formal market
• 450 farmers (mainly women) trained on cultivation
• Increased income, increased dietary diversity & economic
empowerment of women

10. Rediscovering rucola in Italy
• Nutritious green leafy vegetable growing wild in southern
Mediterranean
• Fallen off menus as diets and tastes move towards modern
processed grains and cereals - considered a weed
• Yet high in essential vitamins & minerals, low in calories
• Promotion of its health benefits and rich cultural history, and
improvements to cultivation, brought this ‘forgotten crop’ back
to the table (and pizza!)

11. Italy and its sustainable food culture
• Local, daily markets provide access to fresh,
seasonal and local food
• Tradition of fresh and seasonal recipes
• Mediterranean diet, whole of diet
approach
• Slow Food

12. Urban Food Policy Pact - Milan
• Milan Municipal Initiative government as part of
EXPO 2015 activities
• Bring together mayors and heads of local
governments from around the world to commit to
improve food governance within their cities and
the surrounding rural areas
• Ensure new approaches to food system planning
and governance recognize vital role of biodiversity
in the food system
• 36 cities around the world signed and many more
joining every day

13. Concluding remarks
• Biodiversity is essential for sustainable food systems and
healthy, nutrient rich diets
• Biodiversity is key to achievement of the SDGs and reshaping
our global food system - ‘Business as usual’ no longer an
option
• Biodiversity is a ‘win-win’ scenario – improves resilience,
adaptation, livelihoods (women), reduces food loss and
waste…
• Biodiversity stewardship and sustainable use requires that
Governments create an enabling environment

14. Thank you