By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website
DID YOU KNOW THAT 75% OF FOOD WORLDWIDE IS LIMITED TO 12 PLANT CROPS (and 5 animal foods) AND THAT WESTERN COUNTRIES......... MORE INTERESTING FACTS IN THIS POST, PLUS WHICH FRUITS AND VEGGIES THE AFORE MENTIONED ARE AND SOME INSIGHTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ENCOURAGING BIODIVERSITY HERE IN AUSTRALIA. ON A LIGHTER NOTE, I WILL ALSO MENTION SOME IMPROVEMENTS WE'VE HAD IN OUR FOOD CULTURE IN RECENT DECADES AND RECENT TIMES, TO WHAT WE HAD YEARS AGO. I HOPE YOU READ THIS POST.
According to TheFutureMarket.Com we only grow a small percentage of Plant Food Crops in Western Countries that does not allow for much Food Diversity in our Diet or our Health. As mentioned, they state that 75% of the World’s Food comes from 12 Plants (and 5 Animals).
In this order, the highest turnover of Plant Foods produced are 1. Sugar, 2. Corn, 3. Rice, 4. Wheat, 5. Potatoes, 6. Soya Beans, 7. Cassava, 8.Tomatoes, 9. Bananas, 10. Onions, 11. Apples and 12. Grapes. We eat only 150 out of 30,000 edible plant species (worldwide). For example, the USA has lost 90% of it’s Fruit and Veg varieties since 1900. We need to introduce many of ours back here in Australia.
They have made these observations and have made the following statements concerning the Benefits of Biodiversity.
Lets See More Of This!
(More Info From Future Market)
RESILIENCE
Biodiversity is key to mitigating farming and supply chain risk.
Having a wider and deeper gene pool in our agricultural system makes crops and livestock more resilient to pests and diseases, climate change, and extreme weather, which secures our food system.
NUTRITION
A diverse diet, consisting of nutrient rich sources of food, is key to health.
As diets homogenize, diet-related disease, obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies are increasing quickly. There are many untapped foods with superior nutrient density that are outside of our major commodity crops: wheat, soy, and corn.
SUSTAINABILITY
A more biodiverse food system is a more sustainable system.
Planting a wider variety of symbiotic crops either simultaneously or in rotation from season to season can rebuild soil health, reduce the need for pesticides and fertilizers, and provide a habitat for pollinators and pest predators.
FLAVOR
Diverse food species means diverse flavor experiences.
As eaters become more discerning and worldly in their food tastes, introducing more varieties of crops and animal species from around the world can bring value to eaters looking for new foods and flavors.
FOOD SECURITY
Ensure that the world will have access to affordable, nutrient dense food
In the face of population growth, diminishing resources, and environmental degradation, a biodiverse agricultural system can better adapt to climate change and other threats.
CULTURE
Biodiversity helps preserve cultural traditions, local farming, and flavor.
Creating demand for a wider variety of foods from various cultures help support the farming communities and ways of living from many different countries.
Source HERE
I encourage you to go to their webpage called CHAMPIONS OF BIODIVERSITY concerning the organizations below are a few of the many who are working to support biodiversity in our food system and find out more about them. Apparently we can partner with and/or support them. Some organisations they list are:
Bioversity International is a global research organization that delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to safeguard agricultural biodiversity in order to attain global food and nutrition security. It is developing a framework and candidate indicators for an ‘Agrobiodiversity Index’, a pragmatic and credible tool to measure and manage food system sustainability for the long term.
Crops For the Future is a center dedicated to research on underutilized crops for food and non-food uses. Its mandate is to promote and facilitate the greater use of neglected and underutilized crops for enhanced diversification of agricultural systems and human diets, particularly for the benefit of poor people in developing countries.
The Crop Trust preserves the world’s crop diversity to protect future food security. It maintains a final backup of crop seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It also provides tools, coordination and financial and management support to key international genebanks.
The Rediscovered Food Initiative explores the power of 25 neglected and underutilized foods to shift consumers’ diets away from ultra-processed foods by helping farmers grow more nutritionally-balanced, locally produced crops that provide greater biodiversity and resilience, are adapted to climate change, help conserve resources, and contribute to regionally-based economic models that promote food sovereignty.
Row 7 Seed Company breeds organic seed varieties for flavor. Built by chef Dan Barber, breeder Michael Mazourek, and seedsman Matthew Goldfarb, the company collaborates with chefs and breeders to develop, promote and sell new, flavorful vegetable and grain varieties.
More HERE
Janet's Thoughts On These Things
Variety Is The Spice Of Life
With so many residents here from Overseas in recent decades, our diet has improved somewhat to what it was. In my opinion, it used to be bland and limited and has become more interesting now with more variety for our tastebuds when you consider different cuisines like Indian, Mediterranean, Vietnamese and Middle-Eastern, to name a few.
Our New Australian people have been a good influence on our diet, markets and shopping centres in recent times for a variety of foods that weren’t available here years ago. It is partly due to their diet that more Beetroot is grown here for us as well now and more Persimmons. It seems to be that the more they buy items like Pomegranates and Figs etc at the Markets where they gather to buy Fruit, Herbs and Veggies from Growers who come from their countries, the Fruit & Veg Stores start to supply these tasty and nutritious items. Some of our Growers begin to see the benefit in starting to grow them.
So Is Biodiversity!
Our Creator made so much Variety, and Laws of Nature that Balance out when respected. Yes, it well and truly seems that the "Principles and plants" work best together. Not separate, that's the major reason why we have problems with the ECO-SYSTEM because Countries have said (so to speak) "we want this, and we don't want that."
In Western Countries especially, it has not only been the use of Modern Agriculture in place of Natural Farming and Organic Gardening practices that have stripped our SOIL of some Essential Nutrients for growing Nourishing Food Crops, Fruits and Veggies, but the Lack of Biodiversity in Food Plants we Grow, and wide expanses of Solo Crops inviting the problems with Pests they keep saying we have to use pesticides to deal with. Organic Gardeners don't have that problem - they Intercrop Companion Plants Together and that "confuses the insects, preventing attacks on food crops.
Yes, the Solo Crops have been a Major part of the problems we are now facing in our country and different countries of the World. Modern Practices have also changed the Structure of Soil in Farmland and stripped it of Beneficial Microbes needed to grow Food Crops, Fruit and Veggies that are TRULY HEALTHY for us.
Let Us Learn More About These Things
Many people living here from Europe and the Middle East are well aware of these things - we would do well to learn all we can from them and the Countries they come from. People I have known from Kurdistan and Syria, Poland, India and Vietnam have a good variety of Herbs and/or Spices, Fruits and Veggies and experience Good Health. I wish the same for all of us. Lets tell our Government departments like the CSIRO we want the Natural Farming Methods Encouraged and BIODIVERSITY Reintroduced in this Land of AUSTRALIA.
Malaysia has the idea, I think. Read the following Post:
Scientists in Malaysia: Are Forgotten Crops The Future Of Food? BBC