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Our food system
isn't ready for the
climate crisis
Our food system isn't ready for the climate crisis

The world's farms produce only a handful of varieties of bananas, avocados, coffee and other foods – leaving them more vulnerable to the climate breakdown

The climate breakdown is already threatening many of our favorite foods. In Asia, rice fields are being flooded with saltwater; cyclones have wiped out vanilla crops in Madagascar; in Central America higher temperatures ripen coffee too quickly; drought in sub–Saharan Africa is withering chickpea crops; and rising ocean acidity is killing oysters and scallops in American waters.

All our food systems – agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture – are buckling under the stress of rising temperatures, wildfires, droughts, and floods. 

Even in the best-case scenario, global heating is expected to make the earth less suitable for the crops that provide most of our calories. If no action is taken to curtail the climate crisis, crop losses will be devastating. 

Our unequal earth: food

Reports on the looming bio diversity crisis facing our food systems
More from this series

Nature has a simple way to adapt to different climates: genetic diversity. 

Even if some plants react poorly to higher temperatures or less rainfall, other varieties can not only survive – but thrive, giving humans more options on what to grow and eat.

But the powerful food industry had other ideas and over the past century, humans have increasingly relied on fewer and fewer crop varieties that can be mass produced and shipped around the world.  “The line between abundance and disaster is becoming thinner and thinner and the public is unaware and unconcerned,” writes Dan Saladino in his book Eating to Extinction.

The story of the humble banana, one of the cheapest, most popular and most traded fruits globally, shows us why diversity is so crucial.

Seeded banana being peeled
Unseeded banana being peeled

Humanity has been warned many times about the looming food diversity crisis – a threat symbolized by the banana.

When humans first encountered wild bananas in Southeast Asia, the fruits were filled with hard seeds which made them largely inedible.

Over thousands of years, humans, animals and mother nature selected, shared and cultivated the best bananas – the biggest, tastiest and easiest to eat – until eventually there were hundreds of different edible varieties across the world.

One of them was the Gros Michel – sweet, creamy, flavorful and easy to grow with no seeds and a thick skin that made it easy to transport.

By the early 1900s, it was the world’s most popular banana. But every Gros Michel was a clone or genetically identical to each other. So a threat to one Gros Michel banana was a threat to all.

In the early 1900s, a deadly soil fungus called “Panama 1” spread through the world. And by 1950, the fungus had spread across commercial banana farms, almost wiping out the Gros Michel.

The epidemic should have served as an important lesson: cultivating and eating a variety of genetically diverse food would protect us from future pests and diseases.

Instead, the industry opted for a short-term fix by switching en masse to a genetically similar variety – the Cavendish – that is resistant to the fungus and is what most people eat today.

But now another related deadly fungus, Panama 4, is spreading fast – aided by higher temperatures and stronger tropical storms caused by global heating. And the world’s favorite banana is once again under threat – and as the earth warms, other crops may follow.

We made similar mistakes with virtually all industrially farmed foods - optimizing yields and profits while sacrificing diversity.

Yet diversity boosts the overall resilience in our food systems against new climate and environmental changes that can ruin crops and drive the emergence of new or more aggressive pathogens. It’s what enabled humans to produce food and thrive at high altitudes and in the desert, but rather than learn from the past, we’ve put all our eggs in a few genetic baskets.

This is why a single pathogen, Panama 4, could wipe out the banana industry as we know it.

It’s been detected in every continent including most recently Latin America, the world’s top banana export region, where entire communities depend on the Cavendish for their livelihoods.

“It’s history repeating itself,” said banana breeder Fernando Garcia-Bastidas.

A cavendish banana plant rotting from Panama 4 fungus

Top: Cavendish banana plants infected with Panama 4 in the Philippines where the fungus has destroyed tens of thousands of acres of plantations. Below: on the left is the Cavendish plant root infected with the pathogen Panama 4, on the right is a healthy root. Photographs: Fernando Garcia-Bastidas

And history tells us that sidelining diversity can have catastrophic consequences.

The Irish famine led to the death of around one million mostly poor rural people after a mould known as late blight destroyed the country’s entire potato crop between 1845 and 1849. Another one to two million Irish people emigrated to the US to escape starvation and British tyranny.

Late blight caused crop losses across Europe, but in Ireland it killed about 15% of the population because the rural poor were almost exclusively reliant on potatoes for their diet – and Irish farmers grew only one type of potato, the Irish Lumper, which was genetically susceptible to the blight.

Today, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall are ruining crops and supercharging all sorts of new and more aggressive pathogens.

In some parts of the world, sudden food production losses caused by climate disasters compounded by decreased diet diversity, has already increased malnutrition, according to the IPCC.

By the end of the century, the worst-case scenario for crop yield loss would be a disaster, but even the best-case scenario would be devastating for the world’s most important crops.

No mitigation

scenario

Intermediate

scenarios

Best-case

scenario

Maize

-9%

-28%

crop loss

Wheat

-22%

-7%

Soybean

-12%

-4%

Rice

-11%

-3%

By the end of the century, the worst-case scenario for crop yield loss would be a disaster, but even the best-case scenario would be devastating for the world’s most important crops.

Intermediate

scenarios

Best-case

scenario

No mitigation

scenario

Maize

-28%

crop loss

-9%

Wheat

-22%

-7%

Soybean

-12%

-4%

Rice

-11%

-3%

By the end of the century, the worst-case scenario for crop yield loss would be a disaster, but even the best-case scenario would be devastating for the world’s most important crops.

Intermediate

scenarios

No mitigation

scenario

Best-case

scenario

Maize

-28%

crop loss

-9%

Wheat

-22%

-7%

Soybean

-12%

-4%

Rice

-11%

-3%

By the end of the century, the worst-case scenario for crop yield loss would be a disaster, but even the best-case scenario would be devastating for the world’s most important crops.

Intermediate

scenarios

No mitigation

scenario

Best-case

scenario

Maize

-28%

crop loss

-9%

Wheat

-22%

-7%

Soybean

-12%

-4%

Rice

-11%

-3%

Like the climate crisis, the diversity crisis is manmade. History warned us, but we’ve been complacent and literally eaten ourselves into a tight genetic corner.

What we eat, how much food costs, where land is farmable and how many people go hungry are closely tied to our increasingly erratic climate.

Learn moreClimate and crops

Average temperatures are going up in global agricultural hubs while average rainfall is declining and more erratic. A healthy plant, like a healthy human, is stronger and better equipped to fight off disease threats but even a small change in temperature or rainfall can stress plants, making them weaker, more vulnerable and less productive. As minimum or nighttime temperatures also rise, plants may struggle to rest, instead using energy meant for producing quality grains or vegetables to regulate temperature. The relationship between climate change and pathogens is also symbiotic. A warmer, wetter or drier climate can alter the life cycle, attributes and distribution of pests (fungus, insects, moths, weeds), the environment and the crop which can then drive the emergence of new, adapted or more aggressive pathogens.

Consumers have more choice – but it comes at a huge cost

Consider the avocado.

First eaten in Mexico at least 9,000 years ago, over time hundreds of varieties differing in size, color, texture and flavor grew across Latin America in different conditions.

Not so long ago, avocados were only available in some US states in certain grocery stores. Today, avocados are a salad and dip staple and Americans can find them in virtually every grocery store – but only one kind: the Hass.

In order to mass produce and ship them globally year round, fruit corporations focused on certain varieties with certain traits. In short, industrially farmed, quite bland avocados with a narrow genetic diversity became what people got used to, and in 2021 5.3bn were imported by the US.

This story is true for bananas, asparagus, vanilla, oysters and many other foods. Yes, consumers have more choice, but mass producing only a handful of varieties for exportation helped elbow out thousands of years of diversity which poses a major problem for crop resilience - and therefore food security.

Avacados running throuhg rows of machinery at a packaging plant

Farm workers load freshly picked Hass avocados at a plantation in Mexico’s Michoacan state, which produces a quarter of the global supply. Photograph: Alan Ortega/Reuters

Humans are believed to have cultivated at least 6,000 plant species over time, yet today, the world mostly grows just nine species, of which rice, wheat and maize provide 50% of all calories. (Potatoes, barley, soy, sugar and palm oil account for another 25% of our calorie intake.) 

As a species, we rely on fewer crops and the genetic diversity within these crops has dramatically narrowed. For example:

  • Vanilla: About 80% of vanilla – the world’s second most expensive spice (after saffron) – is produced in Madagascar, one of the poorest and most climate vulnerable countries in the world. Vanilla includes at least 100 species, yet most of the beans we flavor our cakes and ice creams with today can be traced back to a single source from Veracruz, Mexico.
  • Apples: Compared to bananas, apples seem to be doing pretty well with hundreds of local varieties grown in fields and orchards across all 50 US states. But no matter what the season, just a handful – the Gala, Red and Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji and Honeycrisp – dominate supermarket shelves and have the same narrow range of sweetness and crunchiness selected by a few multinational fruit companies.

This is part of a larger global trend. As foods have become industrially farmed, the uniqueness of what we eat from region to region has faded away and now we all eat similar things:

How diets around the world started to overlap

Eaten in both countries
No data for
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. We filtered for food items that account for 20 or more calories per day in a given country.

In 1961, this is how many calories people in consumed from various food items each day.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

There is no data for in , but generally from country to country, diets did not overlap much.Meanwhile, people in ate some of the same foods. But the overlap between the two countries' diets was small.While people in ate a lot of the same foods, if you compare diets across different regions, humans were largely eating different things.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

1970 Over the next half-century, this list got longer. People started eating a larger variety of foods across the world.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

1980 But something else started happening: From country to country, the overlap in our diets started to grow.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

1990 That trend continued into the next decade.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

2000 And into the new millennium.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

2013 These days, people in , and virtually every other country, eat a greater variety of foods – but there's also far more overlap than before. In short, our diets are now increasingly homogenous!

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

↖ Toggle the data to see other countries. Scroll back up to see data for previous years.

Data for in does not exist. Data for in does not exist.

We used to eat so many different varieties of corn

Maize or corn is now grown in greater volume than any crop in history, and is still the staple food for about 1.2 billion people in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa.

A man kneels among a spread of drying maize

A farmer in spreads recently harvested maize for drying in Bangalore, India, where maize is the third most important cereal after wheat and rice. Photograph: Getty Images

But the maize most of us eat today is quite different from what our ancestors consumed.

Maize spread around the world because of its ability to evolve and adapt to different climates, altitudes and day lengths. Left to mother nature in an open field, diversity flourishes as wind carries pollen from one plant to a female flower of another plant, creating a slightly different maize baby every time.

According to USDA research geneticist Sherry Flint-Garcia, “open love pollination” enabled maize to adapt to different environments as intrepid humans took it further and further from its centre of origin in southwest Mexico, where it crossed with other wild and cultivated varieties.

From there, farmers would save and replant the seeds of the best plants – the hardiest, tastiest, and easiest to harvest – to create locally adapted varieties, which are called landraces or heirlooms. By the early 20th century, there were thousands of distinct landraces being cultivated from Canada to Chile, each one adapted to the local ecosystem with its own good and bad quirks.

Dozens of landrace specimens laid out on a black background

Diverse maize varieties stored at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s genebank in Texcoco, Mexico. Photograph: CIMMYT Germplasm Bank

This story is true for most of our staple crops.

For thousands of years, families and communities relied on these local landraces which over time had developed helpful traits for their particular ecosystems. These landraces would also have not-so-good traits, but farmers saved, shared, and bought and sold seeds locally which helped the best varieties evolve and thrive. Different crops like maize, beans and squashes were planted in the same field to help control pests, fertilize the soil and provide a nutritionally balanced diet.

For maize, this changed radically around the 1920s, after scientists discovered they could take a landrace and self-pollinate the plant, creating a genetically identical inbred, and if they did this several times its characteristics would change – perhaps the plant would be taller or have a big ear of corn. These inbreds were then crossed with each other, again and again, to create hybrids.

Locally adapted breeds of maize have a lot of variation.

The plants with the most desirable traits can be bred with themselves several times.

The result is an inbred with consistent traits, like larger kernels.

When inbreds are mixed, we can get hybrids with beneficial traits like larger ears or more kernels.

 

These genetically homogenous hybrids have taken over the food system.

Locally adapted breeds of maize have a lot of variation.

The plants with the most desirable traits can be bred with themselves several times.

The result is an inbred with consistent traits, like larger kernels.

When inbreds are mixed, we can get hybrids with beneficial traits like larger ears or more kernels.

 

These genetically homogenous hybrids have taken over the food system.

Locally adapted breeds of maize have a lot of variation.

The plants with the most desirable traits can be bred with themselves several times.

The result is an inbred with consistent traits, like larger kernels.

When inbreds are mixed, we can get hybrids with beneficial traits like larger ears or more kernels.

 

These genetically homogenous hybrids have taken over the food system.

Locally adapted breeds of maize have a lot of variation.

The plants with the most desirable traits can be bred with themselves several times.

The result is an inbred with consistent traits, like larger kernels.

When inbreds are mixed, we can get hybrids with beneficial traits like larger ears or more kernels.

 

These genetically homogenous hybrids have taken over the food system.

Hybrid seeds, which farmers have to replace every year, contributed to a huge increase in yield but at the expense of genetic diversity and qualities like taste, nutrition and climate adaptability. In the blink of an evolutionary eye, Mexico lost 80% of its varieties, and 99% of corn grown in the US today is from hybrid seeds.

As agriculture became increasingly industrial and corporate, many farmers were incentivized or pushed into monocropping homogenous high-yield varieties that depend on expensive and greenhouse gas generating synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and machines. Over the last century, modern genetically narrow varieties have taken over much of the world’s farmland.

In 1970, the large majority of farm land in Asia and Africa was used for local varieties of crops.

Asia

Africa

320,000

sq km

1.56m sq km

of local varieties

1,400 sq km

200,000 sq km

of modern varieties

About 40 years later, far more land in 2010-14 was used for modern varieties that often lack genetic diversity.

Asia

Africa

190,000 sq km

290,000 sq km

220,000 sq km

2.18m sq km

In 1970, the large majority of farm land in Asia and Africa was used for local varieties of crops.

Africa

Asia

320,000

sq km

1.56m sq km

of local varieties

1,400 sq km

200,000 sq km

of modern varieties

About 40 years later, far more land in 2010-14 was used for modern varieties that often lack genetic diversity.

Asia

Africa

190,000 sq km

290,000 sq km

220,000 sq km

2.18m sq km

In 1970, the large majority of farm land in Asia and Africa was used for local varieties of crops.

Africa

Asia

320,000 sq km

1.56m sq km

of local varieties

1,400 sq km

200,000 sq km

of modern varieties

About 40 years later, far more land in 2010-14 was used for modern varieties that often lack genetic diversity.

Asia

Africa

190,000 sq km

290,000 sq km

220,000 sq km

2.18m sq km

In 1970, the large majority of farm land in Asia and Africa was used for local varieties of crops.

Africa

Asia

320,000 sq km

1.56m sq km

of local varieties

1,400 sq km

200,000 sq km

of modern varieties

About 40 years later, far more land in 2010-14 was used for modern varieties that often lack genetic diversity.

Asia

Africa

190,000 sq km

290,000 sq km

220,000 sq km

2.18m sq km

Africa

Asia

In 1970, the large majority of farm land in Asia and Africa was used for local varieties of crops.

320,000 sq km

1.56m sq km

of local varieties

1,400 sq km

200,000 sq km

of modern varieties

Asia

Africa

About 40 years later, far more land in 2010-14 was used for modern varieties that often lack genetic diversity.

190,000 sq km

290,000 sq km

220,000 sq km

2.18m sq km

Africa

Asia

In 1970, the large majority of farm land in Asia and Africa was used for local varieties of crops.

320,000 sq km

1.56m sq km

of local varieties

1,400 sq km

200,000 sq km

of modern varieties

Asia

Africa

About 40 years later, far more land in 2010-14 was used for modern varieties that often lack genetic diversity.

190,000 sq km

290,000 sq km

220,000 sq km

2.18m sq km

As a result we lost countless varieties of grains, fruits, vegetables and spices better equipped – thanks to their genetic makeup which evolved over generations  – to withstand certain pathogens, drought, heat, and humidity. 

History shows us that diversity really matters. In 1970, a new fungus called southern corn leaf blight wiped out 15% of maize crops in the US and southern Canada, as susceptibility was tied to a genetic sequence used in all popular hybrids. Today around 43% of maize grown in America is still derived from just six inbred lines.

Like an investor with stocks, savings and real estate, diversity in the field spreads the risk: if an early season drought wipes out one crop, there will be others which mature later or are naturally more drought tolerant, so farmers aren’t left with nothing.

Wheat feeds billions – but it’s vulnerable to climate changes too

We can tell a similar story about wheat, the most widely consumed grain globally which is grown in every continent (apart from the Antarctic) to make bread, chapattis, pasta, noodles, pizza and biscuits eaten by billions of people.

Aerial view of a tractor running through a wheat field

A farmer bales up straw after harvesting a field of wheat in Northamptonshire, England in September 2021 when the country experienced a heatwave. Photograph: PA Wire

Global wheat production tripled thanks to the Green Revolution in the mid-20th century after an American scientist in Mexico, Norman Borlaug, developed a short-stemmed variety which could withstand the weight of fertilizers. This changed the way the world farmed: uniformity, yield and technology became the gold standard, and malnutrition declined substantially despite population growth. But this came at a huge cost, namely the loss of wheat diversity, natural ecosystems and traditional knowledge, and climate change is now making us pay.

Last year prices for durum (pasta) wheat soared by 90% after widespread drought and unprecedented heatwaves in Canada, one of the world’s biggest grain producers, followed a few months later by record rainfall. Over the last century, Canadian farmers have increasingly relied on genetically similar high yield wheat varieties, elbowing out crucial diversity.

Canadian wheat varieties have been getting more genetically similar over the last century.

0.25 genetic dissimilarity

More diverse

0.20

0.15

0.10

More genetically similar

to each other

0.05

0.00

1900

1925

1950

1975

2000

Year variety was released

Canadian wheat varieties have been getting more genetically similar over the last century.

0.25 genetic dissimilarity

More diverse

0.20

0.15

0.10

More genetically similar

to each other

0.05

0.00

1900

1925

1950

1975

2000

Year variety was released

Canadian wheat varieties have been getting more genetically similar over the last century.

0.25 genetic dissimilarity

More diverse

0.20

0.15

0.10

More genetically similar

to each other

0.05

0.00

1900

1925

1950

1975

2000

Year variety was released

Canadian wheat varieties have been getting more genetically similar over the last century.

0.25 genetic dissimilarity

More diverse

0.20

0.15

0.10

More genetically similar

to each other

0.05

0.00

1900

1925

1950

1975

2000

Year variety was released

Luigi Guarino, director of science of the Crop Trust, said: “Climate change is the greatest threat to food security, there is nothing bigger. Under very unpredictable conditions, the more diversity in farmers’ fields the better.”

Our favorite coffee is threatened by hurricanes and rain storms

The first US coffee house opened in Boston in 1689, and today Americans drink about 400m cups every day. Coffee is produced in 80 or so tropical countries, so one might think diversity is inevitable.

But whether you prefer espresso or instant, it comes from just two species: smooth tasting, high quality arabica accounts for about two thirds of consumption and is struggling to cope with the changing climate; and Robusta, which is hardier with more caffeine and higher yields but has a bitter, grainy flavor.

Historical drawing of the Green Dragon Tavern, a colonial structure with people standing in the foreground.

The Green Dragon Tavern was one of Boston’s first and most celebrated coffee house taverns, opened in 1697. Photograph: Boston Public Library

Wild arabica coffee is native to the forested mountains of Ethiopia and South Sudan, but the coffee we enjoy in our lattes and flat whites today can be traced back to just two sets of arabica plants snuck out of Yemen in the early 17th Century.

Its future now hangs in the balance. 

Arabica grows at 1,300 to 2,000 meters above sea level and is very fussy about temperature, rainfall and humidity. When it's too hot and dry, coffee ripens too quickly which diminishes yield and quality. Our arabica doesn’t like it to be too wet or too windy either – which is a major problem for coffee growing regions prone to hurricanes like the Caribbean, Hawaii and Vietnam. As the climate rapidly changes, higher temperatures and more erratic rainfall could render 50% of current arabica growing regions unsuitable by 2050.

“It’s like a monocrop, and the low genetic diversity is a huge part of its vulnerability,” said Sarada Krishnan, a coffee scientist and grower.

The global coffee industry, valued at $465bn in 2020, has so far failed to come up with $25m to protect the world’s four most important gene banks which hold many of the known 131 species.

By 2050, many regions where arabica coffee is currently grown, like Mexico and Central America, will likely be much less suitable for the crop.

Mexico and Central America

Much less suitable

Little less suitable

Barely suitable

No change

More suitable

Brazil

Ethiopia

By 2050, many regions where arabica coffee is currently grown, like Mexico and Central America, will likely be much less suitable for the crop.

Mexico and Central America

Much less suitable

Little less suitable

Barely suitable

No change

More suitable

Brazil

Ethiopia

By 2050, many regions where arabica coffee is currently grown, like Mexico and Central America, will likely be much less suitable for the crop.

Much less suitable

Little less suitable

Barely suitable

No change

More suitable

Brazil

Ethiopia

By 2050, many regions where arabica coffee is currently grown, like Mexico and Central America, will likely be much less suitable for the crop.

Much less suitable

Little less suitable

Barely suitable

No change

More suitable

Brazil

Ethiopia

By 2050, many regions where arabica coffee is currently grown, like Mexico and Central America, will likely be much less suitable for the crop.

Much less suitable

Little less suitable

Barely suitable

No change

More suitable

Brazil

Ethiopia

By 2050, many regions where arabica coffee is currently grown, like

Mexico and Central America, will likely be much less suitable for the crop.

Much less suitable

Little less suitable

Barely suitable

No change

More suitable

Ethiopia

Brazil

It’s not just heat. Pathogens threatening coffee include insects, moths, worms and coffee leaf rust – a fungus now found in every single coffee-growing country, and which removes the ability to produce beans.

Closeup of the brown and disclored rotting leaves of a coffee plant

A coffee plant infested with the deadly fungus roya – also known as coffee rust – in Heredia, Costa Ric, in 2015, which has spread across the region over the past decade due to inadequate prevention and the climate crisis. Photograph: Getty Images

About 125 million people depend on it for their livelihoods in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. But coffee leaf rust has destroyed crops in around 70% of farms in Central and South America over the past decade, contributing to a rise in poverty, child malnutrition and forced migration. The rust is not new but scientists think that unpredictable rainfall and rising temperatures are causing the fungus to reproduce more quickly – and spread more widely across plantations.

These kinds of climate threats will likely drive up prices. 

The race to save genetic diversity

Every apple eaten today can be traced back to the Tian Shan forested mountains between China and Kazakhstan, where every tree produces unique fruit in shape, size and flavor. The wild orchard has dizzying diversity, according to food journalist Dan Saldino, and hidden in the trees are drought and disease resistant traits we will need as the climate crisis increasingly puts pressure on food production.

But this living gene bank is under threat, with huge swathes already culled to make space for cash crops, cattle ranches, and housing developments. Malus sieversii, the wild apple which is the primary ancestor of all our favorite apples, has been on the IUCN red list of threatened species since 2007. 

It’s not just apples. Vanilla is native to Mexico and Central America, but the region’s eight wild species are listed as endangered or critically endangered on the red list.

Learn moreGene banks

More than half a million different samples of wheat – landraces, wild ancestors and commercial varieties – are stored in seed collections across the world. For rice, the international gene bank in the Philippines has around 132,000 samples including 24 wild species found in Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas which taste, smell and look wildly different to the nutritionally devoid and bland white rice most of us know. Just outside Mexico City, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) gene bank holds 28,000 unique maize samples and 150,000 wheat seeds. Its slogan: “Seed security is the first step towards food security”.

Not all is lost. 

As the Green Revolution fueled the erosion of genetic biodiversity this triggered an organized global effort to find and conserve diversity in gene or seed banks.

The Global Seed Vault, a modern concrete structure, juts out of a baren snow-covered landscape

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built inside a mountain on a remote island halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole for safety, contains the world’s largest collection of crop diversity. Photograph: Global Crop Diversity Trust

Thanks to these genetic goldmines, researchers are looking to wild relatives, forgotten landraces and obsolete commercial varieties to breed climate-resistant or more adaptive varieties which can withstand more unpredictability. “We’ll never get back all the diversity we had before, but the diversity we need is out there,” said Matthew Reynolds, head of wheat physiology at Cimmyt, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center outside Mexico City. 

The gene bank approach has been pretty successful for saving staple grains, but far less so for vegetables and fruits. And while storing seeds is no easy feat (you need carefully controlled conditions), lots of foods including coffee, apples, peaches and vanilla need to be conserved as plants or trees, which is even more complex and expensive.

In the end, we need to see greater diversity in farmers’ fields, where old varieties can once again be part of the evolutionary story.

The Global Seed Vault, a modern concrete structure, juts out of a baren snow-covered landscape

A wild banana variety native to south-east Asia, where bananas were domesticated thousands of years ago. Photograph: Fernando Garcia-Bastidas

As the clock ticks, the private sector is forging ahead with developing biotech solutions like gene editing and transgenics, which rely on genetic resources in publicly funded gene banks and naturally occurring biodiversity to provide the raw material. Just four agrochemical companies control 60% of the global seed market (and 75% of the pesticides market), and so have a vested interest in making farmers dependent on them for the full shebang.

In contrast, agroecologists and regenerative farmers argue that the most efficient and sustainable food systems are those which use techniques that mimic nature, rather than try to dominate it with artificial ones. “It’s about understanding what farmers have done for millenia to draw on traditional knowledge – and support that with current science – to deal with evolving environmental stressors including climate change,” said Alexis Racelis, agroecology professor at the University of Texas.

No matter what the approach, valuing diversity and saving endangered foods like wild arabica coffee in Ethiopian forests, vanilla orchids in Guatemala, and the apple trees in Kazakhstan is key to improving the nutritional quality of our diets, more sustainable farming, and climate adaptation, according to Dan Saladino.

“It’s not about going back, it’s about looking back with a bit of humility at the diversity and food systems that kept humans alive for thousands of years in greater harmony with nature - and looking at what can be applied in the 21st century food system.” 

  • This article is the first in a series about the diversity crisis in our food, with more coverage coming in the next few days and weeks
  • This article was amended on 19 April 2022 to correct Luigi Guarino's job title.