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Agrobiodiversity and a sustainable food future

Nature Plants volume 3, Article number: 17047 (2017) Cite this article

The biodiversity of food plants is vital for humanity's capacity to meet sustainability challenges. This goal requires the rigorous integration of plant, environmental, social and health sciences. It is coalescing around four thematic cornerstones that are both interdisciplinary and policy relevant.

The agricultural and food sciences are leading the way in how food and crop production uses plant biodiversity. However, the world's sustainable food future also depends on the responses of plant biodiversity to global changes that range from climate and environmental impacts to market integration, demographic and nutritional transitions, and human health and disease. The broad scope of these sustainability challenges highlight the need to involve the environmental, social and health sciences in policy- and management-relevant research on the use and conservation of food plant biodiversity.

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Figure 1: Publications on the biological diversity of agriculture and food systems.
Figure 2

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Ernst Strüngmann Foundation that funded the Agrobiodiversity in the 21st Century Forum convened 3–7 October 2016 at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies on the campus of the University of Frankfurt, Germany. We are grateful to J. Lupp of the Strüngmann Foundation, the 35 scientists and scholars that comprise the members of the Agrobiodiversity Forum, and the leadership provided through the six members of the Program Advisory Committee. The GeoSyntheSES Lab has received funding through the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the Department of Geography at Pennsylvania State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karl S. Zimmerer is director of the GeoSyntheSES Lab, Geographic Syntheses for Social Ecological Sustainability, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,

    Karl S. Zimmerer

  2. Stef de Haan is at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Regional Office for Asia c/o Agricultural Genetics Institute, Km 2, Pham Van Dong Road, Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi, Vietnam.,

    Stef de Haan

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  1. Karl S. Zimmerer
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Correspondence to Karl S. Zimmerer or Stef de Haan.

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Zimmerer, K., de Haan, S. Agrobiodiversity and a sustainable food future. Nature Plants 3, 17047 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.47

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