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Rethinking hierarchies of evidence for sustainable food systems

Nature Food volume 2, pages 843–845 (2021)Cite this article

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Indigenous Peoples’ and other traditional knowledge systems are deemed ‘unscientific’ when assessed against conventional hierarchies of evidence. Science–policy processes building on the commitments of the UN Food Systems Summit must ensure that due recognition, acceptance and prominence are given to traditional knowledge.

Despite much critique and suggested alteration over the years, conventional hierarchies of evidence have — explicitly and implicitly — become widely used in other non-clinical sectors to defend or reject policy recommendations as ‘evidence-based’. Dialogues, written outputs and scientific sessions associated with the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) extolled the virtues of evidence-based and scientific approaches to food systems transformations and emphasized technological innovation. Positioned as the ‘People’s Summit’, valuable evidence-based contributions were made throughout the UNFSS by Indigenous Peoples’ and other traditional knowledge systems, which, despite having been practiced by millions of people across the world for millennia, continue to be marginalized in policy and practice. We propose that traditional knowledge, specifically Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge, must continue to be seen as legitimate science and of equal value to other forms of evidence if the goals of the UNFSS — and of sustainable food systems more broadly — are to be realized.

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Fig. 1: Conventional hierarchy of scientific evidence.

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Acknowledgements

Not all members of The Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems have contributed to this paper and are listed here, although they have approved it.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indigenous Peoples Unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy

    Charlotte Milbank, Anne Brunel & Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa

  2. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Charlotte Milbank

  3. Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

    Barbara Burlingame

  4. Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Rome, Italy

    Danny Hunter

  5. Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham, UK

    Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz & Pamela Katic

  6. Tin Hinan Association for the Empowerment of Nomadic Women, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

    Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine

  7. The Indigenous Partnership on Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (TIP), Rome, Italy

    Phrang Roy

  8. Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo, Quintana Roo, Mexico

    Francisco J. Rosado-May

  9. CEFE, Univer Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Edmond Dounias

Consortia

The Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems

  • Charlotte Milbank
  • , Barbara Burlingame
  • , Danny Hunter
  • , Anne Brunel
  • , Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa
  • , Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz
  • , Pamela Katic
  • , Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine
  • , Phrang Roy
  • , Francisco J. Rosado-May
  •  & Edmond Dounias

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charlotte Milbank.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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The Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems. Rethinking hierarchies of evidence for sustainable food systems. Nat Food 2, 843–845 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00388-5

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