Empowering Biodiversity through Food Choices

While climate change is among the biggest challenges we need to address as a global society, it’s not the only one – we are also facing the sixth mass extinction in our planet’s history.¹ And this time round, the extinction event is being caused by human activity. What we eat has a massive impact on biodiversity – agriculture currently uses half of the earth’s habitable land and has drastically changed the planets physical environment in the last few decades. Between 2000 and 2018 alone, agriculture was responsible for about 90% of global deforestation,² destroying the habitat of countless species around the world.

The expansion of agricultural land, particularly for livestock production, has a direct impact on the habitats of all lifeforms on earth and is a primary driver of species extinction – from animals to plants, fungi, and other microorganisms. More than half of the species that are currently at risk of extinction are threatened by agriculture.

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Food systems rely on biodiversity

Ecosytem services for agriculture

Biodiversity in our food systems

While our food systems are highly dependent on the services provided by nature and biodiversity, they can also be major contributors to counteract biodiversity loss and help to restore the natural environment. The global food supply currently relies heavily on a limited number of staple foods, which has major implications for nutrition and food security. Although, historically, more than 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food, less than 200 species currently make substantial contributions to global food production – and just nine plants account for two-thirds of total crop production.⁷

Biodiversity within agri-food systems can have multiple benefits for both biodiversity itself and human well-being. Food systems and diets around the world are diverse and often depend on foods available in both local regions and other parts of the world. To improve food security, a large diversity of plants is needed, since combining a wide variety of different (plant-based) foods can improve nutrient supply. It has been shown that there is a positive link between crop diversity and improved dietary diversity and reduced hidden hunger.⁸ (Hidden hunger is a form of malnutrition resulting from a lack of essential micronutrients in a person’s diet even though they are consuming enough calories.)

A small number of crop species provide the majority of our food

Adapted from: IUCN (n.d.)⁹

Based on: FAO (2019)⁷

Kunming-Montral Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted at COP15, with the aim of halting and reversing biodiversity loss. The framework sets ambitious global goals for implementing actions to support biodiversity by 2030.¹⁰ Target 10, 16, and 18 are especially relevant to our food systems, since they aim to:

• Enhance biodiversity and sustainability in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries ,and forestry (Target 10), 
• Enable sustainable consumption choices in order to reduce waste and overconsumption (Target 16) and to 
• Reduce harmful incentives by at least $500 billion per year, and scale up positive incentives for biodiversity (Target 18). 

A shift towards plant-based diets is one of the biggest levers for reducing the impact of our food systems on biodiversity. The need for this shift is especially urgent in countries with high levels of meat consumption and where the production of animal-based foods is highly dependent on the importing of feed from countries that are most at risk of biodiversity loss.