Welcome to BRINGING AGROBIODIVERSITY TO YOUR DINNER TABLE, a six-part podcast series that looks at the challenges and opportunities for creating a more diverse food system. Produced in partnership with FOODTANK and FACT, the series features guests from across the globe who are united with a shared purpose: to promote more locally-based, resilient food systems by changing what we grow and how we eat.
Danielle Nierenberg is a world-renowned researcher, speaker, and advocate, on all issues relating to our food system and agriculture.
She is president of Food Tank, nonprofit organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. Food Tank is a global convener, research organization, and non-biased creator of original research impacting the food system.
Danielle has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world, and innovations in sustainable agriculture.
Prior to starting Food Tank, Danielle spent two years traveling to more than 35 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, meeting with farmers and farmers’s groups, scientists and researchers, policymakers and government leaders, students and academics, along with journalists, documenting what’s working to help alleviate hunger and poverty, while protecting the environment.
She has an M.S. in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and spent two years volunteering for the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.
Danielle Nierenberg is a world-renowned researcher, speaker, and advocate, on all issues relating to our food system and agriculture.
She is president of Food Tank, a nonprofit organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. Food Tank is a global convener, research organization, and unbiased creator of original research impacting the food system.
Danielle has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world, and innovations in sustainable agriculture.
Prior to starting Food Tank, Danielle spent two years traveling to more than 35 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, meeting with farmers and farmers’s groups, scientists and researchers, policymakers and government leaders, students and academics, along with journalists, documenting what’s working to help alleviate hunger and poverty, while protecting the environment.
She has an M.S. in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and spent two years volunteering for the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.
Neglected. Underutilized. Forgotten. Minor. Orphan. When agronomists use these terms, what are they talking about? It turns out that in many cases they’re referring to the same thing: crops that have been discarded as global agriculture—and our diets—become increasingly focused on fewer and fewer ingredients.
At the start of his illustrious career as an agronomist, Stefano worked on a weed commonly foraged from roadsides in Puglia, a rural region in Southern Italy. Within five years, that weed—known as arugula or “rocket”—became ubiquitous in supermarkets and restaurants across the world, and Stefano became known as the Rocket Man. Twenty years later, Stefano reflects on that amazing story and shares the promise of other underutilized crops from across the world that are returning to our tables.
Stefano Padulosi joined Bioversity International in 1993 to develop and implement a project on underutilized crops of the Mediterranean region, including a study on rocket.
From 1998 until 2006 he coordinated Bioversity International’s activities in the Central & West Asia and North Africa Region. While based in the Middle East he continued his efforts to promote neglected and underutilized species (NUS), contributing to develop Bioversity’s first strategy for the promotion of these species and launching the first UN Global Project dedicated to them.
The latest project he has been leading -ended in early 2020- was an IFAD-EU funded international program focusing on priority NUS in Guatemala, Mali and India, which aimed at empowering local farmers and other value-chain actors, to build resilient livelihoods through agrobiodiversity-based solutions, strengthen their preparedness in facing climate variability and help them manage associated risks.
Stefano Padulosi started his career as a plant collector in 1986 at the Germplasm Institute (National Research Council) of Bari, Italy. From 1987 to 1993 worked as a plant explorer and taxonomist at the gene bank of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. In Africa he carried out numerous expeditions to collect and study food crops, including cowpea and its wild relatives which were the focus of his PhD research thesis.
Since the 1900s, farmers worldwide have abandoned many traditional crops in favor of more genetically uniform, higher-yielding varieties. Today, over half the world’s plant-based nutrition comes from just 3 crops: corn, wheat, and rice. Our ecosystem biodiversity is threatened and people are malnourished. Can this trend toward the intensive production of select crops be reversed?
With the Rediscovered Project The Lexicon’s Douglas Gayeton and team are documenting a shift happening across the globe. Crops forgotten over the past half-century are being rediscovered. Increasing agrobiodiversity, by increasing the presence of these forgotten crops and more diverse varieties of popular crops (such as rice) in local and global supply chains, has the potential to combat hunger, respond to climate change, provide women with livelihoods, and support healthier and more secure food systems.
Ann Thrupp worked with the FACT Roundtable to identify Ten Principles of Agrobiodiversity. The application of these 10 principles provides benefits to producers, communities, consumers, and other stakeholders in the food supply chain, and is aligned with broader efforts to develop sustainable, equitable and regenerative food systems, as well as responsible businesses.
Douglas and Ann discuss the work of the FACT Roundtable and the power of agrobiodiversity.
Douglas is a taxonomist, filmmaker, photographer and writer specializing in impact storytelling in food and water. He has written and directed film series for PBS and HBO and Conde Naste. His stories and iconic photography about agriculture and food systems have appeared in thousands of pop up art shows, a concept pioneered by the Lexicon. Douglas is the author of SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, and Local: The New Face of Food & Farming in America. His photographs are held in museums and private collections around the world.
Douglas’ life with the creative arts is informed by his early life as a professional skateboarder. As a technical media pioneer, he has worked in Europe, China and the Middle East. As a taxonomist, his focus is the environment and he gleans inspiration from life on a farm as a husband, father and wrangler of goats. Douglas co-founded the Lexicon of Sustainability with Laura Howard-Gayeton in 2011. Together from a few old converted chicken barns they created Laloo’s goat’s milk ice cream, Rumplefarm Productions and the Lexicon of Sustainability
Ann Thrupp is the founder and principal of Down to Earth Innovations, providing consulting services and advising in sustainable and equitable agriculture and food systems. Ann has extensive experience as a pioneer and leader in sustainable and regenerative food systems and food justice for over 25 years, and has worked in the non-profit, business, and government sectors. She served as the founding Executive Director of the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI) at the University of California Berkeley since 2013. BFI develops and fosters food systems transformation through interdisciplinary research, education, policy initiatives, community engagement, and empowerment of emerging leaders. From 2003-2013, Ann was the Manager of Sustainability and Organic Management at Fetzer and Bonterra Vineyards, where she coordinated and led a diversity of initiatives to implement sustainable practices in the winery and vineyards, and developed partnerships and outreach to stakeholders about sustainable business practices. At Fetzer she also worked in grower relations, for grape sourcing and procurement, and provided education and technical assistance to growers, and assisted hundreds of growers and wineries in the transition to organic and sustainable practices. Ann also served as the Managing Director and consultant for the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) in 2005-2007. During 1999-2002, Ann worked with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Agriculture Initiative in the Western Regional office, managing partnerships and grants to support sustainable farming initiatives.
Ann also has many years of experience in international agriculture and natural resource management. From 1990-1998, she was Director of Sustainable Agriculture at World Resources Institute, working on projects in Latin American and other regions of the world. She has spoken at dozens of conferences in the U.S. and abroad for a wide diversity of audiences, and has experience in leadership, management, teaching, research, event organizing, as well as grant/budget management. She has worked as a consultant for diverse organizations and businesses, including Robert Mondavi Winery, Roots of Change Fund (formerly called Funders Agriculture Working Group), Clif Bar, Annie’s and others.
She has a PhD and MA from Sussex University and a BA from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa), and speaks Spanish fluently. Ann has over 75 publications, and has served twice on committees of the National Academy of Science (National Research Council), to co-author books related to sustainable agriculture, and on advisory councils and boards for both non-government and government entities. She’s an avid runner (and former All-American champion 3 times in cross country running) and also enjoys roller-blading, hiking, gardening, and creative writing.
We face a swath of interconnected challenges in our food system; a global pandemic, climate change, conflict and disease, food access and nutrition, and more. Agrobiodiversity can be a critical lever of change, but manage this lever, we need to measure it, and to promote this lever, we need to show its value.
To measure agrobiodiversity, Roseline Remans and her team at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT developed The Agrobiodiversity Index. The Index looks at the multifunctionality of agrobiodiversity and its value to actors throughout the food system. But after we measure it, how do we integrate agrobiodiversity into the global food system?
Lucas Anderson explains the importance of sharing the story of agrobiodiversity by increasing transparency in global supply chains to view and communicate agrobiodiversity’s benefits. Lucas describes how the development of food claims was driven by producers and consumers demanding information about their food choices; demanding transparency. Communicating the story of our foods between the point of production and the point of consumption has the potential to drive demand for agrobiodiversity in our food systems.
As the founder of COcollaborate, Lucas works with a number of companies in a corporate development and strategic guidance capacity. One of these companies is Where Food Comes From (WFCF), based in Castle Rock, CO. WFCF is the industry leader in certification and verification services for the food industry. In alignment with developing authentic human experiences, being able to authenticate and verify how, where and by whom, a food product is produced is a personal passion for Lucas. WFCF is a technology forward organization at the leading edge of experimenting with and implementing emerging technologies to automate and scale source verification processes, ensuring the human element of food production is deeply ensconced within those processes. Overlaying his applied human sciences and game theory concepts to food supply systems, Lucas believes is critical to effecting necessary changes in those systems.
Dr. Ir. Roseline Remans is a Senior Scientist with The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Her research focuses on measuring and managing biodiversity in food systems for healthier diets, better livelihoods and environmental sustainability. Her approach is cross-sectoral, contributing to publications in Science, Nature, PNAS, The Lancet Planetary Health, etc., and with public and private sector applications in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. Roseline is a co-principal investigator of the Agrobiodiversity Index; a co-lead of the Consortium for Improving Agricultural Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA), and a co-lead of the flagship on Enhancing Sustainability across agricultural systems of the CGIAR research program on Water, Land, and Ecosystems (WLE).
Before joining the Alliance, Remans was a Marie Curie fellow and research scientist at the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York (2008-2013) and Addis Ababa (2013 -2016). She has a PhD in Biosystems engineering from KULeuven (2007) with applications in Cuba, Mexico and Colombia.
Consumers today want to know the whole story of a crop, from how sustainably it was grown to the nutritional benefits it provides. To meet these exacting requirements, farmers are under pressure to seek out new tools. While technology makes agricultural practices increasingly complex, the main challenge farmers face has never changed: how do they sell their products into a global yet highly fragmented, knowledgeable yet fickle, price-sensitive marketplace?
Blockchain and other tools that can increase both the traceability and transparency of ingredients in a supply chain can help farmers find new markets and even transition toward more sustainable farming practices, give food companies greater visibility into how their ingredients are grown, and support consumers who want to connect their values to their purchases. Mark Kaplan demystifies the way supply chains work by sharing his experiences working on everything from vanilla to fish.
Mark is a globally-experienced and recognized industry leader in the mobile marketing, sustainability and telecommunications industry. Mark is a Partner in (en)visible LLC, a technology focused food company. Mark is also a Non-Resident Fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs focused on Food & Agriculture and Global Cities.
Prior to joining (en)visible, Mark was Global Vice President of Sustainable Solutions for Unilever. At Unilever, Mark was responsible for integrating technology across the Chief Sustainability Office’s partnerships, establishing new digital partnerships, expanding existing digital partnerships and leveraging Unilever’s existing technical assets to accelerate the economic, social and environmental impact of initiatives driving towards the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.
Prior to joining Unilever, Mark was CEO of Tone Mobile LLC, a start-up focused on digital inclusion. Tone led the mFish Initiative with the U.S. State Department and GSM Association, representing the world’s mobile operators.
Small millets encompass six varieties, including finger millet, proso millet, foxtail millet, little millet, barnyard millet and Kodo. Small millets fill many needs and fit in with the growing superfood movement. These nutritional powerhouses are packed with iron, zinc and calcium (finger millet), and help address anemia and fight diabetes. Small millets are climate smart crops that are both resilient to high temperatures and perform with minimal water, making cultivation possible on the most marginal agricultural lands.
Joanna Kane-Potaka, with the Smart Food Initiative, works to bring small millets into the mainstream as a staple food in India – benefiting public health, the environment, and rural livelihoods.
Dr. Oliver King and his team at The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) use appropriate science and technology to promote millet production to increase food security and address other problems faced by rural populations in India.
Their case study of small millets with the FACT team demonstrates the multifaceted benefits of increasing agrobiodiversity in local and international supply chains.
Joanna is Assistant Director General – External Relations at ICRISAT India.
Prior to joining ICRISAT she was Director, Communications and Marketing Information and Knowledge Group, International Water Management Institute, where she was responsible for science marketing, corporate communications, uptake approach of research findings, private industry fund raising, internal communications and information management. She was also Head, Information Management and Marketing, Bioversity International and Information and Communications Leader, WorldFish Center
She began her career as an agricultural economist with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (BAE at the time) and later moved into market research in the agribusiness area of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. Since then she has worked in a wide variety of marketing-related areas including strategic marketing, communications, fundraising, knowledge management, and uptake of scientific research.
She has worked for government, private industry (manufacturing and consulting) and with nonprofit organizations (including four CGIAR agricultural research centers). She has 25 years professional experience and has lived and worked in India, Sri Lanka, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.
She is a certified practicing marketer in Australia, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK and a fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute.
Dr. E.D. Israel Oliver King is Ethno-botanist serving as a Principal Scientist at M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, India. His team has created innovative community based models for conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, particularly landraces of small millets with the support of national and International agencies. He has contributed to the study on using markets to promote the sustainable utilization of crop genetic resources supported by FAO and IFPRI. He was a researcher for the Payment for Agro-biodiversity Conservation Services project of Biodiversity International in Rome supported by Syngenta Foundation. He was involved in a global study on CBM and Empowerment supported by Wageningen University and the Research Centre/Centre for Development Innovation, Netherlands. He coordinated the small millets project supported by IDRC and served as a National coordinator of IFAD-Bioversity International project on reinforcing the resilience of poor rural communities in the face of Food insecurity, Poverty and climate change through on farm conservation of local agro biodiversity. As a coordinator for South Asia, he facilitated a FAO- ITPGRFA sponsored CBM and Resilience project. He is currently engaged in operationalizing Tribal empowerment projects supported by IFAD EU, NABARD, National Agricultural Science fund, National Academy of Sciences, and Frauen Power e.v Germany. His current passion is Natural Resources and Tribal livelihoods, Sustainability management, Gender issues and Community institutions, Folk-art and traditions and Visual documentation.
Agrobiodiversity means not only eating a variety of different foods but also a variety of the same food as well. Agribusiness and large scale monoculture production has caused the dwindling of the rice varieties known in the common palate throughout the world.
While over 40,000 rice varieties exist, consumers are largely aware of only one or two varieties.
Lotus Foods, cofounded by Caryl Levine, is keeping rice biodiversity alive through partnerships with smallholder farmers around the world who grow pigmented, heirloom rices that hold high nutritional value. The company promotes bottom-up production led by the indigenous knowledge of smallholder producers, and provides education to consumers on diverse rice varieties to increase demand and create new markets.
Caryl sees that consumers ultimately have tremendous power, power of the purse, to create a demand for agrobiodiversity in our supply chains. Her role for the last 25 years has been the education of consumers to value and understand agrobiodiversity.
Lotus Foods is one of the most innovative organic and fair trade specialty rice brands in the country, pioneering the preservation of rice biodiversity and more ecological methods of rice production that save water, reduce greenhouse gasses and minimize work for women. As Co-Founder/Co-CEO, Caryl leads Lotus Foods’ strategic mission and vision to change how rice is grown around the world.
Over its 25 year history, Lotus Foods has received many awards, most notable: the 2011 Biodiversity Award for Leadership from the Union for Ethical Bio Trade; the 2014 Specialty Foods Leadership Award for Vision and the 2017 Leadership Award for Citizenship; Whole Foods Market 2018 Supplier of the Year Award for Environmental Stewardship; the first Climate Collaborative Award for Outstanding Value Chain Engagement, as well as runner up in the first Sustainable Foods Award for Sustainability Pioneer. Caryl holds a MPA in Public Administration from the University of Hartford.
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