People get most of their nutrition from just five animals and nine plants. The diversity of our global food supply has been dropping for a century; up to 75% of the genetic diversity in agricultural crops has been lost since the early 1900s. This narrowing of agricultural biodiversity leaves food systems vulnerable to climate change and undermines efforts to ensure that all people have access to nutritionally diverse, health-promoting diets.

On Tuesday, September 23, the School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis brought together leading voices in food security, nutrition policy and biodiversity to discuss whether and what policies and practices can help build more resilient food systems. Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health and vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives moderated the panel. 

A recording of the panel discussion, titled “Policy, Biodiversity and the Future of Food,” is available here. The panel launched the three-day “Ozark Expert Convening on Biodiversity and Human Diets” at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri.  Experts from around the world came together to deliberate on solutions and produce a statement on recommended action in policy and research. This work will be presented in June 2026 at the World Biodiversity Forum in Davos, Switzerland.    

Among the points made during the wide-ranging discussion:

The U.S. government’s decision to reduce support for international development has had far-reaching effects, including creating the unexpected opportunity to reconsider established policies and practices and come up with better approaches.

“We’re at an incredible moment where we get to rethink everything,” said panelist Anna Nelson, executive director of the Food Security Leadership Council and a former deputy special envoy for global food security at the U.S. State Department. “How do we use this policy blank slate that has emerged to think about a way forward that is fit for purpose with our planetary crisis? I don’t know that we’ve been terribly successful in identifying the most important interventions that really, truly can address biodiversity and then also dietary diversity, nutrition security, food security, and of course, all-encompassing climate challenges. The United States has historically been such a leader in this space that its withdrawal causes everyone to reconsider our approaches to these types of issues.”

One way to restore biodiversity loss is by promoting underutilized food sources.

 “The good news is that there are over 7,000 species that we do rely on for food. So even though we’re a little too heavily reliant on foods such as rice, beef, and maize, there are so many other species that we can tap into that are still available, that we still have access to, that cultures still work with, that people still know how to cook, and that can enter and be even more representative in our food systems,” said panelist Gina Kennedy, PhD, principal scientist with the Alliance of Biodiversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. But, she cautioned, any effort to safeguard traditional foods must start with Indigenous people themselves. “There’s a saying, ‘Nothing about us without us,’ and I think that’s very true,” Kennedy said. “If you’re going to work on indigenous peoples’ food systems, you start by going to the communities and explaining the issues and having a discussion about how we can work together.”

Successfully addressing complex issues such as malnutrition requires coordinated efforts across sectors.

“Nutritional outcomes are driven by so many factors — the food people eat, which is affected by access to roads and markets; access to health care; hygiene — and there are interventions for all of these,” said panelist Kaleab Baye, PhD, a professor of human nutrition at Addis Ababa University and a leading researcher on how biodiversity loss affects maternal and child nutrition. “But you have to put yourself in the shoes of the person who is receiving the intervention. The same person may be receiving an agricultural intervention, health intervention, nutrition intervention, at the same time.” When such interventions are not aligned, resources are wasted, he said. Naming Ethiopia’s Seqota Declaration, a high-level government commitment to end childhood malnutrition and stunting by 2030, as an example of a promising multipronged approach, Baye said, “Ministries of agriculture, education, health came together to define common goals and share measurements and develop mutually reinforcing activities, so what is done in health is supporting what is done in agriculture and vice versa. When you deliberately try to address all these different segments, you have a better coordinated program on the ground that is likely to have a better impact.”

Framing the issue in terms of food security could be a way to motivate people with divergent priorities to work together.

“Food security has a superpower because it is understandable and important to everybody, and not just because we all eat,” Nelson said. “[Food security] incorporates all the other issues that everybody cares about: climate, biodiversity, even national security and strategic concerns.”

Researchers can help practitioners by bringing science to bear on the question of how best to implement programs shown to be efficacious under controlled conditions.

“I think we’re underinvesting on efforts that will lead to a better contextualization of whatever program we implement,” Baye said. “Not just what needs to be implemented, but how, and in what context. How should programs talk to each other in a way that we maximize the impacts from the investments made? How can we ensure that these efficacious programs reach the most vulnerable? Some backing from academics for a new form of research that is dynamic, adaptable, agile, and aiming to address this [would be very helpful].”

Educating young people is critical.

“I think that our top risk is not investing enough in education of younger generations,” Kennedy said. “Everybody needs to know, ‘Where did my food come from? Is this food on my plate from Brazil or Malawi or Chile? And how was that food produced? Was it produced in a sustainable way or was it produced in an extractive way that’s taking down the rainforests?’ And so we need to really invest in educating, from the youngest age possible, the importance of the food choices you’re making, importance for your health, and also importance for the health of the planet.”

Writer

Tamara Schneider, MPH, PhD, is the senior science writer and assistant director of communications for WashU School of Public Health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics & biochemistry and in sociology from Yale University, a master’s in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in biomedical science from the University of California, San Diego.