Dietary diversity through biodiversity in food systemsBruce Cogill, Ph.D. Bioversity InternationalMarch 26th, 2014

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What is biodiversity?

‘The variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part

including diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems’ (UNEP 1995)

Species interact at the physical and chemical level to make up ecosystems – forests, wetlands, etc. We speak of food systems, dietary patterns, diets, food groups, foods, nutrients etc.

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Contributes to ecosystems and forests

Reduces pests and disease issues

Builds markets and livelihoods

Builds resilience to climate change

Why biodiversity matters

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Ecosystem services

Ecosystem services (also called environmental services or nature’s services) are benefits provided by ecosystems to humans, that contribute to making human life both possible and worth living

Traditional ecosystem services include:

o crop pollinationo pest and disease controlo nutrient dispersal and cycling o seed dispersalo crop pollinationo carbon sequestration and climate regulation o waste decomposition and detoxification

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Biodiversity contribution to supporting ecosystem services

Source: Scholes presentation (2010)

o Food and nutrition security is the product of many variables

o Ecosystems provide food, through landscapes and other supporting, regulating and provisioning services

o The role of Econutrition: biodiversity + ecosystem services

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Diet variety loss

oThe world has over 50, 000 edible plants. Just three of them, rice, maize and wheat, provide 60 percent of the world's plant-derived food energy supplyoOf these 50,000, only a few hundred contribute significantly to food suppliesoAlthough there are over 10,000 species in the Gramineae family, few have been widely introduced into cultivation over the past 2 000 yearsoCereals are high in carbohydrates so they do provide energy, have low to moderate protein but are low in micronutrients; often poor quality and over processed.

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Yields, prices or nutrient outputs

Agricultural practices have been aimed at increasing production while decreasing costs -- Intensification

Recently, preserving the environment has become a more prominent goal

In 2012, CGIAR invested around 30% ($US213m) on rice, maize and wheat research programand around 1% ($US7.4m) on Dryland Cereals (sorghum, millets, barley, etc)

Maximizing food quality and safety of farming systems has not been a primary objective of modern agriculture….

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Food systems, food environments and econutritionInterrelationships among nutrition, human health, agriculture and food production, environmental health , and economic production

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Ecuador Sicily

UK Chad

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Comparison of national overweight prevalence for females and males

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Why biodiversity and dietary diversity/nutrition?oLack of clear definition of what is meant by biodiversityoModelling is challenging with complex pathways and limited or different levels of dataoLots of studies associating environmental change and dietary diversity (e.g. trees)oBetter examples of biodiversity and modelling risk at HH and ecosystem level

Bioversity International/ P.Bordoni

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Causality - biodiversity and nutritionoChallenges in understanding the linkages, pathways and potential hypotheses we face to understand the role of biodiversity in human nutrition and health (Hough 2014)oReductionist approach to nutrition with focus on single nutrients and foods (Hoffman 2003 and Burlingame 2004)

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oRely on anecdotal and individual studies lack the epidemiological or ecological evidence to link biodiversity and healthoThe needs for “holism” combined with the reductionist approach is much neededo‘Whole of Diet’ approach rather than a ‘nutrient by nutrient’ or ‘single food approach’oThis relies heavily on better frameworks and tools drawing from the systems research and complexity science oMore challenging to do and communicate but necessary if we are to climb out of the reductionist hole…..

Causality - biodiversity and nutrition cont....

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Diversity = nutritional adequacyoDietary guidelines (WHO, national (Nordic, Brazil), corporate (Barilla), academic and NGO (Livewell Plate, WWF)

oDietary diversity measure is a proxy for micronutrient intake and diet quality (Arimond and Ruel 2004; Kennedy et al. 2007; Rah et al. 2010; Savy et al. 2008, etc.)oEpidemiological studies link dietary diversity to health nutrition outcomes (many studies)

oBiodiversity and dietary diversity less clear (see Tree cover and Dietary Diversity, Ickowitz et al. 2013)

oThere was a recent study of Food Consumption Scores and Conflict in Cote d’Ivoire

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o Beneficial effects in protecting against chronic disease and mortality

o Inversely associated with:all-cause mortalitycardiovascular disease risk factorshypertensioncolon cancerrectal cancerbladder cancer gastric cancer oral and pharyngeal cancer, and squamous cell cancer of the esophagus

o Studies found no significant association between total dietary diversity and Type 2 Diabetes, colon cancer, rectal cancer, and breast cancer

Dietary diversity – at the whole diet level has been found to be associated with:

Biov

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ty In

tern

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Individual choices

Nutrition and

health outcomes

Activity level

Nutrient interactions

Morbidity

Water & Sanitation

….

Biodiversity

availabilityNutrient

profile

AccessibilityCulture

Environment & lifestyle

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BiodiversityGood nutrition and health

Cultural Identitiy Food taboos

Income

Knowledge Barriers

Incentives

Value chains

Markets

ValuesMorbidity housing

Water and sanitation

Nutrient interactions

Anti-nutrients

Etc…

Policies

Can the consumer demand for nutritious and healthy foods stimulate biodiversity conservation ?

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IN

CREASING

COSTS

COMPLEXITY

TOWARDS PREVENTIO

N

CULTURAL R

ELEVA

NCE

RESILIENCE

SUSTAIN

ABILITY

Suppl

e-ments

Nutrient Dense/Therapeutic

Fortification Staple Foods Oils

Biofortification of Staple Foods

Food, diet diversity and quality based solutions

Ecos

ystem

Serv

ices

Conse

rvatio

n

Beha

viors

Lifes

tyle

Know

ledge

Le

arning

Agen

da

Treating and preventing under and overnutrition – from pills to improved diet and livelihoods

September 2013 Nutrition Marketing Diversity Programme, Bioversity International

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Bananas and beta-carotene

Cavendish Common Variety

<5 µg/100g pro-Vit A carotenoid

<8500 µg/100g pro-Vit A carotenoid

South Pacific banana varieties

Source: Burlingame, FAO (2013) and Bioversity International

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Diversity in bananas: Carotenoid content and in vitro bioaccessibility of East

African banana-based dishes

o Consumption of 200g (~ 2 fingers) of boiled EAHB and AAB plantains would meet at least 14% and 30% of Vit A Recommended Dietary Intakes of a child < 5years

o The Musa fruit has potential of making substantial contribution to nutrition

Ekesa et al. (2012). Bioaccessibility of provitamin A carotenoids in bananas (Musa spp.) and derived dishes in African countries. Food chemistry 133, 1471-1477.

o Principal carotenoids in both raw and processed Musa fruit are trans beta carotene (t-BC), trans α-carotene (t-AC)

o Pro Vitamin A Carotenoids in the boiled AAB-plantains and AAA-EAHB cultivars ranged from 357.6 to 2570.1 µg per 100 gram of fresh matter

o In vitro bioacessibility of beta carotene in boiled AAA-EAHB and AAB plantains was 28.9% and 16.61% respectively

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd)

Quinoa was an almost forgotten, ancient nutritious grain from the Andes

Became quite popular in Western markets over the past 10 years

But only very few of the 3000 existing varieties made it into (international) commercial circuits

Quinoa, raw

Rice, white, long grain, raw

Corn, sweet,

yellow, raw

Wheat, hard red

winter, raw

energy (kcal) 368 365 86 327protein 14,12 7,13 3,27 12,61total lipid 6,07 0,66 1,35 1,54carbohydrate 64,16 79,95 18,7 71,81

Essential Amino acidstryptophan 0,167 0,083 0,023 0,160threonine 0,421 0,255 0,129 0,365isoluecine 0,504 0,308 0,129 0,458leucine 0,840 0,589 0,384 0,854lysine 0,766 0,258 0,137 0,335methionine 0,309 0,168 0,067 0,201phenylalanine 0,593 0,381 0,150 0,592valine 0,594 0,435 0,185 0,556arginine 1,091 0,594 0,131 0,595histidine 0,407 0,168 0,089 0,285

protein factor 4,000 3,820 2,440 3,590

Source: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 26

Quinoa – a case of moving from niche to commodity

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Fork to Farm: A New Environmental and Agriculture Paradigm

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Whole of Diet approach

o Triple burden of malnutrition => Whole of Diet approach

o Populations need a diverse diet composed of cereals, tubers, roots, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, animal source foods incl insects to fully meet the multiple requirements in macro and micro nutrients for good nutrition and a healthy life

o Cultural identity & biocultural heritage

o Read DL Katz andS Meller “Can we say what diet is best for health?” Annual Review of Public Health 2014. 35:83-103

Ecosystems

Species

Genetics

Proteins

Vitamins

Minerals

Carbohydrates

Lipids

Anti-nutrients

Anti-oxidants

Pharmacologically active substances

o We need to climb out of the reductionist hole o A Whole of Diet Approach -- Foods are more than just the sum of nutrients,

agricultural systems more than the sum of crops => whole of diet / landscape approaches are needed

o Bioversity International and the CGIAR is working towards optimizing the use of the available biodiversity to provide quality diets, decent incomes and sustainable production systems while conserving biodiversity for future generations

o We need better tools, such as linear programming, to identify nutrient gaps, and optimize the choices of foods across the seasons to close gaps

Concluding observations I

M.Tagliaferri\ Bioversity International

o Local populations often harbour a wealth of knowledge on biodiversity which in combination with good science can be leveraged to obtain alleviate poverty and conserve precious resources

o Strong evidence of the importance of dietary diversity and dietary quality with links to both over and undernutrition and some diet related NCDs

o Less evidence of links between biodiversity and dietary diversity. This is due to the lack of standard measures, data and the challenges of modellng complex systems. There are plenty of anecdotes and case studies but attribution remains a challenge

o Given public, private sector and even some policy interest in the importance of diversity, especially given diet transition and rising diet related non communicable diseases, there is a strong need to:

a) generate better evidenceb) develop and get agreement around measurement of biodiversityc) look for opportunities to monitor policies and programmes that link

biodiversity and nutrition, and d) engage with teaching and other aspects to improve training and capacity

Concluding observations II

www.bioversityinternational.org

Bruce Cogill, Ph.D