FEATURE
Banana market Bungoma Kenya - Boy eating banana
Is diversifying crops the answer to feeding the world’s growing population?
O CRISPR Wheat - James packet of seeds John Innes Centre
FHIA 17 banana seedlings
32 | January - February 2021
ver millennia of agricultural practice, we’ve selectively bred a relatively small handful of robust nutritious plants to crop. More than half the calories that all of human civilisation is based upon come from the seeds of just three grass species – wheat, rice and corn. Whilst modern agriculture has given us the most affordable and the most plentiful food supply in the history of our species, relying on that small selection of crops we’ve been cultivating is a perilous foundation for all of humankind.In the
second episode of the BBC World News and BBC.com series, Follow the Food: Seeds of Life, presenter and renowned ethnobotanist, James Wong, speaks to the one group of people that can solve the problems of the future, those who are trying to strike the precarious balance between mass production and diversification – farmers. Most Farmers know we need to make a change, and with over 50,000 edible plants on the planet, surely diversifying what we grow is the answer; reducing risk and bolstering our diets.
FHIA 17 bananas – Banana farmer George Matete
Kew Gardens Glass House
