Tuesday, September 26, 2017
New Index to Help Investors Gauge Food Diversity
An EU-funded index measuring biodiversity in food production is expected to be launched next year, giving investors a benchmark for assessing how companies and governments are making food systems more resilient to climate change.
Investing in food species such as drought-tolerant Ethiopian durum wheat or the frost-resistant Andean grain canahua can make food supply chains more resistant to climate shocks, according to research published on Tuesday by Bioversity International.
Pre-agricultural societies used about 7,000 edible plant species but modern food systems rely on just 30 varieties to feed the world, and the most common crops make up just 2 percent of material stored in gene banks. . .