©Alberto Peroli

Food biodiversity is disappearing from tables, farms and food systems worldwide. At COP17, Slow Food calls on governments to take three concrete steps to reverse the trend.

Consumers have never been offered more apparent choice of food products from hundreds of brands, flavors, formats and labels. Organic, vegan, high-protein, low-fat, gluten-free: the options seem endless.

Yet behind this apparent abundance lies a troubling reality. While the number of food products continues to grow, the diversity of plants, animals and food traditions that sustain our diets continues to decline.

As governments gather in Yerevan for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) under the theme Taking Action for Nature, Slow Food is urging decision-makers to move beyond declarations and adopt concrete measures to protect and restore food biodiversity.

COP17 marks the first global review of progress since governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022. The question facing delegates is no longer whether biodiversity matters, but whether countries are taking practical steps to safeguard it.

“The biodiversity crisis is often presented as an environmental issue affecting distant forests or endangered species. In reality, it is also a food issue,” says Marta Messa, Slow Food Secretary General. “Every year we lose varieties, breeds, knowledge and food cultures that have sustained communities for generations. The question is simple: do we want future generations to inherit fragile food systems built on biological uniformity, or one rich in diversity,resilience, taste and choice? At COP17, governments have an opportunity to move from promises to action.”

Slow Food believes biodiversity loss can be tackled through policies that governments can begin implementing immediately and is calling on Parties to commit to three measurable actions.

1. Increase biodiversity in fields, farms and markets

Food biodiversity survives only if it is cultivated, bred, harvested and eaten. Governments should therefore commit to measurable targets to increase the use of local crop varieties, traditional seeds and native livestock breeds within agricultural and food systems. National policies, market regulations and public funding should reward those farmers, fishers, pastoralists and food producers who conserve biodiversity through use, rather than treating them as the last custodians of a disappearing heritage. The future of biodiversity will be decided in the fields, farms, markets and communities where diversity continues to evolve and feed people every day.

2. Put biodiversity on public plates

Governments cannot claim to protect biodiversity while ignoring what is served in public canteens. Schools, hospitals, universities and other publicly funded institutions should progressively source food from local varieties, native breeds and producers who actively conserve agricultural biodiversity. Public procurement is one of the most powerful levers governments have to transform food systems. Every day, millions of publicly funded meals influence what farmers grow, what markets reward and what future generations learn to eat. If biodiversity is absent from public plates, it will struggle to survive in our fields.

3. Reward Biodiversity

Food biodiversity delivers public benefits, from climate resilience and ecosystem health to food security and cultural heritage. Yet the farmers, fishers, pastoralists and communities who generate these benefits are rarely rewarded for them. Public incentives should reward measurable biodiversity outcomes generated by farmers and food-producing communities, and governments should establish dedicated support schemes that recognize the cultivation of biodiversity as a public good to ensure that those who promote it receive fair economic returns.

The future of biodiversity will not be decided only in conference halls. It will be decided by what farmers grow, what public institutions choose to support and what citizens eat.

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