S02 - Session O1 - Keynote: Forgotten Foods: A manifesto for the future of the food system?

Authors: Sayed Azam-Ali *

Supply chain disruptions, a global pandemic, extreme weather and war in Ukraine demonstrate the vulnerability of a global agrifood system that relies on a handful of fossil-fuel dependent and calorific mainstream crops grown as monocultures in a few exporting countries to feed nearly 8 billion people. We need to transform the agrifood system with diverse, climate-resilient and nutritious but currently underutilised crops, novel cropping systems and less vulnerable supply chains if it is to meet the needs of 10 billion people on a warming planet without destroying the planetary ecosystems on which we all depend. Diversification requires collective actions underpinned by a scientific evidence base to identify the best climate-resilient, nutritious and desirable options for current and future environments. We present a global knowledge base, being developed by Crops For the Future, that allows end-users to choose the most suitable diversification opportunities for their situations, how these alternatives compare with business-as-usual on mainstream crops and which hitherto underutilised or `forgotten` crops can provide livelihood opportunities for farming communities, healthier and more diverse diets for consumers and fewer demands on the natural environment. Examples are provided for different crops and agroecological environments of how such an approach can transition the global agrifood system from its current reliance on a few mainstream `fossil’ foods to an array of diverse forgotten foods and how a global knowledge system can underpin the Global Plan of Action for Forgotten Foods proposed in the Global Manifesto for Forgotten Foods (https://www.gfar.net/documents/global-manifesto-forgotten-foods) that was launched in 2021.