CONSERVATION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
by Gary Paul Nabhan
OVER THE LAST three decades,
more than one-hundred thousand
plant and animal varieties and species
have become endangered around
the planet, many of which formerly
provided humankind with food
or beverages. At the same time, a
remarkable counter trend has occurred
in America’s gardens and orchards, and
on its farms and ranch pastures.
Although virtually unnoticed
in some circles, more than fifteen
thousand unique vegetable, fruit,
legume and grain varieties and dozens
of livestock and poultry breeds have
returned to U.S. foodscapes, farmers markets, restaurants and home tables over the last
quarter century. It has often been repeated that just a hundred or so species of crops and
livestock moving through globalized food supply chains provide most of humankind
with the bulk of its calories that move through globalized commerce today. In contrast,
this survey documents that at least six hundred and forty species are now on the plates
of Americans participating in alternative food networks, not counting the many North
American edible species of fish, game, shellfish and wild plants.
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