Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

eeds sold at farmer’s markets around Melbourne
include critical, endangered or vulnerable pig
breeds such as the Wessex Saddleback, Large
Black and Tamworth as well as “at risk cattle
breeds such as the Belted Galloway. Melbourne
farmers” markets contain far greater diversity
of plant varieties and animal breeds than can be
found in mainstream supply chains. A network
of community gardens further adds to initiatives
that make available additional nutritious fruit and
vegetable biodiversity to low-income households
(Donati et al. 2013).
In the UK, the Incredible Edible Todmorden
initiative encourages the novel concept of opensource
food, through “permission gardens” and
“guerilla gardens”, which consist of picking and
eating foods others have planted and nurtured.
Under this initative, forty public fruit and
vegetable gardens that promote awareness about
the benefits of food biodiversity, dietary diversity
and nutrition were created. It also held a variety
of communication and awareness-raising events,
including street cook-offs, “Tod Talks”, targeted
campaigns such as “Every Egg Matters”, which
maps local egg production, cooking courses, the
field-to-plate lunch, and seed swaps. Regular
newsletters, an active website, presentations
beyond the local district, and veggie tourism also
serve to maintain the momentum of the initiative
(Paull 2013).
8. Food cultures: local strategies
with global policy implications
There is ample evidence of how monocrop, lowdiversity
agriculture, the shift toward urbanization
and the depletion of natural resources, including
our marine resources, has led not only to the
erosion of our terrestrial, freshwater and marine
ecosystems but also of traditional food cultures
in many parts of the world (Anderson 2010;
Petrini 2013). This has dramatically changed our
relationship with food and challenged many of the
cultural norms, customs and traditions which have
governed how we grow and consume food. This
has led to significant changes in our food choices,
the amount of different foods we eat, the order
in which we eat, when and with whom (Pollan
2008). In some parts of the world this has led to
a growing Slow Food movement as described in
Box 7.
Box 7. Slow Food and Torre Guaceto, Italy Marine Protected Area: a model to
promote food cultures, health and sustainable use
Slow Food, a grassroots organization now spanning over 150 countries, is aimed at preventing
the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteracting the rise of “the fast life”,
homogenizing food production, intensive industrial agricultural crops based on monoculture,
and promoting interest in foods origins and cultural traditions at all levels of production and
consumption (Petrini 2013; Schneider 2008; Kinley 2012). The selection of Slow Food products
is based on an established set of criteria and a continuous exchange of information with local
stakeholders to ensure social–cultural, environmental and economic sustainability.
Several approaches have been used to evaluate the sustainability and nutritional impact of these
products. Recently, Pezzana et al. (2014) combined nutritional and multi-criteria sustainability to
dene the Life Cycle Assessment of Slow Food Presidia products. The study found “high levels of
sustainability” and additional nutritional value of Slow Food products, and the value of multifactorial
approaches in the analysis of the food–health–sustainability relationship (Pezzana et al. 2014).
Presidia products focus on key issues of interest for small-scale agriculture and farming, including
the protection of mountain pastures and pastoral farming, defence of traditional landscapes
and propagation of traditional seeds by communities, protection of small-scale onshore shing,
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