FLICKR, ALLTRAIN43Although national crop commodities diversified from 1961 to 2009, the global food supply became more homogeneous, according to a study published today (March 4) in PNAS.
An international team led by investigators at the Wageningen University Centre for Crop Systems Analysis in The Netherlands examined the richness, abundance, and composition of crop species in national food supplies worldwide as measured through the lens of 52 crops.
While a handful of staples like major cereals, sugar, potatoes, and fruits and vegetables held steady in the last half century, during that same time worldwide supplies of oil crops—such as soybean, sunflower, and palm—increased significantly. On the other hand, minor cereals and starchy root crops declined in the last 50 years.
“These changes in food supplies heighten interdependence among countries in regard to availability and access to these food sources and the genetic resources supporting their production,” Wageningen’s Paul Struik and his colleagues wrote, ...
