Record Details

Replication Data for: Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Replication Data for: Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HYOWIC
 
Creator Khoury, Colin K
Bjorkman, Anne D
Dempewolf, Hannes
Ramirez Villegas, Julian
Guarino, Luigi
Jarvis, Andy
Rieseberg, Loren H
Struik, Paul C
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The narrowing of diversity in crop species contributing to the world’s food supplies has been considered a potential threat to food security. However, changes in this diversity have not been quantified globally. We assess trends over the past 50 y in the richness, abundance, and composition of crop species in national food supplies worldwide. Over this period, national per capita food supplies expanded in total quantities of food calories, protein, fat, and weight, with increased proportions of those quantities sourcing from energy-dense foods. At the same time the number of measured crop commodities contributing to national food supplies increased, the relative contribution of these commodities within these supplies became more even, and the dominance of the most significant commodities decreased. As a consequence, national food supplies worldwide became more similar in composition, correlated particularly with an increased supply of a number of globally important cereal and oil crops, and a decline of other cereal, oil, and starchy root species. The increase in homogeneity worldwide portends the establishment of a global standard food supply, which is relatively species-rich in regard to measured crops at the national level, but species-poor globally. 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, and give further urgency to nutrition development priorities aimed at bolstering food security.



This dataset is based on FAO national per capita data. For information on the value addition of the data please see the Materials and Methods section of the publication.
 
Subject Earth and Environmental Sciences
Crop diversity
Plant genetic resources
Agricultural development
Global analysis
Latin America and the Caribbean
Decision and Policy Analysis - DAPA
 
Contributor Mwanzia, Leroy
 
Type Quantitative Data
Socio-economic Data
 
Source FAO (2010) FAOSTAT, Production. Available at http://faostat3.fao.org