DIVERSIFOOD project (Horizon 2020)
This collective DIVERSIFOOD publication (Horizon 2020) presents nine key concepts to embed crop diversity within networks of users—breeders, producers and consumers—to develop high-quality regional food systems. The document defines and explains concepts that integrate practice and theory across natural and social sciences, aiming to foster regional innovations, new models for agrobiodiversity management, participatory plant breeding, and greater diversity of crops, varieties and populations. Key themes include diverse food systems and quality (including forgotten/local crops and sensory/processing aspects), sustainability and agrobiodiversity as a basis for adaptation, food democracy and shared decision-making along the food chain, communal management of genetic resources, participatory action research, transdisciplinarity and paradigm change, co-evolutive processes that link biological and social dynamics, and resilience of the entire food system. The publication highlights collaborative approaches, community-led experiments, and networked regional value chains, and is produced by a 21-partner consortium with EU Horizon 2020 funding.
Key topics: agrobiodiversity, food diversity, food democracy, community seed management, participatory research, transdisciplinarity, resilience
