Nearly 90% of what the world’s population eats comes from no more than 15 crops. This over-specialization reduces our resilience to climate and conflict shocks.

In a webinar organized by the T20/G20, Anna Lappé, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, discusses the recent evolution to “food monotony” and why we need a shift to crop and diet diversification.

Read a transcript of Anna’s talk below and listen to her intervention in the discussion (starts at 2:10:45).

“We know that globally food systems now contribute to one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions. At least 15% of all fossil fuels used globally are now directed to food systems. We know industrialized food systems contribute to 90% of deforestation, 60% or more of biodiversity loss, and account for huge amounts of the world’s freshwater use. I could go on and on. We also know that this is all unnecessary and that there are other ways to organize our food systems.

This shift from monotony to beauty, nutrition, and diversity is one of the most critical issues of our time and I think many of us see it as one of the more fixable crises that we face.

I think a key message for the G20, and for all of us, is that we can diversify our diets, rethink animal husbandry, and push back against ultra-processed foods. There are very challenging issues that we face: how could we ever power our airplanes without poisoning the planet for instance? But we know how to grow food and shift diets to benefit our bodies, benefit biodiversity, benefit our climate, and provide dignified work for everyone who feeds us. We know how to do this so a question then becomes what are the levers that we need to pull to catalyze a massive transition from monotony to diversity?

I’ll share three themes of the pillars of power that need to be shifted to make this change. The need to shift political power, to shift power over financial flows and investment, and, very importantly, to shift the power over knowledge and narratives of what we believe is possible.

The need to shift political power is very critical. There are vested interests, political influence, and power asymmetries that really limit the imaginative possibility of policymakers to adopt a transformative agenda. We know that without regulatory change and without changing subsidies, the private sector understandably has few and sometimes no incentives to change.

A few years ago, the United Nations with FAO, UNDP, and UNEP found that 87% of the $540 billion annually given to support agricultural producers is either harmful to nature or health or distorts prices. This is an incredible opportunity to shift what is currently incentivizing a system that pushes monotony, towards a system that produces and fosters diversity.

Second, there is this huge potential of shifting power over investments. We see it from a philanthropic alliance perspective. So many communities and food producers who would want to be part of the process of this transition are not getting the resources they need or the support or the education to shift to farming practices that are ecologically aligned. We see the power of working together to fund the enabling environment for a transition to really scale and accelerate regenerative agriculture, agroecology practices and the promotion of real, delicious, diverse food.

The very good news is that we are seeing that where we invest in those enabling environments, this transition is happening and it’s happening fast. The question is: how do we scale that investment as quickly as we need to? I’d offer two things. One, is the importance of tracking the true cost of a global food system that is causing so much harm.

Our colleagues at the True Cost Accounting Accelerator have stressed that one way to foster the political will needed for this transition is to expose the true cost of business as usual and show the value of alternative approaches. The historic FAO report last year on the global true cost of food found that our current food system accounts for more than 12 trillion dollars in hidden costs at the national and regional levels. We need to use tools like true cost accounting to help better capture the full benefits of a transition, the full benefits of this kind of diverse and healthy diet we’re talking about and the true cost of food monotony. True cost accounting is one way to do that. It can be a decision-making tool to help make more effective progress toward a food system that’s better for people and the planet. We’re seeing that true cost accounting can build that political will that we need from all stakeholders to make this transition.

Second, we’re seeing the need to and the momentum around investing in transitions to scale and accelerating regenerative agriculture. Last year we worked on a report called Cultivating Change that broadly estimated that there is a need for almost half a trillion dollars a year to support a transition to more agroecological, regenerative farming practices to ensure that by 2040 half of all agricultural land is supportive of biodiversity, health and the climate. That’s a lot of money a year but it is far less than the cost of inaction and the cost of delay.

From a philanthropic alliance perspective, we see so much innovation happening at the local level that philanthropy can and should support, and which other donors may see as risky investments. But, funding with the solidarity of philanthropy can build movements and political will that are big and strong enough to help win efforts for public policies that can create these supportive environments. We know that philanthropy is just a tiny drop in the funding, financing bucket. We see the power of using these catalytic dollars to be in conversation, and in partnership, with government and bilateral agencies, multilateral donors, banks, private investors to scale up the kind of investment we need.

The third point I want to share is the power and the importance of building knowledge and sharing new narratives around what works. Part of the way we’re going to shift investments, and shift political power, is to ensure that the stories we are telling accurately reflect the change that we need to make and help us believe in what’s possible. For instance, measuring nutrition per acre, not just yield per acre. Here in the US, we’re very proud of how much corn we produce per acre but we know that most of that corn does not go to feeding people directly; it’s fueling cars; it’s going into livestock feed; it’s going into industrial purposes. What would it look like if instead of yield per acre, we cared about nutrition per acre? Biodiversity per acre? Health impacts per acre? And then, just as importantly, it’s not just about measuring what matters, it’s about sharing those stories to show what’s possible and to give a sense of that possibility of transition.

Many of you may be familiar with the work in Andhra Pradesh, India, of community-based natural farming, which we at the Global Alliance have been so excited about. We’re working in partnership with colleagues measuring the impact of this transition across a network of nearly 700,000 farmers that have transitioned to more ecological farming practices. A study of the impact of this transition that measured what matters found that farmers reduced pesticide use, increased food biodiversity, reduced health care costs, and so much more. Last year, we partnered with colleagues on a report that found that for the farmers that transitioned in this region, their income was up 44%, their input costs were down 41%, the yields went up 11%. They found benefits to maternal health and well-being. It was a direct shift toward food biodiversity.

We’re seeing this movement for transition around the world. Most recently, in Arusha, Tanzania, colleagues of ours with the Agroecology Coalition and Biovision gathered more than 120 people who are convening on funding this transition to agroecology, to food biodiversity in East Africa that included senior leadership in the ministries of Agriculture of Tanzania and other governments. It was thrilling to hear the report back of how much momentum there is in that region to embrace diets that are grounded in health for people and health for the planet.

There are countless ways for us to take action to move away from monotony toward diversity. Together, we can look at how do we shift political power? How do we build political will for this change? How do we shift the power over what are we investing in, what are we subsidizing, what are we incentivizing in our economic system? How do we build power to shift the knowledge and shift the narratives to really showcase what matters? Together, we can be sure that this conversation is really central to the discussion about the transformations that are needed for a healthy and vibrant planet.

In closing, I just want to say how privileged it is to be in partnership with organizations around the world, with frontline leaders who are tirelessly working toward a vision of food that works for all of us, that is nourishing, that is delicious, that’s produced fairly and equitably, that is, as I see it, the opposite of monotony.”