Globally, the diversity of foods in most diets is shrinking, with those diets becoming more homogenized from one country to the next, more nutrient-depleted, and more Westernized. But there is a counter-trend worth watching in North America, and it is not restricted to or even driven by privileged foodies: our diets are diversifying again due to affordable access of many vegetables, fruits and other foods. Because of remarkably successful community-based collaborative efforts by you and others, the diversity of seeds and breeds on our farms and ranches, of fish and fowl in our waterways and wetlands, of wild game and food plants in our forests and prairies, and the foods and beverages on the tables of North America is greater than at any time in the last century.
We will start exploring this next week why this different approach to conservation –one based on social processes that welcome people of all backgrounds into the radical center or middle path—is now changing American for the better. IT IS A KIND OF CONSERVATION YOU CAN TASTE.
–Gary Paul Nabhan
