The ways we currently practice agriculture are often harmful for the health of the planet – and even our own health. For our people and planet to flourish, we need to preserve biodiversity: the dizzying variety of ecosystems and living beings (from microbes to trees to blue whales), and all the genetic variety within species, that make our planet habitable.

Yet agriculture, especially intensive agriculture, is one of the biggest causes of biodiversity loss and a major contributor to climate change. And our dependence on a limited set of crops and animal breeds makes our food systems uniquely vulnerable to climate change, pests and diseases. Moreover, these food systems are failing to provide everyone with the nutrients they need: in 2020, nearly 2.4 billion people didn’t have access to enough nutritious food.

Fortunately, we have a solution to these challenges. This is agrobiodiversity: designing agriculture in such a way that, instead of diminishing the planet’s wealth of biodiversity, it enhances it. In musical terms, instead of a duet or quartet, we’ll have a full symphony orchestra.