Crop Diversity Day 2026

The World Food Map began as a simple visual display of the most commonly consumed foods in each country, organized into nutritionally relevant food groups. It grew out of the Global Diet Quality Project, which had conducted over 1,000 key informant interviews in 140 countries, producing the first systematic identification of the most commonly consumed foods around the world. Our scope grew to include neglected and underutilized species, and an objective to inspire investment in more diverse, climate-resilient foods to improve healthy diets.

On Crop Diversity Day 2026, we will release World Food Map 2.0. This version displays expanded information on each species including its names in Latin and each country where it is consumed; where each species is grown or harvested based on (changing) climate; and genebank holdings and conservation status. We bring together dietary data from the Global Diet Quality Project, with identification of common and underutilized species that can fill dietary gaps. We also highlight the infinite potential of Stories of Food to inspire joy and action, showcasing information about history, knowledge, policies, or promotion related to specific foods.

The Map is based at Wageningen University & Research, and has benefited from data inputs from a wide range of collaborators: the Alliance Bioversity/CIAT, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Crop Trust, Crops for the Future, the Global Diet Quality Project, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, New York Botanical Garden and Kew Gardens with the University of Torino, the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI), and Seafood Watch; along with numerous individuals who are contributing Stories of Food.

The World Food Map is under the Global RECAP program, furthering its strategic objective of healthy lives and well-being for all including data, advocacy, regulatory and social mobilization efforts to prevent and manage non-communicable diseases. The World Food Map aligns with the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP) toward convening a collaborative network of those who are already working to conserve and revitalize local biodiversity, that strengthens entrepreneurship to create economic opportunities for the use of underutilized species to support healthy diets. We also work in collaboration with PTFI to apply expanding knowledge about the bioactive components of food.

Today, PTFI brings together a global network of Centers of Excellence, National Lab Hubs, and Research and Impact Partners applying harmonized foodomics protocols to characterize foods with an unprecedented level of molecular detail, rarely captured in conventional composition databases. A central pillar of this work is the study of opportunity crops: nutrient-dense, climate-resilient, and culturally important species that have long been underrepresented in agricultural research and largely absent from food composition databases. By systematically characterizing the molecular diversity within and across these crops, PTFI is uncovering nutritional value that has historically gone unmeasured, generating evidence that can inform breeding priorities, conservation strategies, and dietary recommendations grounded in the real biochemical diversity of food.

Guided by principles of open data and equitable partnership, PTFI is building a global knowledge platform that connects biodiversity with nutrition, agriculture, and human health. By making the hidden diversity of food visible, the initiative aims to accelerate research, inform policy, and unlock the full potential of edible biodiversity to address global nutrition, sustainability, and resilience challenges.

Addressing these challenges requires reconnecting the foods people eat every day with the diversity conserved in genebanks and botanic gardens, as well as that maintained by farmers. It also requires bridging disciplines and communities that have often worked in isolation—agriculture and conservation, nutrition and health, and policy.

Crop Diversity Day 2026 will highlight cutting-edge initiatives working to transform food systems by leveraging crop diversity to deliver healthier, more sustainable and more equitable food systems. The event will bring together key actors from across the food and agriculture ecosystem—including policymakers, scientists, funders, and practitioners—to explore how diverse crops and foods can support better diets while strengthening resilience and livelihoods.

A central moment of the event will be the public launch of the updated World Food Map, a collaborative initiative that links dietary quality data with agricultural, environmental, and cultural information to provide a new global perspective on what people eat and why it matters. The World Food Map leverages the first global survey of what people eat, a major new source of data to understand what foods are commonly consumed, and to shed light on nutritional gaps in diets around the world. The World Food Map can identify how dietary diversity, supported by the conservation and sustainable use of crop diversity, can improve health, create economic opportunities, and enhance climate resilience.

The event will also mark the one-year anniversary of the initiation of the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP), which brings together botanic gardens, genebanks, and related sectors around the world to jointly ensure the safeguarding, sharing, and use of crop diversity. It will also highlight new data and insights from the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI).

Crop Diversity Day 2026 will connect the conservation of crop diversity with pressing global priorities, including nutrition, health, and climate action. Held during Climate Week NYC, the event will contribute to global dialogue on food systems transformation while elevating the role of crop diversity as a foundation for a healthier and more resilient future.