In defense of food biodiversity: On the trail of lost food

Our plates have never seemed so varied and our grocery stores so abundant. But could it be that behind this profusion lies a global loss of food biodiversity, all the more pernicious because it goes unnoticed?

This is what has been worrying Bernard Lavallée for years, for whom food represents our most fundamental link with nature. And this nature is not doing well. The erosion of ecosystems is accelerating, as is the loss of food biodiversity, one of the pillars of nutrition, the author reminds us.

Greatly nostalgic, our urban nutritionist wanted to understand how foods prized by generations of humans could suddenly disappear, but above all, what could have caused their extinction and why this should alarm us.

Without ever dropping his refreshing humor, he retraces five major moments in our food history and their effects on the diversity of our diet. Captivating portraits of once-abundant but now-extinct foods accompany his findings, as examples of what could happen to the plants and animals we get enough of today.

A convincing way to make us want to protect what can still be protected.

Author: Bernard Lavallée