Perennial Cultures Lab, The Land Institute, Salina, KS 67401.
Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Apr 4;120(14):e2205769120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2205769120. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Current food systems are challenged by relying on a few input-intensive, staple crops. The prioritization of yield and the loss of diversity during the recent history of domestication has created contemporary crops and cropping systems that are ecologically unsustainable, vulnerable to climate change, nutrient poor, and socially inequitable. For decades, scientists have proposed diversity as a solution to address these challenges to global food security. Here, we outline the possibilities for a new era of crop domestication, focused on broadening the palette of crop diversity, that engages and benefits the three elements of domestication: crops, ecosystems, and humans. We explore how the suite of tools and technologies at hand can be applied to renew diversity in existing crops, improve underutilized crops, and domesticate new crops to bolster genetic, agroecosystem, and food system diversity. Implementing the new era of domestication requires that researchers, funders, and policymakers boldly invest in basic and translational research. Humans need more diverse food systems in the Anthropocene-the process of domestication can help build them.
当前的食物系统面临着依赖少数几种投入密集型主食作物的挑战。在最近的驯化历史中,对产量的重视和多样性的丧失,导致了当代作物和种植系统在生态上不可持续,容易受到气候变化的影响,缺乏营养,并且在社会上不公平。几十年来,科学家们提出多样性是解决全球粮食安全面临这些挑战的一种解决方案。在这里,我们概述了一个新时代的作物驯化的可能性,重点是拓宽作物多样性的范围,使作物、生态系统和人类这三个驯化要素都能参与并受益。我们探讨了如何应用现有工具和技术来更新现有作物的多样性,改善未充分利用的作物,并驯化新作物,以增强遗传、农业生态系统和食物系统的多样性。实施新时代的驯化需要研究人员、资助者和政策制定者大胆投资于基础和转化研究。人类在人类世需要更多样化的食物系统——驯化过程可以帮助建立这些系统。