Crop Diversity Day 2026: Celebrating Food Diversity for Healthy Diets
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.
Join us and New York Botanical Gardens and partners for Crop Diversity Day 2026! Held during Climate Week NYC, the event will contribute to global dialogue on food systems transformation by elevating the role of crop diversity as a foundation for healthy diets. Crop Diversity Day 2026 will feature:
The launch of the World Food Map, a collaborative platform showcasing how biodiversity underpins diverse, healthy diets. Drawn from new global data, we highlight how dietary gaps can be addressed with diverse local foods that are culturally relevant, nutritionally rich, and climate resilient.
The one-year anniversary of the launch of the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP), which brings together botanic gardens, genebanks, and related sectors around the world to jointly ensure that crop diversity is safeguarded, shared, and used.
New data and insights on priority underutilized species from the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI).
A keynote by Arielle Johnson, author of Flavorama.
A Diverse Diets Lunch – landscape-based and story-driven, highlighting the flavor, composition, and geographic centers of origin and consumption of the menu we are enjoying.
An optional tour of the Edible Academy, emphasizing flavor, culture, and biochemistry of food plants growing right outside our door in NYC.
The opportunity for participants to contribute Stories of Food to the World Food Map, many of which will be featured during the program.
The annual Crop Diversity Day unites leaders and practitioners from across agriculture, conservation, nutrition, health and finance to highlight leading-edge initiatives leveraging crop diversity to deliver healthier, more sustainable and more equitable food systems. Cultivated in farmers’ fields and conserved in genebanks and botanic gardens, crop diversity is a valuable resource for the future of food. It is essential to our ability to address urgent challenges including food insecurity, malnutrition, and climate change.
Crop Diversity Day 2026 is organized in collaboration by the Crop Trust, New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI), Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Food + Planet.
Program
| 10:00 | Welcome & Opening Remarks Welcome by Jennifer Bernstein, New York Botanical Garden Opening remarks by Stefan Schmitz, Crop Trust |
| 10:10 | Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants – One-Year Anniversary Mauricio Diazgranados, NYBG and Colin Khoury, Crop Trust & NYBG |
| 10:20 | Launch of the World Food Map Anna Herforth and Chris Vogliano, Wageningen University & Research |
| 10:40 | Opportunity Crops and Food Composition Diversity |
| 10:50 | Stories of Food Everyone has a story of food. This segment of the program is a storytelling roundtable that humanizes food diversity. We invite participants to share one specific story from their deep personal knowledge and involvement. Colleagues in food biodiversity research, policy, conservation, or practice will share one specific anecdote about a person, plant, or community that highlights conservation and celebration of food plants. (No overviews of institutional work or projects - there is space for that during the post-event networking lunch!) |
| 11:30 | Unlocking the Art and Science of Flavor Arielle Johnson, author of Flavorama |
| 11:45 | Closing Remarks Roy Steiner or John de la Parra, Rockefeller Foundation |
| 11:50 | The Living Table |
| 12:00 | Network Lunch |
| 1:15 | Optional: Tour to Edible Academy Event hosted by Kate Geagan, Food + Planet |
About the World Food Map
The World Food Map is a collaborative atlas celebrating the world's edible biodiversity, showing how diets can be improved with locally available species that are culturally relevant, climate resilient, and nutritionally rich. 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.
Learn more about the World Food Map.
About the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants
The Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP) is a global collaboration dedicated to conserving the extraordinary diversity of food plants that sustain people and the planet. While more than 25,000 plant species are used as food worldwide, only a small proportion are widely cultivated, and many valuable cultivated plants, their wild relatives and wild edible species are increasingly threatened by global change. The GCCFP was established to bring together organizations across sectors to better understand, conserve, promote and increase the use of this vital diversity.
Learn more about the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants.
About the Periodic Table of Food Initiative
The Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI)® is a global collaborative effort to map the molecular composition of the world's edible biodiversity and advance its North Star of healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Through standardized multi-omics methods, open-access data, and training, PTFI empowers researchers, policymakers, and practitioners worldwide to better understand how food quality varies across genetics, environments, production systems, and processing. By connecting food composition data with food systems metadata and human health, PTFI generates evidence, enables innovation, and supports data-driven decision-making to improve outcomes for people and the planet.
Learn more about the Periodic Table of Food Initiative.
About Food + Planet
Food + Planet is a global nonprofit tapping into the power of nutrition and healthcare professionals to cultivate a sustainable food future. We envision a future where collaboration across food systems accelerates transformative change. Through thought leadership, evidence-based resources, and practical tools, we unite key stakeholders to create a sustainable, resilient food system that nourishes people and protects the planet.
Learn more about Food + Planet.
