Detox. No, it is not 75% of the diversity of cultivated plants that has disappeared

” 75% of the diversity of cultivated plants has disappeared »: this figure comes up constantly in institutional communication or in the press. If the period during which this fall occurred varies from one text to another (from a few decades to a century), the source mentioned is, inexorably, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO ). The allegation is sometimes even presented as the conclusion of the organisation’s latest report.

This genetic erosion and standardization of cultivated species poses a higher risk of crop loss in the event of susceptibility to a disease or pest, where the exploitation of multiple varieties spreads this danger.

Problem: contacted by Désintox, the FAO ensures that it no longer uses the figure of 75% “ since a long time » … And struggles to find its source. Digging into the archives, it would seem that the number originated in an informal conversation between two environmentalists in the late 1970s. Including researcher Erna Bennett, to whom the very expression “ genetic erosion “. In short, it is a very dated wet-finger estimate, rather than a scientific study which would have to be taken up fifty years later.

And since ? Researchers agree that a trend towards homogenization of cultivated species is undeniable worldwide. But they believe, at the same time, that there is a lack of data to quantify the phenomenon. In other words, if the risk of genetic erosion at the global level is proven, nothing therefore accredits this figure so taken from 75%.

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