Variation among edible plant species, their varieties, and individual plants underpins both human nutrition and the productivity, resilience, and adaptive capacity of agricultural ecosystems. This food plant diversity has changed enormously over the past hundred years, and there is every indication that there is more change to come.
Join scientist Colin Khoury, Ph.D as he outlines major trends in food plant diversity over the past century, and then explores what is not well understood about these changes, offering ideas about what can be done to address knowledge gaps. Given the rapid decline of many facets of food plant diversity, Dr. Khoury will conclude by highlighting efforts at different scales to mitigate, stem, and reverse further losses of food plant diversity in a changing world.
Registration is not required for this FREE lecture. Please enter through the Bayer Event Center, which is directly east of the Garden’s main entrance.
About the Speaker
Colin Khoury is a biodiversity, agriculture, and conservation scientist with over 25 years of experience in nonprofit, international, government, industry, and academic organizations in the United States, Europe, and South America. He holds a PhD from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a Master of Science from the University of Birmingham, UK. He works with both the botanic garden and crop genebank communities as an affiliate scientist at the New York Botanical Garden and Missouri Botanical Garden. His primary areas of focus include food plant diversity, biocultural conservation, and plant genetic resources, including crops and their wild relatives.
About the annual John Dwyer Lecture in Biology
The annual Lecture honors the memory of Dr. John Dwyer, a professor of biology at Saint Louis University and a research associate of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The office of the President at the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Department of Biology at Saint Louis University are proud to honor this memory by bringing inspiring scientists to a public audience in St. Louis. This year’s lecture is made possible with the additional support of the William L. Brown Center for Ethnobotany at Missouri Botanical Garden.