According to FAOʼs “Third Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”, genetic diversity is key to creating more resilient agrifood systems that withstand challenges such as shifting climate patterns. Since 80 percent of the food we consume is plant-based, preserving a wide range of genetic materials allows farmers to grow crops and varieties suited to their local environments, enhancing food security and livelihoods, states a Slow Food press release.

Biodiversity in the vineyard makes for healthy soil and vines and planet; this purple pea, a legume, provides nitrogen to the roots of the vines

“Dedicated policies for agricultural diversity in the fields are absent in many countries or do not adequately involve all stakeholders,” says Edward Mukiibi, president of Slow Food, and a self-described seed farmer. “In all 128 countries that contributed to the FAO report, instead, the presence of informal seed systems emerged, consisting of farmers and local communities that play a central role in the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and in defending farmers’ rights. We need a legal framework that can sustain and grow agroecology, which offers a pathway for a transition towards sustainable food systems. We also seek support from institutions at all levels, to counter the serious risk to global food security.”

According to the International Day for Biodiversity, the 2025 event seeks to:

• Bolster public awareness of the centrality of biodiversity to all life on Earth, including socio-economic challenges such as poverty and inequality.
• Call for the rapid preparation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) leaving no one behind.
• Highlight the importance of seizing synergies at all levels, including through a whole-of-government, whole-of-society implementation, with the UN system bringing its support to national actors through consolidated UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks.
• Encourage bolder initiatives by all actors, including the private sector, civil society and the media to communicate biodiversity science and initiate the required transformations to decouple socio-economic progress from the destruction of nature.

In its resolution A/RES/55/201 dated 8 February 2001, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 May as the International Day for Biological Diversity to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. This date commemorates the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 22 May 1992.

Antonella Manuli in one of her vineyards May 22, 2025, Maremma, Tuscany

With her patented regenerative agricultural philosophy “Metodo Corino”, Antonella works to preserve and create biodiversity in a number of ways including leaving at least one acre wild for every one planted, cover crops, no tilling, championing and recovering rare and indigenous “forgotten” and almost lost grapes, and more. The Maremma is a dry region, and when rain falls, it hits plants first, breaking up the drops before they reach the earth, each precious drop of rain naturally conserved in the deep mulch and the spongey volcanic soil.

In one newer vineyard, Antonella planted vines among large older olive trees already growing there in the traditional way. Even though the hillside previously had no sign of vines, the way the olive trees were aligned indicated the location of a vineyard there previously.

olive trees dot the vineyard in the traditional way at La Maliosa