The World's Vegetables Are Vanishing, And It's Quietly Wrecking Our Diets

Most of us consume far too few vegetables, and our health is paying the price.

At the same time, the range of vegetables we grow is steadily narrowing, further reducing diversity in what we eat.

A new report by an international group of experts in nutrition, agriculture and botany, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that embracing vegetable biodiversity may be vital for the health of both people and the planet.

Vegetable biodiversity and healthier diets

Maarten van Zonneveld, an agricultural scientist who led the work while at the World Vegetable Center, says current agricultural approaches cannot adequately address the world's nutritional challenges.

"The solution isn't simply to grow more vegetables – it's also to grow more kinds of vegetables," he says.

"Much of the vegetable biodiversity we need is still out there – in traditional varieties and their wild relatives. The urgency is to conserve it properly so that we can use it wisely to diversify diets amid climate change."

Diversity in the main edible parts was evaluated among the 79 major vegetable species included in FAO's *The Plants that Feed the World. Legumes are excluded because of their classification. (van Zonneveld et al., PNAS, 2026)*

The study indicates that many vegetables high in minerals and vitamins are being neglected, even though they may be better adapted to local growing conditions in different parts of the world.

Worldwide, people typically eat about 40 percent fewer vegetables than are recommended for a healthy diet.

That is worrying because insufficient vegetable consumption ranks among the five leading dietary risk factors behind the global burden of disease.

When household budgets are under pressure, vegetables are often among the first items removed from the shopping list. Farmers, meanwhile, frequently regard them as a greater financial risk than other crops because they perish quickly and have a short shelf life.

How industrial agriculture narrows vegetable diversity

Before farming was industrialised, food was produced from a far broader variety of plants.

For example, although there are more than 4,000 potato varieties, only around five to eight varieties are widely used in the United States.

Artificial selection, mass-production monocultures, and genetic modification, alongside the supply chains that distribute food, have reduced the variety of vegetables that reach our plates.

Vegetable diversity is declining. (Photography By Tonelson/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) review estimates that 24 percent of vegetable wild relatives assessed at species level face a risk of extinction.

As vegetables lose genetic diversity, we lose nutrients as well as the capacity to adapt crops to changing climatic conditions.

"A few species, such as lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, have become global crops and are part of diets worldwide," van Zonneveld and his colleagues write.

"Many others, such as spider plant, slippery cabbage, and bitter gourd, which are typically denser in micronutrients and better adapted to challenging and resource-limited environmental conditions, are available only regionally, and very often neglected in large-scale food policies and strategies."

Vegetables that could diversify regional food crops

Spider plant, a dark-green leafy vegetable cultivated in Africa, has been recognised for its resilience to climate change and its high concentration of essential nutrients.

"Currently, only a few local varieties are conserved in gene banks, with many gaps in collections, constraining breeding and the development of improved varieties for larger-scale production," van Zonneveld and his colleagues note.

Slippery cabbage is among the Pacific's best-liked dark-green leafy vegetables. The researchers say it could be particularly valuable in improving the nutrition of women and children.

Bitter gourd, another vegetable resilient to climate conditions, is widely eaten in Asia and the Caribbean. Its many wild relatives could, the researchers believe, help improve crops in these tropical areas.

There is also the familiar pumpkin, which withstands drought and heat and produces fruit rich in beta-carotene. In spite of its commercial importance, the researchers say "its genetic resources remain underutilized and poorly conserved".

The team considers these four vegetables promising regional starting points for diversifying food crops, although many more options exist.

We simply need to cultivate and eat them before they vanish.

Related: Scientists Found a Remarkable Way to Help Kids Like Vegetables

"The ongoing biodiversity loss for these and the other 1,480-plus vegetable species occurs at a time when global food systems urgently need diversification," the team concludes.

"Alignment under a global initiative would ensure that local and regional efforts translate into improvements in diets at both the local and global levels."

Closer to home, there are several ways to make our own diets more diverse.

Keen gardeners can seek out 'landrace' and 'heirloom' vegetable varieties for their gardens.

Saving seeds from vegetables to sow again the following year is another effective way to sustain biodiversity – and may even produce distinctive varieties of your own.

Buying food at farmers' markets and independent grocers can likewise help you discover a broader selection of vegetables, as well as fruit, for your diet.

You may even come across a new favourite.

The research was published in PNAS.

This article was fact-checked by Rachel Garner and edited by Peter Dockrill. While we take pride in our process, we are only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.