Cooperative Extension programs across the United States are embracing food systems and local food as a new topic area. Previous studies indicate that successful local food programming requires cross program collaboration. However, research in this area...

North America’s agricultural and natural landscapes are vital to feeding humanity—they are home to many populations of important food plants and their wild relatives. Climate change is projected to significantly impact the agricultural sector and any...

Urbanization, lack of contact with the natural world, and growing up removed from agriculture has contributed to a void of knowledge relating to food and food production, along with a phenomenon known as plant blindness. We sought to change this lack...

Crop wild relatives—the plant species closely related to agricultural crops—are valuable
genetic resources used by plant breeders to increase pest and disease resistance, stress
tolerance, nutritional profile, and other traits critical to...

Of the myriad gifts plants provide to humanity, food is among the most visible, as everyone needs to eat, every single day. Due to their universal importance, food and agricultural plants would appear to represent ideal entryways to address plant...

Indigenous communities rely extensively on plants for food, shelter, and medicine. It is still unknown, however, to what degree their survival is jeopardized by the loss of either plant species or
knowledge about their services. To fill this gap...

Successful programs of crop wild relative (CWR) exploration, conservation, and utilization are ultimately dependent on sustained public prioritization and support, which in turn requires public awareness and engagement. Here we discuss the importance...

In this issue BGCI considers how to develop education programmes from scratch, a curse and blessing that can be infrequently bestowed on botanic garden educators in gardens with well-established public engagement offers...