Title : The nutritional and immunological functions of the diversity of plants grown in family and community gardens need to be valued
Abstract:
Agri-food research needs a systemic approach to facilitate the stability of the functional interactions of biodiversity with cultivated plants and to ensure that fresh agricultural products, when ingested by people, maintain a stable nutritional composition and microbiome, thus contributing to recovering the role of biodiversity in preserving health. Fresh foods should not only be valued for being free of agrochemical residues and biosafe, but they also need to contribute to people's nutrition and immunity. This contribution is the result of research that is carried out through exchange and reflection meetings with families in rural, peri-urban and urban areas of Cuba and has the objective of synthesizing food experiences and perceptions about the food-health relationship. The following criteria were assumed: Healthy Food Origin (HFO); Nutritional Diversity of Foods (NDF); Nutritional Seasonality of Food (NSF) and Family Perception of Health-Food (FPHF). Families have access to food from Family Food Self- Management (FFSM), direct access to Community Food Gardens (CFG), access to Direct Sales Points of Producer Cooperatives (DSPPC) and acquisition in Food Offers in Markets (FOM). The Healthy Food Origin (HFO) was in the following order: FOM>DSPPC>CFG>FFSM. Regarding nutritional diversity of foods (NDF), families most frequently eat 3-4 types of fresh foods (roots and tubers, bananas, vegetables, fruits) and up to 3 species of each type, with predominance for those living in urban areas that have access to FOM, DSPPC and CFG, a characteristic that shows the dependence on a market for basic products grown in rural areas and the contribution of leafy vegetables obtained in community agriculture in urban areas. In contrast, the FFSM eat more than 4 types of foods and more than three species of each type; although, the diversity of leafy vegetables is lower than that of families that have access to CFG. The seasonality of food is better distributed in FFSM systems, compared to those that depend on FOM, DSPPC and CFG, a situation that reinforces the contribution of "conucos" or gardens on farms and family garden to the feeding of families. The predominant relative perceptions regarding the food-health relationship are the following: we are healthier if we combine agricultural foods and meats > in general we feel better during the months when there are more vegetables and fruits > we have had family experiences about the contribution of food to the recovery of health > we have the tradition of reinforcing food diversity in pregnant women, children and the elderly > when the Covid-19 pandemic we were not affected because, in addition to social isolation, we eat a diversity of nutritious foods. These results suggest that primary production systems in rural areas, which obtain products to be transported to distant markets in urban areas (FOM, DSPPC), concentrate on a few basic products that better resist handling during transport, a characteristic that reduces the nutritional and immunological diversity and seasonality of fresh foods that urban families have access to; justifying the need to promote Community Food Gardens (CFG) and the Family Food Self-Management (FFSM).
