Marisela Bravo^1,, Francisco F. Herrera¹

The food we consume defines our eating habits and transcends the economic, social or health conditions of individuals and societies. It is a fact that our consumption patterns respond to a food industry that places economic performance before health, food needs and environmental sustainability. The global environmental crisis forces us to rethink all the activities we do, including food. The consumption of local, wild, native, or naturalized foods allows us to have healthier and more sustainable diets. It is imperative to include diverse foods in our diet so that the consumption of monoculture foods diminishes in time. We need a systemic approach when deciding what to eat. Choosing local and varied foods improves the diet, the family and local economy, rescues the use of marginalized (underutilized) local species and contributes to socially and environmentally responsible food production systems. In the search for adaptations to the planetary environmental crisis, it is urgent to promote sustainable food production systems, and for this, it is necessary to make changes in current consumption patterns. In this paper, we focus on two aspects of the agricultural system in Venezuela: production and consumption, and we propose the rescue of underutilized agricultural diversity to diversify our food systems.

food production, consumption patterns, resilience, environmental crisis, Venezuela.