
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993                   TAG: 9310200077
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

WORLD'S DIETARY POTENTIAL IS DIVERSE BEYOND BELIEF

The world's diet is growing increasingly dull while thousands of tasty, useful plants and animals are neglected or threatened with extinction, a United Nations study said Tuesday.

The world is full of little-known species that humans could use to increase and improve food supplies, said Jose Esquinas-Alcazar of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

The list includes tomatoes watered from the sea and pigs ready to reproduce in 64 days, he said. There is even a species of Arctic fish whose genes have been used in experiments to develop strawberry plants that can grow in icy conditions.

Esquinas-Alcazar said hundreds of species used in ancient times are gone while others are not being developed or protected.

With up to 50,000 edible species, humans eat only 250 to 300 kinds of plants, according to international agriculture studies.

"Today, most of the world's farmed terrestrial food comes from just 20 or so plant species, eight animal species and five bird species," said a summary of the study.

The report, "Harvesting Nature's Diversity," outlines the agency's efforts to research, cultivate, and protect little-known plants, animals and fish around the world.

by CNB