'Eating for Biodiversity' Talk & Lunch

Catherine Chong delivering talk and lunch on Dietary Strategies for Biosphere Integrity

"Your way of eloquently sharing your history and work is captivating and inspiring. I loved how you walked us through the broad impact that what we consume has and the existing misconceptions/wrong narratives."

Luis, Research Scientist.

"I loved the talk! I particularly like the 3 strategies shared and how they could link to our work. I also like how you shared your story of how you go to where you are and why you are so passionate about it!"

Emma, Director of Collaboration.

"I enjoyed you talking about the context before we began to speak about strategies. I liked the conversation around each item and where they came from, and why it's important. It puts a story to the produce which makes it beautifully emotive."

Marlon, Collaboration Innovation Lead.

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I recently had the pleasure of delivering a talk as well as curating a lunch for Basecamp Research, a company that recently launched the largest and fastest-growing database for biological sequence-based model training in genomics and protein. The database is composed of 9.8 billion new protein sequences and one million newly discovered species - a 10-fold expansion of known protein diversity when compared to all public databases combined.

Underpinning the efforts to build the database are two principles which promise equitable and bilateral partnerships with communities where samples were collected:

• Access and benefit-sharing at biodiversity hotspots

• Empowering biodiversity stewards through bioliteracy

These two principles are the telltale of companies that wish to be a force of good.

So I started the talk by asking the staff, "Your company sets amazing strategies that have great potential to contribute to biodiversity conservation and biodiversity recovery around the world. I wonder if you are living this potential personally? Are you Biodiversity Conscious when it comes to choosing what you eat? Are you eating in ways that are not reducing biodiversity or, better, help to conserve or recover biodiversity?"

And so I talked about the linkages between agriculture with biosphere integrity and shared my top 3 dietary strategies to conserve and recover farm-level Biodiversity, along with some of the most delicious and nutrient-dense food grown and produced by the Agroecology communities in the UK.

I normally just deliver a talk. This was one of the few exceptions where I arranged all the food, in line with the strategies, of course.

For a longer talk, I share 7-10 strategies with some overlap with Dietary Strategies for Planetary Boundaries, other than Biosphere Integrity.

Catherine Chong delivering talk and lunch on Dietary Strategies for Biosphere Integrity