This claim has long puzzled scientists. In 2021, plant researchers from 17 international research institutions set out to trace the origin of this mysterious number. They published their findings in a scientific article. Their investigation showed that the figure first appeared in a 1993 FAO brochure titled 'Harvesting Nature’s Diversity.' In the foreword (and only there) it states: 'Since the beginning of this century, about 75 percent of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost.' However, the claim is not repeated anywhere in the brochure itself, and no reference is given to any study or FAO department.

The author of the brochure was Hope Shand, an activist from the North American NGO Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) (since 2001 known as the ETC Group). At that time RAFI, led by Pat Mooney, Cary Fowler and Shand, was campaigning against modern technologies in agriculture. The organization opposed genetic engineering, synthetic crop protection products, patents, and similar developments. The group also coined the term 'biopiracy' in 1995.

The plant scientists assume that the number originally came from the RAFI book 'The Threatened Gene: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity' published in 1990. There, again in the foreword, the following sentence appears: 'By the mid-1970s, three quarters of Europe’s traditional vegetable varieties were close to extinction.' Once again, no source is cited.

Apparently Hope Shand simply adopted this number for the FAO brochure and presented it as a global phenomenon. Since then, it has circulated in FAO publications. For example, it was repeated in the 1997 FAO brochure 'Women: The Key to Food Security' the 2004 training manual 'Building on Gender, Agrobiodiversity and Local Knowledge' In both cases, again without reference to any study. To this day, therefore, there is no evidence for this figure, which was written in 1993 by an activist in the foreword of a brochure for World Food Day.

Nevertheless, numerous environmental organizations continue to cite the figure, and the media rarely question its origin. Over more than three decades, an unsupported claim in the foreword of a brochure has turned into an established 'fact'.

Worse still, as in the children’s game of 'Chinese whispers', the statement evolved. What began as: 'Three quarters of Europe’s traditional vegetable varieties were close to extinction' became: '75 percent of all agricultural species and varieties have disappeared' and is now often repeated as: 'More than 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost.'

Another fact is that traditional varieties do not disappear simply because they are no longer cultivated. For example, the Indian National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) maintains well over 100,000 rice varieties, including wild rice and many traditional varieties. The ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) in Cuttack, Odisha, has collected and preserved around 30,000 indigenous rice varieties. In reality, varietal diversity is increasing rather than declining. A 2010 meta-analysis found no significant long-term reduction in the regional diversity of crop varieties.