The current state of peas in the United Kingdom; diversity, heritage and food systems

Societal impact statement Landraces and traditional pea varieties hold great potential for enhancing agrobiodiversity and promoting pulse consumption, offering a rich historical and cultural resource for the UK food system. Unfortunately, many traditional pea varieties are lost, and those surviving are mostly in seed banks or used only by small‐scale growers. Minor pea cultivars and landraces are overlooked by wider food systems, making it difficult to integrate them into modern value chains. Reintroduction challenges include complex phenotypic traits, legislative hurdles and limited access to genetic resources and information. Summary Peas ( Lathyrus oleraceus Lam. syn Pisum sativum L.) are one of the oldest UK pulse crops and are still an important part of the food systems today. Despite the United Kingdom having a rich history of crop diversity and being a centre of crop trade since the Victorian era, historic pea varieties have been largely lost. Most currently grown pea cultivars are of commercial use with little or no historical significance. In general, most UK landraces (including those of peas) today, are maintained ex situ in seedbanks. Varieties with a long UK heritage are arguably well‐suited to local conditions, but their cultivation is needed to enable their ongoing adaptation to climate change. Globally, many crops still have cultivated landraces; however, their use can be largely limited to local food systems. In the United Kingdom especially, there are legislative rules and frameworks such as the National Lists and Plant Breeders' Rights that increase the complexity of in situ maintenance of landraces and possibly de‐incentivise their wider use across the food systems today. These findings highlight the importance of underutilised varieties and neglected crops in sociocultural contexts.