Objective #ZeroHunger
Regenerating the planet starting from food: it’s possible!
The week in which World Food Day is celebrated, October 16, the anniversary of the foundation of the FAO, is coming to an end. For those like me, it is an important moment for reflection. A moment to consider all that we are studying with regards to food and all the dynamics of interaction between mankind and its nourishment. To consider our relation to health, culture and the environment in light of the epochal changes we are experiencing.
In 2014 we were talking about the Rights of the Earth. In 2015 with “Feeding fair” in Expo, UP day and students from all over Europe, we designed more equitable, healthy and sustainable food systems. In 2016 we brought the great challenges of the planet to the magical world of Maker Faire and we won our first Blue Ribbon for our Future Food Zone. In 2017 at the G7 of Agriculture in Bergamo, we celebrated the AgroGeneration, met Vandana Shiva and invited the farmers to a Contadinner (Farmer-dinner) — with Vazapp and Giuseppe Savino — in the marvellous setting of the cloisters of the Ex-Monastery of Sant’Agostino. We organized a hackathon that involved the MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research) and high school students from all over Italy that included good practices and innovations created by the agricultural institutes; and we hosted 3 task forces working on neglected crops, agro-innovation in smart cities, people and behavioral shifts; made by industry experts, scientists, innovators, and practitioners. In 2018 we celebrated the first year of our Living Lab in Bologna (La Scuderia of Er.Go). The Living Lab is now a meeting point for cultures and knowledge, telling our Food Innovation Global Mission and presenting the Food Shapers project with the 15 fellows of the food innovation program.
In 2019, working on various continents, we decided to start connecting some dots and to try to read this experience with new eyes.
We did just this, armed with knowledge on food, life, nourishment, a vehicle of values, culture, symbols and identity, a key tool of sociality, as a true instrument of regeneration, inclusion, and source of energy, dreaming of a civil economy. To do this, let’s start from the country that humanism has seen its origin and centuries of experimentation models. An economy where the keyword becomes “biodiversity”. An economy capable of giving space to those who are building the future, starting from a principle of prosperity, capable of working for the common good and not for the total good. A paradigm that requires the agri-food system to implement sustainable production and consumption models (from an economic and environmental point of view), scalable and capable of generating tangible impacts on the health of the human and of the planet; therefore, not only aimed at profit but also inextricably linked to the impact generated on the enlarged community.
By studying food, both from the point of view of fruition and from a cultural point of view, we began to map the “places” that threaten the balance between man-environment-culture-health, studying the dynamics of production and consumption, that today use the potential of technology and the new knowledge generated by data to create knowledge and widespread awareness, reducing and enhancing waste and focusing on a model that is oriented towards prosperity.
From July 10th until today, we have embarked on a real journey of regeneration and discovery, made up of 2 fundamental phases:
Phase 1: co-design within international training experiences;
Phase 2: validation and involvement of stakeholders.
The first phase took place during three missions (summer schools), organized in collaboration with the FAO (The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), which focused on the three places where the man has greatly modified the natural ecosystem and therefore need to intervene to rebalance the relationship between Man and Planet: the cities (Climate Smart Cities, New York, 10–17 July); agricultural areas (Climate Smart Farms, Tokyo, 1–7 August); the oceans and the seas (Climate Smart Oceans, Iceland, 1–7 September).
The matrix that underlies this toolbox might seem complex: it crosses 3 emblematic places in the fight against climate change (New York, Tokyo, Iceland) with ecosystems that science suggests are the hottest places for change (smart cities, rural areas, oceans); but it was addressed and analyzed with great motivation and humanity by all the selected participants with multidisciplinary profiles, ages, very different backgrounds (scientists, students, entrepreneurs, cooperators, policy makers, innovators, activists, artists); also seeing the involvement of companies, good practices experimented by large companies such as Google, CAMST, Enel, or startups such as Aerofarm or Icelandic clusters for the circular economy of the fish market, to the point of being involved in social enterprises such as Green Bronx Machine, or great investors able to apply the most disruptive technologies to food, like Plantx in Japan.
For 2 months, this complexity has become experience.
A learning experience that follows a precise methodology, borrowed thanks to our irreplaceable traveling companion, Prof. Matteo Vignoli who with the Design thinking teaches us the magic of innovation, and based on what Galileo Galilei said about teaching:
“you cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself”.
With this spirit, the journey that led us to create “Food for Earth”: it was a journey of inspiration, of aspiration — through the cases of success- and of action, through workshops and the collaborations born within this design frame.
The second phase, led by Claudia Laricchia, began in September and is involving public and private partners such as FAO, CNR, Enel and EY, experts and scientists, individuals and organizations. The cassette, thus validated by the first partners, was presented together with the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations on 27 September, in the occasion of the 74th General Assembly of the UN and of Week for Future, the youth climate event.
The “Food for Earth” Toolbox is composed of 5 areas of innovation to which correspond some objectives of sustainable development of the 2030 Agenda and 4 tools to analyze them and personalize them on some specific cases.
The 5 areas of innovation are: Food Diplomacy, Circular Living (lifestyles and Circular Economy models); Climate Smart Ecosystems; Food Identity; and Prosperity
The 4 tools are:
Humana Communitas, an expression used by the Pope to identify the human community that lives and influences life on Planet Earth.
Enabling Platforms that can activate and facilitate positive change.
Models, new organizational models capable of generating an exponential impact
Metrics, indicators and data that can measure change.
It is the first time that the “food” through which we connect with nature, is at the center of an interactive tool that has followed a complex and choral process, to restore the nature/man balance.
Today, thanks to the Future Food, the future that shouts to the resolution of environmental challenges, finds a tool that anyone can apply, analyze, study and implement to model the climate crisis, starting from food.
Within the SDGs framework (Sustainable Development Goals), the interrelations between Food Diplomacy, Circular Living, Climate Start Ecosystems, Food Identity and Prosperity, each from the point of view of the tools identified, allows us to discover how to shape food using it to live in a better Planet, imagining new organizational and thinking models and new metrics to measure a necessary change.
There follows an in-depth analysis of the areas of innovation.
Food Diplomacy
Food as an essential ingredient of human existence has always played an important role in inter-state relations and diploatic practice. Food as a means of exerting influence, communicating its culture, identity and driving force of key messages in the practice of public diplomacy in various countries. Food Diplomacy is also a fundamental discipline for managing the growing numbers of climate migrants.
The corresponding SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are:
SDG 1: Ending poverty in all its forms throughout the world
SDG 2: Ending hunger, achieving food security and better nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture
SDG 4: Ensuring inclusive and equal quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all
SDG 5: Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls
SDG 6: Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water resources and sanitation for all
SDG 10: Reducing inequalities within and between countries
SDG 16: Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, responsible and inclusive institutions at all levels
SDG 17: Strengthening implementation methods and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development
Circular Living
Living circular means to think of circulating and having an approach, in daily life, aimed at eliminating waste and the continuous management of resources, in a logic of recycling, reuse, regeneration and restructuring, which minimizes the use of resources and the production of waste, with a constant measurement of material and immaterial externalities. Consumer education is a priority to trigger circular processes, to shift habits towards quality rather than quantity.
The corresponding SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are:
SDG 7: Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
SDG 11: Making cites and human settlements inclusive, safe, flexible and sustainable
SDG 12: Guaranteeing sustainable consumption and production models
SDG 13: Taking urgent measures to combat climate changes and its consequences
Climate Smart Ecosystems
A climate-smart approach focuses on vulnerability to climate change and on processes that facilitate the adoption of adaption and mitigation strategies.
The toolbox then studies natural resources; conservation of ecosystems; mitigation, adaptation and resilience; human infrastructure; ecosystem-based solutions; technology as a catalyst and urban and intelligent agriculture.
The corresponding SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are:
SDG 6: Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water resources and sanitation for all
SDG 13: Taking urgent measures to combat climate changes and its consequences
SDG 14: Preserving and using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development in a sustainable way
SDG 15: Protecting, restoring and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests, fighting desertification, and stopping and reversing soil degradation and halting biodiversity loss
Food Identity
Food identities connote cultural richness and diversity within the territorial landscape, that is, of physical, organizational and socio-cultural spaces in which the inhabitants encounter food and food-related themes. The interaction of different food identities determines the overall culture of the places where the Humana Communitas and food anthropology reside.
The corresponding SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are:
SDG 2: Ending hunger, achieving food security and better nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture
SDG 3: Guaranteeing a healthy life and promoting well-being for everyone at all ages
SDG 9: Building resilient infrastructures, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and promoting innovation
SDG 11: Making cites and human settlements inclusive, safe, flexible and sustainable
SDG 12: Guaranteeing sustainable consumption and production models
Prosperity
The concept of prosperity is broadened and integrated with respect to the mere economic aspect to which we often want to force it. Prosperity includes the emotional, physical, mental, social, cultural and environmental parts. This also involves a rethinking of the indicators and generators of well-being that analyze ow food and nutrition generate prosperity. Prosperity training plays an essential role, both in individuals and in consumers, as well as in economic operators.
The corresponding SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are:
SDG 2: Ending hunger, achieving food security and better nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture
SDG 3: Guaranteeing a healthy life and promoting well-being for everyone at all ages
SDG 7: Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
SDG 8: Promoting a lasting, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and dignified work for all
SDG 9: Building resilient infrastructures, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and promoting innovation
SDG 10: Reducing inequalities within and between countries
Food is a global language. Being a highly interdisciplinary sector, the first commodity and the primary form of cultural expression, it unites people (all), industries and countries. Those involved in the agri-food sector can really make a difference by proving they know how to take care of something more than just profit. Themes of vital importance for the fate of humanity
By rethinking the agri-food systems we can save the world.
World food day is every day!
