ROME, JUNE 24th – “At the pre-summit on food systems, to be held in Rome, we will bring Italy’s concrete commitment to promoting the sustainable nutrition model that distinguishes this nation. The Italian food system is an ideal blueprint for the relationship between quality of food and sustainability, including economic and agricultural sustainability, also in regards to the agro-industry and livestock farming”, The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, said today, in his address to the event “Buono! Italian stories of sustainable agriculture, territories and food”.
The meeting was organized in view of the Food Systems Summit, to be held in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. “The pre-summit, which will take place in Rome between the 26th and 28th of July, will be a testing ground for the proposal of actions aimed at improving the way we think, produce and consume food globally,” stressed the Minister. The Summit has the 2030 Agenda at its core, and is indeed conceived as a step towards achieving sustainable development and zero hunger within the next ten years: “A step closer to a world where food security and balanced nutrition for all are guaranteed.”
Di Maio also highlighted the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which, together with other government Administrations -in particular the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies led by Minister Patuanelli- is actively negotiating to collect and share with partner countries the experiences of food sectors in regards to more resilient food systems. To this end a “table” on Italian supply chains was created at the Directorate General for Development Cooperation. In light of the upcoming Food Systems Summit, this group is meant to incentivize the development of common positions to be presented.
At the Rome event -under the aegis of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, and in collaboration with the Santa Chiara Lab University of Siena and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs- the Italian sustainable food supply chain made a united appeal to the government, asking for Italy to take a strong and clear position against the “drift” towards synthetic foods.
David Granieri of AgroCamera, Luigi Scordamaglia of Filiera Italia, Ivano Vacondio for Federalimentari and Marco Pedroni of Coop criticized countries which are promoting the use of laboratory food to achieve zero environmental impact. Their criticism was also directed towards the ‘traffic light labels’ system, which divided food products in good or bad. They also called into question those big companies who are putting products like synthetic milk made with peas on the market. (@OnuItalia)
