The notion of the Mediterranean Diet has undergone a progressive evolution over the past 50 years... more The notion of the Mediterranean Diet has undergone a progressive evolution over the past 50 years – from a healthy dietary pattern to a new model of sustainable diet. This paper presents the Med Diet 4.0 as a comprehensive sustainable Mediterranean diet model, in which three additional sustainable dimensions - environmental, socio-cultural and economic - are incorporated and valorized together with its well documented health and nutrition benefits. The Med Diet 4.0 aims also to highlights the value of the Mediterranean diet as an outstanding sustainable resource for the Mediterranean countries to enhance the sustainability of their food systems. The Med Diet 4.0 model was developed within the ongoing FAO/CIHEAM case study on the Mediterranean diet as sustainable diet model. It is presented as an outcome of a historical collaborative effort by many of the co-authors and their institutions committed towards the enhancement of the Mediterranean diet heritage. In 2014, the International...
L'Osservatorio sul Dialogo nel Sistema Agroalimentare, promosso da Federazione dei Dottor... more L'Osservatorio sul Dialogo nel Sistema Agroalimentare, promosso da Federazione dei Dottori in Agraria e Forestali, Passiinsieme, Rete del Festival Cerealia ed ENEA, ha cercato possibili soluzioni alle difficoltà di dialogo emerse negli ultimi anni tra attori del sistema agroalimentare e mondo della ricerca scientifica. Una serie di incontri condotti con approccio partecipativo da facilitatori professionisti ha permesso di giungere alla stesura di un manifesto e alla individuazione di una serie di obiettivi ed azioni condivise, pensate per la sostenibilità del sistema agroalimentare. La larga e diversificata partecipazione di portatori di interesse ha reso il percorso molto ricco in termini di confronto, costruzione del consenso, chiarificazione dei termini del problema, individuazione di possibili soluzioni. Questa pubblicazione documenta in modo fedele il percorso e i risultati ottenuti dall’Osservatorio. La metodologia partecipativa utilizzata consente inoltre una riflessione sui possibili percorsi da seguire per l’accettabilità sociale dei risultati della ricerca, testimoniando di come il dialogo sia un requisito essenziale per il funzionamento della società in generale.
Latest FAO figures indicate that an estimated 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, repr... more Latest FAO figures indicate that an estimated 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, representing almost 16 percent of the population in developing countries. The fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry even after the recent food and financial crises have largely passed indicates a deep structural problem that gravely threatens the ability to achieve internationally agreed goals on hunger reduction. If we look to the future, there are, in addition, major challenges ahead. The first is the rapidly changing socio-economic environment, where it is predicted that the world’s population will increase from about 7 to 9 billion people by 2050; the share living in urban areas will increase from about 50 to 70 percent by 2050; and people’s diets will change, shifting to increased proportions of vegetables, fruits and livestock products. The second is climate change, which is expected to have an increasingly negative impact on agriculture and food security.
ABSTRACT FAO and its Governing Bodies recognize the role biotechnology can play in augmenting agr... more ABSTRACT FAO and its Governing Bodies recognize the role biotechnology can play in augmenting agricultural production when properly integrated with other technologies. Member countries look to FAO's assistance in strengthening their institutions through provision of technical, legal and policy advice as well as promotion of information exchange. Information on biotechnology activities in developing countries is scarce and this has prompted FAO to develop an inventory of plant biotechnology products and techniques in use or in the pipeline in developing countries. The inventory has been compiled and organized into a searchable online database called the FAO Biotechnology In Developing Countries Database (FAO-BioDeC). This document summarizes and analyses the information contained in the database as of 31 August 2004. Individual country information in the database is organized in two broad categories: genetically modified crops and other biotechnologies. The status of application is divided into three classes: research phase, field trials and commercialization (in the case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or routine utilization (in the case of other biotechnologies). GMOs are classified within the database as having genes conferring resistance to pests (Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, nematodes), pathogens (viruses, bacteria and fungi), herbicides (gluphosinate, glyphosate, phosphinotricin), abiotic stresses (frost, salt, heat and drought) or modified for improved quality traits (vitamin content, oil composition, protein quality and altered growth/development). GMO activities (479 records, Table 12) are ongoing in many countries but unevenly distributed, with Latin America and Asia recording 85 percent of all recorded GMO activities in the developing world (45 percent and 40 percent, respectively). GMO activities aimed at pathogen resistant cultivars form 35 percent of the total activities, followed by pest resistance at 20 percent, quality traits and herbicide resistance each at 16 percent. Most of the commercialized GMOs were acquired from developed countries and are mainly herbicide and Bt resistant cotton, maize and soybean cultivars. From the number of field trials (40 percent of all GMO activities) it can be postulated that in the near future the developing country markets will have new GM crops such as virus resistant papaya, sweet potato and cassava; rice tolerant to abiotic stress (salinity and drought), and even high lysine maize and soybeans with improved oil composition. However, a lot of biosafety capacity building is needed to enable many countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and the Near East to benefit from this technology. The use of other biotechnologies, such as micropropagation, molecular markers, diagnostics and microbial techniques, in developing countries is much more prevalent (1 351) activities recorded: Table 14) and the distribution of the activities seems not as skewed between regions as in the case of GMOs. For example, plant propagation techniques are the most used (49 percent) of all biotechnologies and regional proportions are as follows: Latin America, 30 percent; Asia, 28 percent; Africa, 20 percent; Eastern Europe, 18 percent; and the Near East, 4 percent. Generally, there may be under-reporting of some technologies that are considered too routine. Future information gathering for the FAO-BioDeC should strive to highlight all these biotechnology applications. Many of these technologies are being used on a commercial scale but only a few studies have been carried out to assess their socio-economic impacts. This is an area that needs urgent attention as it is likely to help guide research and technology policies towards wider and efficient utilization of all the biotechnologies. Even though the database is not complete at present, it does give a clear picture of developing country and regional competencies in biotechnology and can be used to identify potential partners for joint programmes. A network of country correspondents has been put into place for the regular updating of the database. In the near future the FAO-BioDeC will be expanded to cover the forestry, animal and fisheries sectors. The book is available at www.fao.org/docrep/008/y5800e/y5800e00.htm
Gracias a los avances científicosy tecnológicos, la agricultura mundial produce hoy alimentos más... more Gracias a los avances científicosy tecnológicos, la agricultura mundial produce hoy alimentos más que suficientes para alimentar a una población mundial de cerca de 7 mil millones de habitantes. Sin embargo, casi mil millones de personas todavía padecenhambre crónica. El crecimiento demográfico, la migración de las zonas rurales a , loscambiosen la alimentación puedenacrecer la demanda de alimentos, que se estima en 2050 será mayor que la de hoy por un 60 por ciento. Los desafíosseránmásagudos aún,considerando el cambio climáticoy la erosiónde los recursos naturales. Es por lotanto necesario acrecer las inversiones en investigacióny desarrollo en agricultura, especialmente enlos paísesen desarrollo. Las capacidades de los sistemas nacionales de innovaciónen agricultura de los países en desarrollo deben ser desarrolladas, asíque puedanresponder a las necesidades de los pequeños agricultores. La Plataforma de Agricultura Tropical(TAP),una iniciativapromovida por el G20 y facilitada po...
Transdisciplinary Case Studies on Design for Food and Sustainability
The dialogue between the actors of the food and agriculture system is in crisis, generating many ... more The dialogue between the actors of the food and agriculture system is in crisis, generating many problems of acceptance of innovation. This problem has clear elements of “wickedness” (Rittel & Webber, 1974). This chapter describes the work done by the Observatory on Dialogue in Agri-food System, an informal group founded in 2018 by a number of associations and individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, to define the problem and to devise solutions. The Observatory organized a series of professionally facilitated workshops and in-depth meetings that took place in 2018 and 2019. This activity involved a very diverse group of stakeholders and adopted a design thinking approach, which allowed to establish a reciprocal respect climate and elicit empathy (Massari, Allievi, & Recanati, 2020), to define the boundaries of the problem and to ideate possible solutions. At the end of the journey the group prototyped the ideas and summarized them in a manifesto, containing a shared mission and a set of specific objectives and actions to be recommended to agri-food system actors.
Over the last 50 years global food production has almost tripled. This increase has enabled the g... more Over the last 50 years global food production has almost tripled. This increase has enabled the global agrifood system to satisfy the rising food demand. Notwithstanding this result, in 2017 821 million people suffered from undernourishment, because of unequal distribution of food around the planet and within countries, and inefficient food distribution and utilization. Undernourishment is accompanied by the mirroring problems of malnutrition and overnutrition. The spectacular increase in global food production has often been achieved at the cost of erosion of the natural resources that form the basis of agriculture, including land, soil fertility, water, energy and biodiversity. In addition, global food losses and waste are estimated to reach the level of roughly one third of the food produced for human consumption, or 1.3 billion tons per year. Food and agriculture system are therefore called to undertake the transition towards their sustainability. This paper critically analyzes ...
The notion of the Mediterranean Diet has undergone a progressive evolution over the past 50 years... more The notion of the Mediterranean Diet has undergone a progressive evolution over the past 50 years – from a healthy dietary pattern to a new model of sustainable diet. This paper presents the Med Diet 4.0 as a comprehensive sustainable Mediterranean diet model, in which three additional sustainable dimensions - environmental, socio-cultural and economic - are incorporated and valorized together with its well documented health and nutrition benefits. The Med Diet 4.0 aims also to highlights the value of the Mediterranean diet as an outstanding sustainable resource for the Mediterranean countries to enhance the sustainability of their food systems. The Med Diet 4.0 model was developed within the ongoing FAO/CIHEAM case study on the Mediterranean diet as sustainable diet model. It is presented as an outcome of a historical collaborative effort by many of the co-authors and their institutions committed towards the enhancement of the Mediterranean diet heritage. In 2014, the International...
L'Osservatorio sul Dialogo nel Sistema Agroalimentare, promosso da Federazione dei Dottor... more L'Osservatorio sul Dialogo nel Sistema Agroalimentare, promosso da Federazione dei Dottori in Agraria e Forestali, Passiinsieme, Rete del Festival Cerealia ed ENEA, ha cercato possibili soluzioni alle difficoltà di dialogo emerse negli ultimi anni tra attori del sistema agroalimentare e mondo della ricerca scientifica. Una serie di incontri condotti con approccio partecipativo da facilitatori professionisti ha permesso di giungere alla stesura di un manifesto e alla individuazione di una serie di obiettivi ed azioni condivise, pensate per la sostenibilità del sistema agroalimentare. La larga e diversificata partecipazione di portatori di interesse ha reso il percorso molto ricco in termini di confronto, costruzione del consenso, chiarificazione dei termini del problema, individuazione di possibili soluzioni. Questa pubblicazione documenta in modo fedele il percorso e i risultati ottenuti dall’Osservatorio. La metodologia partecipativa utilizzata consente inoltre una riflessione sui possibili percorsi da seguire per l’accettabilità sociale dei risultati della ricerca, testimoniando di come il dialogo sia un requisito essenziale per il funzionamento della società in generale.
Latest FAO figures indicate that an estimated 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, repr... more Latest FAO figures indicate that an estimated 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, representing almost 16 percent of the population in developing countries. The fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry even after the recent food and financial crises have largely passed indicates a deep structural problem that gravely threatens the ability to achieve internationally agreed goals on hunger reduction. If we look to the future, there are, in addition, major challenges ahead. The first is the rapidly changing socio-economic environment, where it is predicted that the world’s population will increase from about 7 to 9 billion people by 2050; the share living in urban areas will increase from about 50 to 70 percent by 2050; and people’s diets will change, shifting to increased proportions of vegetables, fruits and livestock products. The second is climate change, which is expected to have an increasingly negative impact on agriculture and food security.
ABSTRACT FAO and its Governing Bodies recognize the role biotechnology can play in augmenting agr... more ABSTRACT FAO and its Governing Bodies recognize the role biotechnology can play in augmenting agricultural production when properly integrated with other technologies. Member countries look to FAO's assistance in strengthening their institutions through provision of technical, legal and policy advice as well as promotion of information exchange. Information on biotechnology activities in developing countries is scarce and this has prompted FAO to develop an inventory of plant biotechnology products and techniques in use or in the pipeline in developing countries. The inventory has been compiled and organized into a searchable online database called the FAO Biotechnology In Developing Countries Database (FAO-BioDeC). This document summarizes and analyses the information contained in the database as of 31 August 2004. Individual country information in the database is organized in two broad categories: genetically modified crops and other biotechnologies. The status of application is divided into three classes: research phase, field trials and commercialization (in the case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or routine utilization (in the case of other biotechnologies). GMOs are classified within the database as having genes conferring resistance to pests (Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, nematodes), pathogens (viruses, bacteria and fungi), herbicides (gluphosinate, glyphosate, phosphinotricin), abiotic stresses (frost, salt, heat and drought) or modified for improved quality traits (vitamin content, oil composition, protein quality and altered growth/development). GMO activities (479 records, Table 12) are ongoing in many countries but unevenly distributed, with Latin America and Asia recording 85 percent of all recorded GMO activities in the developing world (45 percent and 40 percent, respectively). GMO activities aimed at pathogen resistant cultivars form 35 percent of the total activities, followed by pest resistance at 20 percent, quality traits and herbicide resistance each at 16 percent. Most of the commercialized GMOs were acquired from developed countries and are mainly herbicide and Bt resistant cotton, maize and soybean cultivars. From the number of field trials (40 percent of all GMO activities) it can be postulated that in the near future the developing country markets will have new GM crops such as virus resistant papaya, sweet potato and cassava; rice tolerant to abiotic stress (salinity and drought), and even high lysine maize and soybeans with improved oil composition. However, a lot of biosafety capacity building is needed to enable many countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and the Near East to benefit from this technology. The use of other biotechnologies, such as micropropagation, molecular markers, diagnostics and microbial techniques, in developing countries is much more prevalent (1 351) activities recorded: Table 14) and the distribution of the activities seems not as skewed between regions as in the case of GMOs. For example, plant propagation techniques are the most used (49 percent) of all biotechnologies and regional proportions are as follows: Latin America, 30 percent; Asia, 28 percent; Africa, 20 percent; Eastern Europe, 18 percent; and the Near East, 4 percent. Generally, there may be under-reporting of some technologies that are considered too routine. Future information gathering for the FAO-BioDeC should strive to highlight all these biotechnology applications. Many of these technologies are being used on a commercial scale but only a few studies have been carried out to assess their socio-economic impacts. This is an area that needs urgent attention as it is likely to help guide research and technology policies towards wider and efficient utilization of all the biotechnologies. Even though the database is not complete at present, it does give a clear picture of developing country and regional competencies in biotechnology and can be used to identify potential partners for joint programmes. A network of country correspondents has been put into place for the regular updating of the database. In the near future the FAO-BioDeC will be expanded to cover the forestry, animal and fisheries sectors. The book is available at www.fao.org/docrep/008/y5800e/y5800e00.htm
Gracias a los avances científicosy tecnológicos, la agricultura mundial produce hoy alimentos más... more Gracias a los avances científicosy tecnológicos, la agricultura mundial produce hoy alimentos más que suficientes para alimentar a una población mundial de cerca de 7 mil millones de habitantes. Sin embargo, casi mil millones de personas todavía padecenhambre crónica. El crecimiento demográfico, la migración de las zonas rurales a , loscambiosen la alimentación puedenacrecer la demanda de alimentos, que se estima en 2050 será mayor que la de hoy por un 60 por ciento. Los desafíosseránmásagudos aún,considerando el cambio climáticoy la erosiónde los recursos naturales. Es por lotanto necesario acrecer las inversiones en investigacióny desarrollo en agricultura, especialmente enlos paísesen desarrollo. Las capacidades de los sistemas nacionales de innovaciónen agricultura de los países en desarrollo deben ser desarrolladas, asíque puedanresponder a las necesidades de los pequeños agricultores. La Plataforma de Agricultura Tropical(TAP),una iniciativapromovida por el G20 y facilitada po...
Transdisciplinary Case Studies on Design for Food and Sustainability
The dialogue between the actors of the food and agriculture system is in crisis, generating many ... more The dialogue between the actors of the food and agriculture system is in crisis, generating many problems of acceptance of innovation. This problem has clear elements of “wickedness” (Rittel & Webber, 1974). This chapter describes the work done by the Observatory on Dialogue in Agri-food System, an informal group founded in 2018 by a number of associations and individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, to define the problem and to devise solutions. The Observatory organized a series of professionally facilitated workshops and in-depth meetings that took place in 2018 and 2019. This activity involved a very diverse group of stakeholders and adopted a design thinking approach, which allowed to establish a reciprocal respect climate and elicit empathy (Massari, Allievi, & Recanati, 2020), to define the boundaries of the problem and to ideate possible solutions. At the end of the journey the group prototyped the ideas and summarized them in a manifesto, containing a shared mission and a set of specific objectives and actions to be recommended to agri-food system actors.
Over the last 50 years global food production has almost tripled. This increase has enabled the g... more Over the last 50 years global food production has almost tripled. This increase has enabled the global agrifood system to satisfy the rising food demand. Notwithstanding this result, in 2017 821 million people suffered from undernourishment, because of unequal distribution of food around the planet and within countries, and inefficient food distribution and utilization. Undernourishment is accompanied by the mirroring problems of malnutrition and overnutrition. The spectacular increase in global food production has often been achieved at the cost of erosion of the natural resources that form the basis of agriculture, including land, soil fertility, water, energy and biodiversity. In addition, global food losses and waste are estimated to reach the level of roughly one third of the food produced for human consumption, or 1.3 billion tons per year. Food and agriculture system are therefore called to undertake the transition towards their sustainability. This paper critically analyzes ...
L'Osservatorio sul Dialogo nel Sistema Agroalimentare, promosso da Federazione dei Dottori in Agr... more L'Osservatorio sul Dialogo nel Sistema Agroalimentare, promosso da Federazione dei Dottori in Agraria e Forestali, Passiinsieme, Rete del Festival Cerealia ed ENEA, ha cercato possibili soluzioni alle difficoltà di dialogo emerse negli ultimi anni tra attori del sistema agroalimentare e mondo della ricerca scientifica. Una serie di incontri condotti con approccio partecipativo da facilitatori professionisti ha permesso di giungere alla stesura di un manifesto e alla individuazione di una serie di obiettivi ed azioni condivise, pensate per la sostenibilità del sistema agroalimentare. La larga e diversificata partecipazione di portatori di interesse ha reso il percorso molto ricco in termini di confronto, costruzione del consenso, chiarificazione dei termini del problema, individuazione di possibili soluzioni. Questa pubblicazione documenta in modo fedele il percorso e i risultati ottenuti dall’Osservatorio. La metodologia partecipativa utilizzata consente inoltre una riflessione sui possibili percorsi da seguire per l’accettabilità sociale dei risultati della ricerca, testimoniando di come il dialogo sia un requisito essenziale per il funzionamento della società in generale.
Transdisciplinary Case Studies on Design for Food and Sustainability, 2021
The dialogue between the actors of the food and agriculture system is in crisis, generating many ... more The dialogue between the actors of the food and agriculture system is in crisis, generating many problems of acceptance of innovation. This problem has clear elements of “wickedness” (Rittel & Webber, 1974). This chapter describes the work done by the Observatory on Dialogue in Agri-food System, an informal group founded in 2018 by a number of associations and individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, to define the problem and to devise solutions. The Observatory organized a series of professionally facilitated workshops and in-depth meetings that took place in 2018 and 2019. This activity involved a very diverse group of stakeholders and adopted a design thinking approach, which allowed to establish a reciprocal respect climate and elicit empathy (Massari, Allievi, & Recanati, 2020), to define the boundaries of the problem and to ideate possible solutions. At the end of the journey the group prototyped the ideas and summarized them in a manifesto, containing a shared mission and a set of specific objectives and actions to be recommended to agri-food system actors.
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