“During the UN Pre-Summit on Food Systems that Italy will host, we want to emphasise the strategic role of food systems to create a sustainable world, develop a food culture, and fight against waste in line with 2030 Agenda”. This what the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Marina Sereni stated at the videoconference, “Food culture in a sustainable food system”, as part of the National Dialogue in preparation for the Food Systems Summit in Rome at the end of July.
“Our approach to development, based on respect for human rights, support for small-scale producers, cooperatives and the involvement of local communities, is aimed at enhancing,” Sereni continued, “the voices that are less listened to give them strength, as we have been doing for years in our projects on women’s agricultural entrepreneurship and women’s leaders’ associations. This is why at the Pre-Summit in Rome, we want to talk about food, economic and social sustainability, the environment, and education. We believe that local and global can be complementary and that it is possible to transmit local values and traditions on a global scale in the name of sustainability”.
Many Italian companies have pursued sustainable agri-food policies in recent years,” said the Vice Minister, “and this is why I think that our food system can only progress if we can listen to those in our country who have taken on the role of guardian of biodiversity by implementing agro-ecological practices for resilient agriculture in scenarios made increasingly difficult by various factors, first and foremost climate change; Those who, through their work, have preserved traditions and products of excellence, playing the role of ‘Ambassador’ of Italy to the world; all those who, like the Banco Alimentare (Food Bank), are daily committed to delivering surplus food to those that, even more so now in the COVID-19 crisis, do not have enough of it. Thanks to this listening capacity,” Sereni concluded, “we will be able to make powerful and shared choices on an issue as essential for Italy and the world as the food system”.