• Draghi to FAO: "Covid has aggravated the food crisis, 130 million more suffer from hunger"

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July 27, 2021 "We could call it the people's summit. We are still far from zero hunger but the G20 has put this goal at the center of its agenda": this is what the Minister of Agricultural and Food Policies Stefano Patuanelli said at the FAO pre-summit on systems food. Patuanelli indicated four objectives: eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable agriculture, greater awareness of consumption and protection of models linked to the territory.



Mediterranean diet, Unesco heritage

"The Mediterranean diet, in addition to being a list of foods to eat recommended in type and quantity, is actually a real lifestyle" and "has been recognized as a UNESCO heritage not only for its health characteristics, but also in recognition of its cultural value; a value that also reaffirms its function as a promoter of environmental, social and cultural quality ", underlined Minister Patuanelli, speaking at the event - which anticipates the UN Food Systems Summit - underway at FAO, in Rome. "The real answer to combat proven unhealthy food, what is defined as junk food - industrialized, manipulated and standardized - is the return to traditions immersed in modernity with products with geographical indications,that enhance the territory, eco-sustainable and with the tendency to choose the Mediterranean diet as a way of life "said the minister.



No to over-simplified labeling

"In Italy we are convinced of the importance of food education already at school age and we have experimented with forms of labeling that provide complete information to citizens, who have the right to make informed choices about the product they decide to consume and the production process through which the various products are obtained ", said Patuanelli again. "It is essential - in this information process that I would define '' from above '', that is, that of labeling - that we do not allow ourselves to be tempted by the excessive simplification of language" he added. "A vice that could lead to the flattening of the typical characteristics of the territories and to the homologation and leveling of food culture, probably downwards "concluded the minister.




Cia-Italian

farmers

: Italy guarantor of food security

Italian agriculture is a candidate to be the guarantor of global food security. It is a commitment that sector operators have always recognized with responsibility and of which the pandemic has ended up bringing out its value and centrality. Health, food and economic crisis on the one hand and the impetus for the green transition on the other, now require agricultural businesses to make a collective effort which must be supported, as in the words of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, by "an increase in access to credit, especially small farmers ". This is how CIA-Agricoltori Italiani, after the inaugural day of the pre UN summit on food systems, underway in Rome at the FAO headquarters.



Elba (Ifad): change the role of women

"Let's see how women are marginalized, it's unfair and unfair": This was reported by Sabrina Elba, UN goodwill ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), during the press conference that opened the second day of the UN pre-summit on food systems, underway in Rome at the FAO headquarters. Elba has been involved in the field since April 2020 in projects supported by Ifad in Sierra Leone and aimed at women and girls from rural areas. "We have to give them opportunities to prove themselves, support them in getting what they want." For Elba "it is the recognition of the world community, leaders and governments that must change".