Ccultivated arne, ancient grains and new technologies. With these three “dishes”, very hot today, we will set our table tomorrow. «Not too distant a tomorrow», he explains Sharon Cittone, Italian delegate of the G100 and Global Chair Food Innovation. THElisted by Forbes among the most powerful women in the world who will shape the future of food, Cittone is among the excellent guests ofL Women Economic Forum which opens today: for the first time in Italy, in Rome (until November 23).
Women Economic Forum, what challenges for women globally
This is an important moment of sharing and discussion on the challenges that women are facing in the world today. And they are many and ambitious, given that, according to theL Global Gender Gap Report 2023 of the World Economic Forum, 131 years are still needed to close the overall gender gap (while for economic and political equality 169 and 162 years are needed respectively).
«Despite the many young women entrepreneurs who are establishing themselves, we continue to be taken little seriously. Not everywhere equally but certainly in Italy and in the countries of southern Europe”, admits Cittone (in the Global Gender Gap Report Italy is down 16 positions compared to 2022, in 79th place out of the 146 countries analyzed). «But also in the USA, for example, women do reach high positions, but as marketing and communications heads. There are few female CEOs or founders. The issue that undermines the career possibility for certain positions is always the same: but then can you be CEO and mother?».
Cultured meat and new technologies: the future of food according to Sharon Cittone
Some, and this is the case of Sharon Cittone, reach the highest levels. With its platform Edible Planet Venturesoffers support for companies aiming for agri-food innovation. A fundamental field for the future of the planet, dominated by many prejudices and clichés.
For example? «Few consumers are aware that the agri-food sector has an impact on approx a third on climate change». What we bring to the table has a decisive impact on the health of the Earth, as well as our own.
So here they are 7 great challenges of the future of food according to Sharon Cittone. Seven challenges that correspond to choices that each of us can make when shopping. Maybe not today, but soon.
1. Cultured meat
«The most important issue for a planet with a growing population and an increasing demand for meat is that of complementary and alternative proteins. AND cultured meat is one solution which only a short-sighted policy can fail to see”, explains Cittone. Clear words, following the approval, in Parliament, of bill that bans the production and sale of cultured meat in Italy (but not imports from abroad, should the European food safety authority EFSA rule in favour).
Among the widespread prejudices is the fact that it is synthetic meat. While «it is animal protein processed in the laboratory without the addition of antibiotics, therefore the best you could wish for».
Or, what undermines Made in Italy: false. «If you think that by banning the production of cultured meat you are supporting Italian farmers, you are wrong: Italy imports half of the meat it eats, so Made in Italy has nothing to do with it at all. Not only that: climate change makes it increasingly difficult to do agriculture in Italy: finding alternatives means focusing on this sector.” The only result of the ban? Italian consumers will continue to import meat even when cultivated meat becomes available.
2. Less intensive farming
It is the competition from intensive farming that must be fought. Those for whom the fodder produced on 60% of the world’s arable land. This is the amount of land used to feed battery-raised animals. «Consider what you are eating: look for images of a chicken from 50 years ago and compare it to chicken as it is today. You will discover that you are feeding on Schwarzenegger chickens, with enormous pecs, who have very little of chicken.”
3. Italian excellence
Cultured meat does not compete with excellence. «Indeed, the Chianina breeder or the meat produced in the mountain pastures will be better protected, precisely because they are Italian excellences. It is right to spend more to eat less meat, if it is good and healthy».
Innovation, even when it comes to cultured meat, is attractive investments. «With the advantage of create jobs and economic activities. But also to retain the brains who, otherwise, will go abroad, where innovation is financed.”
But investments in Italian products must be coherent, responding to an overall vision. «It is not possible to pay a pineapple a quarter of an apple from Trentino: the consumer may go home happy but the system that offered him this choice is wrong.”
4. Regenerative agriculture
«It means, in part, returning to the wisdom of our grandparents. In part, innovate. The future of food is in organic but also regenerative agriculture: the one that aims to safeguard the microbiome, regenerating the soil. Only in this way will we return to having oranges that taste like oranges, and apples that taste like apples, with nutritional properties which today we presume they have but no longer have”, explains Cittone.
A ban, therefore, on the intensive exploitation of the soil and on monocultures intended for livestock farming. Good and regenerative agriculture is what increases the biodiversity of plant species and microbial oneswhich integrates animals and plants on the farm and which also allows the land to rest.
5. Biodiversity
Over the course of human history, out of approximately 30,000 species of edible plants, “only” 6/7 thousand have been cultivated for food purposes. And of these “only” 170 on a commercially significant scale. But today we are heavily dependent on only about thirty of these crops. AND More than 40% of our daily calories come from just three of those 30,000: rice, wheat and corn. The fact that thousands of crops have been neglected or underutilized is not only a shame for all the flavors and nutrients we’re missing out on, but also for agriculture itself. If they have been “neglected” it is perhaps because they have low yields or simply have not been well studied and have never entered the global market. Supported by the right policies and funding, they could be reborn.
«Italy is, in this sense, a case study: it has a unique biodiversity. From ancient grains to apples: the variety of foods available to create a healthy and rich diet is enormous”, explains Cittone. Let’s take i legumes: Slow Food has included them 300 on board his Ark of Tasteof which 124 in Italy, and well 48 legumes in Italy they are Slow Food Presidia. Or olives: In Italy there are over 538 varieties of olive trees, which produce oil olives.
«And yet we tend to always eat the same 3 foods. Wheat, corn and wheat. But what we are eating is also a public health issue: with repercussions on collective, as well as individual, well-being.”
The consumer can support biodiversity and regenerative rotational agriculture: «By eating, or learning to eat, different things. Of the right season and the territory in which it lives, first and foremost. Rediscovering ancient and delicious products that risk being lost because the market doesn’t require them”, continues Cittone.
6. The supply chain
Among the challenges of the future of food there is also a new attention to the supply chain. «It means asking yourself and demanding to know where the food you bring to your table comes from. Be it the cultured meat, the Chianina steak, the pineapple or the pasta dish. When you read an ingredient on the label that you struggle to pronounce, don’t buy that product. Stop» says Cittone.
7. Food waste
«Food waste throughout the supply chain is another important issue, with an exorbitant impact on the wallet and health», concludes Cittone. «But a decisive theme is also the impact of packaging. Including the so-called biodegradable bags, which are not biodegradable at all. Each of our choices is decisive: let’s try to weigh our courgette without the bag and put the label on it. Changing things from below is possible.”
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED