The complexity of the agricultural system requires considering a significant number of variables that, directly and indirectly, affect the results of agricultural in terms efficiency and sustainability. Alongside the system of food production there are fundamental aspects concerning energy, soil quality, availability/use of water resources, (agro-)biodiversity and socio-economic effects that impact agriculture at the local level. The collective impact of migration, population and different agricultural models on food security and human health are particularly relevant. Dietary habits and the consequences of climate change must also be taken into account among the major “underlying” issues in the assessment of agricultural systems. Agriculture, in all its complexity, demonstrates daily its fragility and its exposure to possible shocks that might occur at the expense of one or more of its constituent factors; therefore, it must find new forms of balance that would allow it to be sustainable in the long run.

Biotechnology in the agri-food sector

Greater awareness of the environmental impact of agri culture is increasing interest in more sustainable agro-food models.

Healty food for people, sustainable for the planet

The publication of the Double Pyramid paper in June 2010 sent out the first strong signal of how important it was to pay attention to food choices, not only with regard to health, but also as to environmental protection. This new 2011 edition has tripled the amount of data collected from scientific literature and from public environmental databases. The new data confirms the validity of the work and scientifically strengthens the model upon which the Double Pyramid of the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition is based.

Water Emergency: availability and economic interests

In the near future, partly because of global warming and pollution, the amount of freshwater available to humanity may not be sufficient to meet the growing demand. If the trend of demographic and economic development should be confirmed, and if we do not adopt new systems to avoid waste and reduce consumption, the value of water resources will eventually increase enough to seriously affect the global economy and geopolitical balance. This is why managing and governing the resource of water and its use represent one of the biggest challenges that society faces today on a global scale.

Transgenic crops and the problems of access to food, the environment and health

Transgenic crops and the problems of access to food, the environment and health. BCFN will answer to what extent the extraordinary advances in science, that in the last decades have enabled us to modify the genetic structure of plants, can provide sustainable (and thus lasting) answers to the important problems on which it focuses its activity: food for all, food for sustainable growth, food for health and food for culture. With this document, which has a strong multidisciplinary character, devoted in particular to GMOs, we are trying to find answers to the following questions: 1) Can GMOs provide an effective and lasting solution to the problems of access to food in the world or do they risk increasing inequality? 2) Can GMOs contribute to solving problems of environmental sustainability and the scarcity of natural resources or are they a threat to biodiversity? 3) Are there risks connected with eating the genetically modified food now on the market? 4) What information do people have about biotechnologies and GMOs and how is the subject handled by the media? In this study we have attempted to integrate the different perspectives to arrive at a synthetic but detailed opinion, based on the representation of the different positions compared and on the facts that compose them

sustainable food for the planet

Food that is healthy for people and sustainable for the planet. People have been aware for some time that good diet is essential for good health. In 1992 the U.S. Department of Agriculture published the first food pyramid, which provided an effective explanation of how to achieve a balanced diet. Now the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition presents a new food pyramid in a double version, positioning foods not only in relation to their positive impact on health, but also with respect to their impact on the environment. This becomes a “Double Pyramid”: a new nutritional-environmental pyramid placed alongside the more widely known food-nutritional pyramid. From the “Double Pyramid” we can see how the foods that are recommended for most frequent consumption are also those that have the lowest impact on the environment. On the contrary, the foods that are recommended for least frequent consumption are also those that have the highest impact on the environment. From this new concept of the Food Pyramid we can observe, in a single model, how two different but equally significant goals coincide: good health and environmental protection.

Agriculture and climate change are characterized by a complex relationship. Agriculture produces a large amount of greenhouse gases, the main cause of climate change. However, at the same time, it is affected by the negative impacts of it, in terms of lower yields and increase risks for food security. “The challenge of climate change, and what we do about it, will define us, our era, and ultimately, our global legacy”.

Although renewable, water is a scarce resource. As the World Bank has noted, we can contain it, divert it, collect it, purify it, package it, transport it and transform it, but we cannot “manufacture it”. This simple observation leads to a complex truth: handling and managing water as a resource, as well as its use, represents one of the greatest challenges that society faces today on a global scale.