The eighth edition of the International Forum was held on December 4-5, 2017, at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. Food security, climate change and migration, sustainable food systems at the national and urban level, and European agricultural reform were at the heart of discussions at the BCFN Forum 2017.
On December 4, new generations were given a voice, involving young leaders from all over the world in two initiatives aimed at recognizing excellence: the Food Sustainability Media Award, for professional journalists and emerging talent in journalism, and the BCFNYES! contest, designed to reward young researchers and the most deserving projects focusing on “food and sustainability”.
On December 5, leading speakers from around the world discussed in depth the main topics of the event and engaged the participants through working sessions, thereby encouraging their active involvement.
Workshop Contribution: How will climate change alter migration? The role of food, farming and livelihoods
Alex RandallClimate change is set to alter patterns of migration and displacement. One of the key driving forces in this is food and farming. As climate change impacts rural and agricultural livelihoods, people will respond by moving. But instead of seeing migration only as a disaster, we should look to the positive ways in which migration can strengthen livelihoods and help people respond to the worst impacts of climate change.
Workshop Contribution: Addressing climate change induced migration in East Africa
Eoin WrennClimate change, while a global phenomenon, is having disproportionate impacts on the poor and vulnerable in the developing world. In rural Kenya climate change is leaving local communities who depend on their natural resource base to survive extremely vulnerable and many have no option but to migrate to find alternative means of survival. However, we can give people alternative to migration by addressing the root causes of climate migration through ecosystems based adaptation. This begins with an understanding of the fact that the livelihoods of those who are most at risk from climate change depend on the natural resources in their localities. These natural resources are under threat from a range of factors, including climate change itself, but also factors such as natural resource exploitation, lack of livelihoods options and weak governance. We need to support vulnerable communities to restore the ecosystems in which they live so that they can enjoy more abundant livelihoods, within the constraints set by the changing climate.
Workshop Contribution: Philanthropic approaches to climate change and human mobility
John SlocumDr. Slocum will present an introduction to philanthropic efforts in support of research, policy, and practical interventions addressing climate-induced migration, forced displacement, and planned relocation—with a special emphasis on global policy initiatives.
Workshop Contribution: Geopolitics, food and migration
Lucio CaraccioloLucio Caracciolo will present the research by the geopolitical analysis company MacroGeo with BCFN Foundation on “Food and migration”, exploring the geopolitical relevance of food and migration in the Mediterranean area, considered as the fault line between migratory flows coming from Sub-Saharan Africa and heading for Europe.
This link between migration and food is investigated in the study by the main aspects that affect it, starting with geopolitical and economic contexts, demographic trends and the impact of climate change. These are all decisive push factors in migrations, a structural phenomenon in the world we inhabit and in which future generations will live. Every emergency-based approach to migratory flows is therefore destined to fail, if not proving to be counterproductive. In this perspective, it would be equally damaging to tackle the flows starting with purely national agendas that are aimed at unloading the problem onto weaker countries and/or those most exposed to these flows. Only a global strategy, guided by awareness that the migratory issue affects all humankind and is destined to profoundly influence our ecosystem, can allow a balanced and sustainable perspective.
Workshop Contribution: Climate Change and Human Migrations
Riccardo ValentiniClimate change is expected to affect food, water and land resources, favouring the migration of individuals and communities from the most vulnerable areas of the world as an opportunity to adapt. For a more comprehensive understanding of vulnerability, it becomes essential to improve our knowledge about the resources' exposure and sensitivity to climate change hazards, potentially affecting migrations and/or conflicts in all the interested countries. This intervention will present on a project carried out by BCFN and CMCC Foundation aimed at carrying out a spatially- and temporally-explicit analysis of the observed variability of exposure to climate hazards, in terms of weather conditions, agricultural yield and water availability in the trans-Mediterranean migrations' region, which recently deserved particular attention due to the variability of routes, people involved and issues triggered (institutional divergences, human rights, cultural diversities, social instabilities, employment conducts, health problems).
Workshop contribution
Alexander Müller will give a general introduction to CAP ("old" European policy, set up with an objective of food production, some reforms happened, today it has 2 pillars, the 2013 reform introduced some environmental aspects, huge budgetary impact, etc.).
He will then focus on how general EU governance and topics (like Brexit, budgeting, etc.) interact with and influence CAP and what governance could support a policy shift.
Workshop contribution: Greening the CAP: current solutions and future perspectives
Danilo Bertoni will give a panoramic overview on the current CAP policy instruments representing incentives to a more environmentally-friendly farming activity and present possible solutions for the near future. This includes environmental cross-compliance, greening payments and agri-environmental measures, and building on this potential solutions for the next CAP like contracts, greening reinforcement, fund allocation based on farm environmental indicators, etc.
Workshop contribution: CAP as a food policy!
Michele PedrottiMichele Pedrotti will present what it means to go from agricultural to food policies, describing the cross-sector approach of food policies. He will focus on the local approach, bringing the examples of some EU cities and showing how concrete actions can be implemented on local and European level.
Workshop contribution: Role that small farms can play for a more sustainable food systems in Europe and how the CAP can take them into account
Sophie ThoyerSophie Thoyer will outline the debate over the type of farming that we want to promote collectively. She will discuss how “small farms” can contribute to environmental and social services, occupying non non negligible parts of arable land in fragile areas, and providing jobs while contributing often to innovative food systems. Based on research in France, she will highlight the heterogeneity of small farms and analyse how CAP and national agricultural policies could be redesigned to support small farms in providing the public goods they already deliver.
Workshop contribution: The Young Farmers and New Entrants’ role in the diversification and sustainability in the supply chain
Tomáš Ignác FénixTomás Ignác Fénix will focus in the future generations and new entrants.
Workshop Contribution: Diet and Inflammation: Possible Effects on Immunity, Chronic Diseases, and Life Span
Camillo RicordiThe Double Pyramid is an important starting point with a very generic message and how we need to move to more in depth themes and challenges that will affect health and disease epidemics.
Chronic inflammation negatively impacts all physiological functions, causing an array of degenerative conditions including diabetes; cancer; cardiovascular, osteo-articular, and neurodegenerative diseases; autoimmunity disorders; and aging. In particular, there is a growing knowledge of the role that gene transcription factors play in the inflammatory process. Obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes represent multifactorial conditions resulting from improper balances of hormones and gene expression. In addition, these conditions have a strong inflammatory component that can potentially be impacted by the diet. It can reduce pro-inflammatory eicosanoids that can alter hormonal signaling cascades to the modulation of the innate immune system and gene transcription factors. Working knowledge of the impact of how nutrients, especially dietary fatty acids and polyphenols, can impact these various molecular targets makes it possible to develop a general outline of an anti-inflammatory diet that offers a unique, nonpharmacological approach in treating obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Several important bioactive dietary components can exert their effect through selected inflammatory pathways that can affect metabolic and genetic changes. In fact, dietary components that can modulate glucose and insulin levels, as well as any other mediator that can activate nuclear factor-kB, can also trigger inflammation through common pathway master switches.
Workshop Contribution: The value of food in relation to health and environment
Gabriele RiccardiDr Riccardi will talk about the Mediterranean diet and the Double Pyramid, with specific reference to the obesogenic environment and its impacts social and health care, its causes and strategies to fight the obesity epidemic.
Workshop Contribution: Nutritional Challenges in Asia: Food Accessibility or Food Resilience?
Jeyakumar HenryAsia is in the midst of a pandemic in Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Of the 450 million Type 2 diabetics diagnosed worldwide, approximately 50% live in this region. Food has now become the new medicine. The discovery of vitamin in 1914 is conventionally viewed as the date of inception of the science of nutrition. During the intervening decades, numerous advances in nutrition have enabled us to understand the role of food on health. The high prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in Asians has been partly ascribed to the high carbohydrate (CHO) and high Glycaemic content of their diets. Glycaemic index (GI) is a measure of the glucose response to carbohydrate. High GI foods are those that increase blood glucose rapidly and low GI foods are those that produce a modest increase in blood glucose. The regular consumption of high GI foods has been implicated in the aetiology of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Recent evidence also suggests that Asians are susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes due to their phenotype. An increasing body of evidence has emerged on how food and food ingredients may be used to manage and treat Type2 diabetes and chronic diseases.
The concept of “Food the new medicine” is the merger of two scientific values -namely food and health. Functional foods may be defined as “Food Similar in appearance to conventional food, consumed as part of the usual diet, with demonstrated physiological benefits, and / or to reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions”. Today we are at a new frontier in nutritional science. We are moving away from “adequate nutrition” to “optimal nutrition”. It is our understanding of food accessibility and food resilience that will make a difference in reducing diet related chronic diseases. Using case examples, the presentation will highlight how nutrition can play a major role in combatting the pandemic of type 2 diabetes in Asia.
Working contribution: Fronting up to realities: shining a spotlight on a country’s sustainable food systems
Dan Crossley Dan will argue that we need to drive a ‘race to the top’ on food sustainability. He will describe how the FSI can support deeper analysis of food sustainability at a country level - using the Food Ethics Council’s UK work as an example. He will highlight how the FSI can highlight common challenges across regions (including the Mediterranean region) and the importance of collaboration on many common issues. He will also call for the need for tailored, culturally-sensitive local solutions - that will work slightly differently in different countries. He will conclude that countries should push for leadership, including taking responsibility for food sustainability impacts beyond their own borders.
Working contribution
Leo Abruzzese- Key findings and conclusions from the latest index, with a focus on the Mediterranean area
- Discussion of best practices for food sustainability that emerge from the analysis
- How the tool can be used by researchers and policymakers in the region to best effect
- Brief discussion of revisions to the methodology.
Working contribution: Strategies towards equilibrium of the food system in Egypt
Mohamed El-ShinawiThe Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation issued a ' Sustainable Agricultural development Strategy towards 2030', which aims to enhance Egyptian agriculture based on achieving food security and improving the livelihood of the rural inhabitants, through the efficient use of resources. A mega project has been initiated; “ 4 million acres development project” in an attempt to build resilient, integrated agrihoods to green the deserts of Egypt as an approach towards reaching balance between the demand and supply and boosting the food sustainability in Egypt.
Workshop contribution: Improving urban food systems through an integrated approach: The case of Milan and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact
Franca RoiattiIn this presentation the double track of the process Milan started in 2015 will be presented: it acts on the local level by adopting the Milan’s Food Policy and at the international level by launching the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, that has been signed by 159 cities so far. At local level the work is focused on procurement, healthy diets (in schools) and food waste. At the international level the Pact has promoted many relations among cities (although beyond the Mediterranean area).
Workshop contribution: Sustainable Urbanization: Towards Strong Rural-Urban Food Systems Linkages
Lara Hanna-WakimSustainable urbanization depends on rural areas, and on people who live and work for different services namely food, agricultural products, labor, ecosystem, etc. Cities can be important actors in the creation of urban agricultural initiatives which can reduce pollution, wasteful overconsumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the relationship between urban and rural spaces, peoples and environments is vital. However, the question remains concerning the ability of urban area to maximize the potential benefits, employment and poverty reducing opportunities. Addressing such constraints partly depends on strengthening rural-urban connectivity.
Workshop contribution: Food security and nutrition in an urbanized world. FAO’s approach and initiatives.
Michela CarucciThe presentation will address global facts and trends on urbanization, urban poverty and food security, with a focus on West Africa and the Mediterranean region. It will cover challenges and opportunities related to current rural transformation and urbanization trends for food security an nutrition presenting some key findings from the recent 2017 State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA). Afterwards, the presentation will cover FAO’s approach on those issues. This will include five parts: a) awareness raising and partnerships with local authorities; b) evidence generation (food systems assessment); c) capacity building to spark innovative actions; d) policy and planning support; e) knowledge sharing and city to city cooperation activities. Some examples of key activities/initiatives will be addressed and explained (e.g. Food for the Cities Programme, Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Indicators Framework).
Workshop contribution: C40 Food Systems Network: supporting cities' food policies that reduce GHG emissions and deliver health outcomes
Stefania AmatoThe speaker will present the work of C40 on food plus the objectives and sample actions that the member cities are delivering to build more sustainable urban food systems