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Healthy diets, cultures and traditions 

Monday, 24th July, 09:30-11:00
Rewatch this session here

 

 

Diets are not only the sum of foods they are made up of. They reflect a much larger perspective – involving cultural, social, economic, environmental, and health aspects. Traditional diets are rooted in the territory, ecosystems and the local community where they are consumed. The Mediterranean Diet is an example of traditional diet that safeguard individual and collective health, respect nature, valorize local traditions, and promote business development, social equity, and prosperity. The objective of the session is to show the importance of traditional healthy diets in addressing the challenges of malnutrition and in acting as a catalyst for transitioning food systems towards resilience and sustainability.

 

Traditional food systems are maintained especially by local communities, who retain knowledge of the local agroecosystems. This leads to the perseverance of specific food cultures within their regions. Such patterns are observed in various parts of the world, particularly some rural communities still cherish their traditions including their food systems, which are indeed their intangible natural and cultural heritage. However, several factors are causing lower adherence to traditional food cultures, including population pressures, urbanization, and climate change. Many of these changes are not for the better.

The session will focus on the following questions:

  • How can traditional diets protect and revitalize agrifood systems, including their communities, cultures, environments, and business models?
  • What are the lessons and the best practices that we can learn from the Mediterranean Diet, which is the only traditional diet recognized as (UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity)?

The session will focus particularly on the lessons learned from the Mediterranean Diet. Special enphasis will be put on the role that territories and local entities have to valorize and preserve the various forms of Mediterranean Diet; then, it will highlight how can civil society organizations, the private sector, chefs and farmers’ organizations promote and enable preservation of the Mediterranean Diet from production to consumption.

 

Speakers

Lynnette Neufeld
Lynnette Neufeld

Director, Food and Nutrition Division, FAO

Francesco Lollobrigida
Francesco Lollobrigida

Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Italy

Frida Krifca
Frida Krifca

Minister of Agriculture (Albania) and President of CIHEAM

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Director-General of the World Health Organization

Nasser Kamel
Nasser Kamel

Secretary General of the Union of the Mediterranean

Roberto Occhiuto
Roberto Occhiuto

President of Calabria, Italy and President of the Intermediterranean Commission

Said Ben Zayed
Said Ben Zayed

Governor of Medenine, Tunisia

Wissam Zaarour
Wissam Zaarour

Mayor of Byblos, Lebanon

Cemil Tugay
Cemil Tugay

Mayor of Izmir, Karsiyaka, Turkey

Ettore Prandini
Ettore Prandini

President of Coldiretti

Paolo Mascarino
Paolo Mascarino

President of Federalimentare

Wyn Ellis
Wyn Ellis

Executive Director of Sustainable Rice Platform

Orazio Schillaci
Orazio Schillaci

Minister of Health, Italy

Irena Šinko
Irena Šinko

Minister of Agriculture, Slovenia

Tvinnereim
Her Excellency Anne Beathe Tvinnereim

Minister of International Development, Norway

Katsumata Takaaki
Katsumata Takaaki

State Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan

Phrang Roy
Phrang Roy

Coordinator of the Indigenous Partnership for Agroecology and Food Sovereignty