Build back “Food as a commons”.
Nurturing human wellbeing, community, and the ecosystem.
To understand the paradox of the current food system, we can consider this simple question: What happens if every shepherd allows the herd to graze on a common field?
The answer can be different according to the intent: if the shepherd acts in the community interest, land and nature is respected, the ecosystem services maximized, and the benefits from this activity shared equally among the community.
If, instead, he is acting in his own personal benefit, the grass can be over-exploited, the land harmed, the surrounding biodiversity destroyed, and the costs are equally paid among the society.
FOOD: THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMONS OR THE LATEST COMMODITY?
Commons generally refers to the natural or cultural assets that are commonly managed for the benefit of the whole community.
Since Medieval times, forestry, land, seafood, and underground water, were all treated as commons, meaning that food, and the basis for food to grow, were among the primary examples of commons.
Far beyond being mere methods of administration, this way of life embraced the complex interconnections of the individual in society: non-verbal codes of conduct, common values, mutual support and help, but also deep respect for the territory.
Food as a commons perfectly positions the individuals within the broader community, and the community within the natural ecosystem.
Today we have lost this precious connection.
Price is, today, the major indicator of progress.
Convenience drives our food choices.
The logic of supremacy leads the global food production.
The “Ego-centric” market dynamics arbitrarily supplanted the value of food, without consideration of anything that cannot be instantly monetized: access to land, people’s rights, gender equality, environmental regeneration, societal cohesion, shared knowledge, trust.
At its current rate, food is one of the most driving commodities.
The FAO Food Price Index, which measures the price fluctuations on a global scale of basic foods (vegetable oil, meat, cereals, dairy, sugar), dramatically confirms this trend: +130.0 points in the price of food for September 2021.
But what is the true cost of this extractive, intensive, and destructive approach?
With food being considered only as a monetary asset, “Human beings can eat food as long as they have money to buy it or means to produce it,” reminds us Professor Jose Luis Vivero-Pol.
The consequences are glaring: global hunger and malnutrition is far from being eradicated, while the current food system is “feeding” food insecurity, environmental degradation, resource extraction, climate disasters, and food injustice — all aspects that lead to collective impoverishment and ultimately damage human health and survival.
RETURNING TO FOOD COMMONING: THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET “RECIPES”
Reinstating food as a commons means embracing all the different dimensions around food: trade, but also nutrition, ecology, society, tradition, culture, nature.
It means beginning to recognize the value of the people behind the food we consume, reinforcing the farmer-centered food system, just as forms of food sovereignty starting from bottom-up approaches.
Within our complex challenges, the model of the Mediterranean Diet, which on the 16th November will celebrate its 11th anniversary as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity, is a perfect guide to bring us back towards commoning.
Because what we now perceive simply as a “Diet” is in fact the final externalization of a way of thinking, living, and approaching based on commoning. It is shared rituals and culture, it is conviviality and knowledge sharing, it is preservation of the land and marine biodiversity for the common interests, it is the “silent work” of women and grandmas that make their kitchens and homes important fabrication laboratories of wisdom, manuality, and expertise.
Now more than ever we need prototypes and concrete examples.
What’s the recipe of the Mediterranean Diet — as a way of living?
1. PROSPERITY THINKING: THE MINDSET
The Mediterranean Model has been teaching us, since its ancient origins, that the only way humanity can prosper is through achieving collective wellbeing.
Grounded in the core principle of ecology, where ecosystems are a set of constant relationships between organisms, the Mediterranean Diet is the emblem of these mutual connections: science is intertwined with history, culture with landscape, nature with community, and traditions with innovation.
Today, we call it Prosperity Thinking, meaning forms of sustainable design that put nature and human needs in the center. At that time, it was the natural mindset allowing people, planet, and prosperity to thrive together: through trust, generosity, reciprocity, diversity, and equality.
Our call is then that of real cultural revolution. To build back food systems that are “parts of the broader economic, societal, and natural environments in which they are embedded,” as the FAO is calling for, and turning EGO-systems into ECOsystems. It is time for a new agri-culture, where agri-food systems aim to achieve active conservation of biodiversity, where agricultural practices respect the environment and the local social fabric, where co-creation and co-participation permeate the international, national, and local levels.
2. INTEGRAL ECOLOGY: THE FRAMEWORK OF OUR ACTIONS
Food is one of the most evident acts of care. Food shall return the result of balanced actions.
The Mediterranean Diet is an undisputed example of balance of all dimensions of life: individual wellbeing, community coherence, environmental respect, cultural heritage and economic prosperity.
We can take, as an example, the case of Pollica (Italy), in the heart of the Mediterranean, and its ancient grazing techniques. Cervati Mount, the highest point in the Campania region, was once managed through an oral code of conduct, based on common trust among shepherds and common management of the grazing. In fact, the shepherds used to walk with a small pouch: everytime they encountered trees of Pera Lardara (a typical Pear tree from Cilento) with bigger fruits, they collected and kept small branches of the plant and created the graft as soon as the condition allowed it, to ensure all the community could benefit from the larger fruits.
This example perfectly summarized the framework under which we should place back our actions: the framework of integral ecology, an approach which maximizes environmental protection, human health, regeneration of the territory, citizens’ well-being, social justice, and climate change and its intertwined interconnections.
3. DECENTRALIZATION: THE GOVERNANCE MODEL
We are living in an era of profound transformation and I believe that in the long term we will see the emergence of new, increasingly decentralized systems. Take for example the founding concept of Bitcoin and, more generally, the idea of a decentralized peer-to-peer digital system, this is revolutionary and has illustrated the many benefits of a decentralized system. It happens with the emerging, and disruptive Crypto Banking and decentralized financial system but this phenomenon could soon revolutionize agri-food systems as well.
We are talking about personalization, identity, and traditions, the valorization of biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, the fight against the abandonment of rural areas, seasonal and zero-mileage consumption, inclusion and rights. New cooperative models, redesigning governance and value distribution along the supply chain.
And again, there is nothing equal to the Mediterranean diet in conveying the value of food as an act of sharing. This is demonstrated by the fact that it is represented by seven different Emblematic Communities and that UNESCO has defined it as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity.t is the diversity of values it encompasses that we have inherited the importance of conviviality, the short supply chain, the peculiarity of the specific context that cannot be distorted through standardized policies.
Cities have the potential to become undisputed examples of food sovereignty, food justice, and food diplomacy. They can be considered as living laboratories for strengthening the bond between the gifts from Mother Nature, feeders, and eaters with respect for the natural, social, and cultural fabrics. Squares, farmers markets, restaurants, canteens, food cooperatives, community-supported agriculture can be turned into unique places where people can gather, support each other, share, and also be heard and empowered.
In Pollica, Emblematic Community of the Mediterranean Diet, a small example of a sustainable city, we are actually prototyping with the local community a project that encompasses all these elements.
“When people have stronger land rights, know about their rights, and are given ownership of the rules and regulations that govern the land, they are more likely to invest time and money into maintaining land productivity and sustainable use, which leads to better land restoration.” — Ruth Meinzen-Dick
4. REGENERATION: THE PROCESS FOR CHANGE
Food cannot continue to be the result of human tyranny over peoples’ rights, natural richness and victim of financial speculation.
Being the first nexus between humanity and the environment, food shall be considered again as a tool for ensuring collective regeneration.
Regeneration means going beyond sustainability, to restore the whole fabric of life.
Protecting centenary trees, promoting regenerative agricultural systems, increasing green spaces (including green roofs) are just some examples through which environmental regeneration reverberates on landscape, social, cultural and economic regeneration.
Also in this sense, the Mediterranean way of living has a lot to teach us. The ancient technique of menaica fishing, once widespread on all coasts of the Mediterranean, was originally based on oral agreements, according to which fishermen were subject to common fishing stops, to ensure that humanity did not overburden the resources.
Today, this attitude is perpetuated in the new Urban Regeneration Plan, developed by the current administration of Pollica, grounded in a common vision of the territory and landscape to promote responsible, productive, and collective management of the urban-rural area.
— — — — — -
Italy, located in the heart of the Mediterranean, over centuries has been the fulcrum of continuous cross-pollination and today represents a precious concentration of diversity, an extraordinary richness in terms of culture and biodiversity. This centrality, however, today also places it at high risk from an environmental point of view because it is exposed, more than other countries in the Mediterranean basin, to extreme climatic phenomena, as well as a long list of social and structural challenges.
Living in the heart of the Mediterranean makes you feel, with even greater intensity, the urgency to change perspectives, develop a systemic approach and take action!
And if the “recipe” of the Mediterranean Diet is the model to follow, then Italy has a great responsibility to safeguard and pass on its values.
Especially now that the COP26 in Glasgow has begun, concrete actions are needed more than ever.
Reinstilling food as a commons is “an invitation not to simplify,” to use the words of Maurizio Martina, the Deputy Director-General of FAO.
