Mediterranean Diet as a sustainable lifestyle.
The importance of values when talking about food
Despite being officially introduced in the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development more than 20 years ago, it has only been over the last few years that the term “sustainable development” has finally gained traction and international attention.
At the moment, sustainability is among the most used, analyzed, pursued, and even sometimes abused, words worldwide.
Conscious that we are now reaching the tipping point, in which humanity is urged to find common solutions that respect the planetary boundaries, foster prosperity, and empower people while protecting the needs of both present and future generations, sustainability is pervading the fields of finance and business, models of leadership, production, and consumption. Today, sustainability is considered by some as an almost shamanic word, that just using the word is enough.
When sustainability becomes a value
Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions, and determine the purpose and course of our lives. — Ayn Rand
A value is a quality to which a particular importance is attached. It is the driver. It is an internal force that guides us towards what we believe to be more right and proper. It shapes the way we interact with the world. Values are not fixed, but rather can change through time. Often, it is believed that a value relates to specific aspects of the individual: honesty, courage, empathy.
However, a value can also go beyond the personal sphere to the point where it concerns the community. This is why we talk about collective values. Clearly, values shape the way people think and behave, and vice versa. History has clearly demonstrated how the peculiarity of specific contexts may influence people to embrace specific actions and behaviors as good, moral or simply the right steps to take. This explains why over time, but especially recently, psychologists, sociologists, and even marketers are increasingly looking at values as ways to shape reality faster. In this moment in time, as humanity is facing global challenges, with the clock ticking, individuals are starting to reconsider the importance of collective actions as prerequisites for a society to thrive together. Equality, solidarity, reciprocity, and cooperation are morally approved and perceived as ideal achievements for collective interests.
Sustainability, intended as the condition to achieve a balanced, resilient, and self-sustaining ecosystem, is increasingly considered as a value driver or value itself.
Environmental concerns are no longer isolated requests from environmentalists and ecologists but are increasingly in resonance with different stakeholders, especially as a result of the global pandemic. A Coop report about consumption and lifestyle in Italy (September 2020) reveals the rise in national green conscience. Compared to the pre-covid context, 27% of the population opts for sustainable shopping, while “21% have increased purchases in stores that promote sustainable products and 20% buy more from companies that operate in respect of workers.” Similar results are also confirmed in the United States, where the percentage of consumers looking for eco-friendly products rose at 49% (Mattson Industry Statement Survey, 2020). This explains why carbon footprint labels or water footprint labels are beginning to be taken more seriously.
In addition to an increasingly conscious consumer base, companies and businesses are also shifting towards implementing more ecological standards. The development of new tools to measure progress, such as the level of alignment to the Sustainable Development Goals, both for policy actions and business performances, is a clear confirmation of movement in this direction. Food companies are leading this economic and environmental shift. Lavazza and Barilla have engaged in the carbon-neutral challenge. Ab-Inbev has committed to biodegradable packaging. And Danone has launched a One Planet One Health campaign. Businesses outside the agri-food system, such as pharmaceutical and transportation companies, furniture makers, and health service providers are also increasing their attention towards sustainability financial statements, as revealed by the Index Future Respect 2020. In this direction, even national banks have been gradually moving towards green finance, conscious that climate change and environmental degradation have the potential to compromise financial stability. Financial growth cannot be separated from environmental regeneration.
“Economy must serve people and not the other way round” — Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
Why is it important to talk about values when we talk about food?
Sustainability comes through food and with food. It is widely acknowledged today that the way food is produced, harvested, transformed, distributed, and consumed has a great impact on the future of our planet. Regenerative agricultural practices like permaculture, crop rotation, and agro-biodiversity all designate the essence of the new food value chain. Respect for the natural environment, which is grounded in a reverence for its elements (air, water, soil, biodiversity), its by-products (food), and the work of the people who take care of the land (farmers).
Food is an incredible vehicle of values. Often societal traditions and identities are related to food, recipes, and ingredients. Societies are reflected across the ages through the values they carry.
The Mediterranean Diet represents a perfect example in this direction: a way of living and behaving that truly respects the landscape, the territory, the community, and the economy; that combines creativity with resilience and adaptation. Similarly, as Gandhi’s vision (“my life is my message” and “begin to act locally, not chase the world to change it”), the Mediterranean heritage has defeated time, reaching the 21st century with the impetuous vigor of its simplicity and powerful actions. It symbolizes eating together, connecting with the social and natural environment, respecting the natural cycles, promoting healthy diets, lifestyle, and wellbeing. Rooted common values and a deep holistic approach are the real drivers for change, starting with food.
The Mediterranean Diet embodies the richness and colorful mosaic of cultures from seven emblematic communities: the community of Agros (Cyprus), Brač and Hvar (Croatia), Soria (Spain), Koroni (Greece), Cilento (Italy), Chefchaouen (Morocco), Tavira (Portugal).
The Mediterranean Basin is “a thousand things together. Not one landscape, but countless landscapes. Not a sea, but a succession of seas. Not one civilization, but many civilizations, scattered all over each other.”
But despite their differences, they all share the same common values.
The Mediterranean Diet today: an example to be exported
When you have a treasure available like the legacy left by the Mediterranean Diet, you have the moral duty to share it with as many people as possible. Instead of “imposing” abroad specific dietary/ingredient recommendations, which would be disconnected from the local territory, climate, and tradition of the host country, the Mediterranean Diet should be exported for its systemic approach, forward-looking mindset, and for the whole range of values that make eating so sustainable: territoriality, resilience, inclusivity, conviviality, and community. To weave a thread across generations, too often discontinuous, fragmented, and separated, despite technological connection, we should come back to universal values, which are applicable and valid everywhere and every time simply because we all share the same faith: we all are human beings. This explains why Future Food Institute strives for teaching and sharing the values at the heart of the Mediterranean lifestyle in Pollica (Cilento — Italy), so that we may pass the torch to both national and international individuals.
The values of the Mediterranean Diet are not easy to flourish in a society where personal success is so prominent and the levels of narcissism are among the highest in history. Is it possible to prosper as a community, without compromising individual freedoms and respecting the planet? Is it possible to find a balance between personal and collective well-being, between anthropogenic and planetary flourishing?
This is exactly what the Mediterranean Diet can teach us. It is all about finding the right balance. After all, it is only when an ecosystem is in equilibrium with all its parts that it becomes inherently sustainable.
— Co-athored with Margherita Tiriduzzi and Erika Solimeo
The Future Food Institute believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of our global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth through transformation of global food systems.
We advocate and initiate positive change initiatives in Food Waste & Circular Systems, Water Safety & Security, Climate & Earth Regeneration, Mediterranean Foodscape, Nutrition & New Foods, and Humana Communitas, all tied in with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!
