New balances, new diplomacy.
THE NEW WORLD IS GRADUALLY TAKING SHAPE
“Language guides our reasoning towards events. […] It’s important to focus on how the language you speak shapes the way that you think. And that gives you the opportunity to ask yourself: why do I think the way that I do? How could I think differently? And also: what thought do I wish to create?” —Lera Boroditsky (TedWomen 2017)
Beyond nourishment, food is widely agreed to be a universal language. Each of us needs food for our own basic survival, regardless of any geographical, gender, generation, religion, income or cultural difference. Dishes may differ, food habits and practices create the beauty of diversity but, the basics still remain the same: every individual can communicate with others through food, just as we reinforce legacy with traditions or build new bridges towards innovation.
Food is actually one of the most ancient forms of exchange. But, food can also be a weapon.
Throughout history, states have “used” food to exercise control over other states and communities, to influence the global food markets and even international political and economic relations. Conflicts and food insecurity are indeed urgent and self-sustaining challenges. Conflicts directly imperil civilian access to food, agricultural lands, crops, livestock. At the same time, competition over natural resources triggers the seriousness of internal conflicts, which have increased by 125% since 2010.
Even beyond conflicts, this tight interconnection has become clear to the international community as a whole. We have all been experiencing the geopolitical importance of the agri-food systems and their nutritional, social, and environmental impacts during these months of the global pandemic.
These two aspects justify the reason why Food Diplomacy plays such a pivotal role in the international arena: mitigating and preventing possible contrasts of interests among states is indeed crucial. But what if we switch this approach with a new language? What if diplomacy would be developed and structured at first as an art to foster mutual collaboration and build connection for the satisfaction of common needs, rather than taking conflictual situations under control?
The power of a new language and the potential of the Mediterranean Basin
“It is necessary to develop a mindset of cooperation. A quantum leap is needed from everyone: politicians, administrations, companies and citizens themselves. Italy, at the center of the Mediterranean, can be a major player for this new agri-food diplomacy”. — Antonio Parenti (Head of the Italian Representation of the European Commission)
Diplomacy in its polyhedric forms, and specifically food and gastro-diplomacy, can represent the means to encourage an intercultural exchange. Promoting a common culture, the WE CULTURE rather than ME one, based on common universal values and an openness to curiosity that is typical of the real forms of art, is thus stretched.
The Mediterranean Basin has the potential to embody again, as it did in the past, the value of connection and interconnection. New opportunities are emerging: the relationship between Europe and Africa is shifting from welfare aid to forms of mutual collaboration and partnerships. As stressed also by the MED & Italian Energy Report 2020, the near future will witness more and more infrastructure interconnections among these two continents, initially as energy interaction and exchange based on renewable sources.
The unique position that Italy will hold next year in the diplomatic arena (hosting both the G20 and the Pre COP26) provides the perfect stage for promoting and accelerating a wider strategy of valorization of the entire “Mediterranean network”. Italy can demonstrate the Mediterranean way as an approach to better facing and managing the common problems that characterize this geographical area, such as the scarcity of water resources, the progressive environmental degradation, an unequal distribution of wealth, and migration flows. And so we look at 2020, the Future Food Institute and the City of Pollica as promoters of a series of digital events organised in occasion of the 5th Week of the Italian Cuisine abroad (23–29 November 2020), join forces with 12 Embassies and Consulates of Italy, Institutes of Italian Culture, and private organizations, each standing out for their relations between Italy and abroad to witness the dynamics linked to Italian cuisine and the Mediterranean Diet.
New equilibria: Utopia or reality?
The global pandemic has reversed the “normality” we have been used to, leading the global society to question even the foundations on which our system is laid. Predictions of a massive increase in global population by 2050 may become questionable after the effects of the current global health crisis. Habits and lifestyle of the population have been changing and adapting to the transforming external circumstances.
Is it still true that by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas?
In pursuit of a better lifestyle, terms such as de-urbanisation have started to increase in popularity, counteracting the opposite (urbanisation) trend developed since the post-war period. How long will this trend last?
However, living in the countryside does not automatically mean having a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Several studies, made at the international level, point to rural areas as vulnerable contexts for marketing influences and higher levels of persuasion towards processed (and ultra-processed) foods, especially when associated with low food literacy or inadequate access to education.
The same Mediterranean countries, crandle of a Diet which is celebrated all over the world for being amongst the most sustainable and healthy, are experiencing dangerous evidence of a gradual disconnection from the younger generations. Coldiretti, the Organization of Farmers at national and European levels, stresses that in Italy alone, there are more than2 million obese or overweight children and adolescents, meaning 25.2% of the population between 3 and 17 years old. The cause is the emerging popularity of fast foods and soft drinks replacing fruits and veggies.
However, breakthroughs are present. Despite the obvious level of emergency, the coronavirus pandemic has made evident stories of mutual support, community strengthening, remarkable reduction of food waste, value of food, and solidarity.
“The difference between humans and animals relies on the fact that we can collaborate in a flexible way and in very large numbers. We have the capacity to reinvent very rapidly our systems, our functioning as a community adapting our communities to new challenges.” — Yuval Noah Harari (TedGlobalLondon)
Diplomacy needs to be responsive, flexible, and ready to play its role in front of a fast changing world.
A new diplomacy
The pace of change we have been going through as a global society and the transboundary challenges characterising this century require a cooperative effort. However, data such as those revealed by the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 note a drastic decrease in trust towards institutions and governments. Fear is leading the global sentiment more than hope, given increasing perceptions of inequity, unfairness, insufficient competence or lack of ethics.
“What potential do citizen reporting and citizen science have for shaping food diplomacy?” asks the Future Food Institute report, Food for Earth.
Trust is at the basis of relationships and given the final purpose of diplomacy (building relationships), it is clear that understanding the needs of other countries, cultures, and peoples is pivotal. This inevitably comes from dialogue, inclusion and involvement of individuals, grassroot movements, and NGOs to strengthen common engagement and interpolitics. To make every single human being to act as a politician.
Especially the younger generations, those who represent our present and our future, are clamoring for their voices to be heard and finally someone is starting to listen.
New forms are emerging, diplomacy is merging with youth involvement, opening the path for new multidisciplinary and intergenerational conversations. Food is expanding to reach the influential role of soft power it had in the past, by attracting and uniting people rather than separating them.
After all, the value of commensality in creating commonality has been recognized since the time of Aristotle. Similarly, it was well-known in the past that sitting together around a table is the best moment to lead diplomatic success and strengthen relations.
“Give me a good cook and I’ll give you a good treat” used to say the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Charles Maurice de Talleyrand at the time of Napoleon.
We are entering a new epoch where to be effected and trusted, diplomatic actions shall look back at common universal values. These are rooted in the centrality of the human person, the principles of solidarity, mutual support, cooperation, openness, inclusion, and the dignity of human beings.
All principles that represent the pillars of an effective and successful form of diplomacy: the pontifical diplomacy.
Each of us can turn himself/herself into a main character in the diplomatic debate, in myriad ways. For sure, food is one of the most powerful and meaningful ways to engage.
The Future Food Institute is an international non-governmental organization and the cornerstone of the Future Food Ecosystem, a collection of Research Labs, Partnerships, Initiatives, Platforms, Networks, Entrepreneurial Projects, and Academy programs, that aims to build a more equitable world through enlightening a world-class breed of innovators, boosting entrepreneurial potential, and improving agri-food expertise and tradition.
Future Food advocates for positive change through 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).
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