Prosperity is Built by the Hands of Women
The invisible and underestimated presence in the agri-food sector is simultaneously the crucial and predominant agricultural labor force all over the world.
Impacted most by climate change and still victims of exclusion and inequalities regarding productivity, access to the market, equality, and digital literacy.
Key leaders in promoting strong and severe climate policies, even though female decision-making in environmental protection is exceptionally rare.
These are the current paradoxes affecting the female world.
And yet, women are often promoters of prosperity, recognized for their tenacity and ability to do with the means they have been given. History has repeatedly showcased the value that female protagonists can generate into the world: from science to nutrition, from entrepreneurship to leadership.
It is a heritage that is supported by sound research highlighting the role of women in leadership and in the community: women tend to act better in times of crisis, ensure greater consistency and responsiveness to the needs of citizens, increase cooperation between parties, and ensure more sustainable and long-lasting peace.
And especially in this difficult period, punctuated by emergencies and conflicts, we desperately need to add more care and love to this world.
Especially on #WorldWomenDay, the day where the world honors its female heroes, we cannot stress more our support for all the Ukrainian women who are fleeing from an unjust war.
Especially today, as the world collectively raises the voices to #BreakTheBias and boost a full implementation of SDG 5, I want to honor the generative and regenerative capacity of women, from territories, lifestyles, education, cities, towns, and villages.
Sensitizing, building, spreading, protecting, supporting, promoting, connecting, and creating are the kinds of actions that we need to eliminate gender discrimination. Actions starting from common values and from the beauty of human relationships that have been embedded in the “Carta di Dubai” (Charter of Dubai), which has been launched today by the States-General of Women to develop policies and programs to support female work, business, training, innovation, and research.
Restore the Voice and Power of Women
We urge concrete actions able to restore the voice and power to these key stakeholders in the food system: women. I cannot be more proud of the UN Food Systems Summit Independent Dialogue to the role of women in agriculture, coordinated under the Project DAWN (Dairy, Agriculture, Women, Nutrition), a flagship initiative of MoooFarm, focused on empowering small-scale women dairy farmers to make their industry more inclusive, sustainable, efficient, and nutritious. Because, especially in developing countries, technologies may become an enabler for empowering women in agriculture and guaranteeing equal female access to improved and sustainable agriculture segments and practices.
Gender equality also requires us to build solid bridges between people and organizations to bond collaboration with expertise. This vision is at the heart of our recent partnership with Women in AgriTech, a Canadian reference organization for women-led innovation.
And this is why at our Paideia Campus in Pollica we have been working to create a women’s house and a gender library to generate awareness and accelerate processes of active participation in the political, cultural, and economic lives of local girls.
Not to Celebrate but to Highlight
Like every year, on the 8th of March, the world celebrates International Women’s Day, established in 1977 not to “celebrate” women but to highlight the gender discrimination still present in our society, as well as the achievements made and the changes set in motion. But above all, it is a day to reflect on the “female condition.” But what does the female condition mean today?
Violence and achievements of emancipation are still questioned in many parts of the world, but never so much as today. Navigating between the sense of unease and objective complexity that this historical moment offers us, the sense of collective and individual awareness of the value of life is growing.
The awareness of being interdependent, but not equal: “We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat and those who have more fragile boats sink more easily,” said Pope Francis. An awareness reached at a high price that requires us, today, to rethink our models of development and especially of coexistence, requiring us to redefine the guiding principles of society.
For the first time in modern history, the concept of “ethics of life” has become truly global, and when we talk about life, we talk about prosperity, and if we talk about prosperity, we cannot disregard the enhancement of the role of women in the community.
Women as Advocates of Prosperity
It is for “prosperity” that women often advocate. Prosperity also understood as tenacity and the ability to do with what you have, and despite this be reborn, always. In history, women have had important roles, related to the strength that is born, to the strength that is passed on.
There are numerous stories that speak of women, strength, and prosperity, which have left their mark on history, but today I want to focus in particular on some Mediterranean testimonials. What would become of the “Mediterranean Diet” that we know today, if knowledge, gestures, values, and flavors had not been handed down by generations of women, and if there had not been some special women to leave their marks in the history of the Cilento area?
Trotula De Ruggiero, a doctor of the “Salerno School” who lived in the 11th century and was known throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, it was thanks to her that obstetrics and gynecology were recognized as medical sciences. Salerno’s medical school did not relegate medical knowledge to the sole sphere of male action but instead was open to both sexes allowing science to advance. And when talking about science and Mediterranean how can we not mention the biologist Margaret Keys? It is thanks to her studies, carried out jointly with her husband, the well-known American physiologist Ancel Keys, that we can talk about the Mediterranean Diet which took this name in the 70s after decades spent by the couple studying the diet of the populations of the Mediterranean basin, and especially of Cilento. Women with comprehensive skills and women of vision have changed and positively influenced this piece of our history.
So today, in paying homage to the many great women who have inspired us, in thanking all those women who support us daily in our mission; models for their tenacity, for the grace with which they put their knowledge to good use, for the spirit of service and care they demonstrate in every action, today I want to celebrate the great Future Food family. A family that every day wants to experiment with new models of sociality and development for a more sustainable future. A family made up of different souls, unique and for this reason precious. Women who are stubborn, determined, generous, intelligent, persevering, and curious, but also colleagues, husbands, partners, passionate teammates, patient, wise, and ironic, capable of welcoming the beauty of our exuberance and being, with us, an active part of that change that is so necessary today.
We live in a world where both men and women are required. We need all their talents and skills, we urge everyone to be represented in their voices and rights.
Precisely one year ago I published this article on the power of women. 365 days later, it is still tremendously current. Inclusive prosperity requires also female presence.
The Future Food Institute is an international ecosystem that believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of its global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth through transformation of global food systems.
FFI catalyzes progress towards the UN Agenda 2030 of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by training the next generation of changemakers, empowering communities, and engaging government and industry in actionable impact-driven innovation grounded in integral ecological regeneration.
At the open-air living laboratory, the Paideia Campus in Pollica, Cilento, the Institute fosters active conservation of natural and cultural biodiversity and responsible innovation in the Mediterranean agri-food chain to leverage the intangible heritage of humanity as a model and strategy for the integral development of villages.
Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!
